towards the heart of Kurdistan, when at a little more than
25 miles from the spring it makes a sweep so as to take the
direction of Arghani Ma’den, or nearly south. Within a few
miles of that place it receives the addition of a considerable
stream coming from the S.W., or in a direction almost
parallel to the main branch. A little below the mines in
that district the stream bends rather eastward of south, passing
at a short distance on the east side of the town of
Arghani, and receiving about the middle of this part of its
course a tributary coming from the Taurus. The course
below Arghani continues in the general direction of S.S.E.
to the environs of Diyar Bekr,1 where it makes a semicircular
bend to the eastward. Within the space thus formed the
modern town just mentioned has been built, at a short distance
from the right bank of the river; from which it is
separated by rich gardens, containing white and black
mulberries, prunes, apricots, peaches, figs, and gooseberries,
together with large forest trees; also ashes, poplars, and
willows, interspersed with balm, madder, and other plants.2
The town stands upon an elevated rocky range, stretching
from the citadel, at its north-western extremity, towards the
S.W., in the shape of a boat, and is about 200 yards from
the river at the nearest point.3 The citadel is on a precipitous
mass of volcanic4 rock, to which the walls of the town
are joined. These are high, well-built, and strong, being
flanked by 72 towers, which, like the walls, and even the
houses, are constructed of lava,5 mixed with the ruins of
ancient buildings.. The walls inclose a space of which the
circumference is about five miles.6 The houses are flat-roofed
and two stories high, the lower one of stone, and the upper
of clay; and. the buildings rise in stages, like a succession of
1 The Tents or Dwellings of Bekr, the Kara Amid of the Turks; also supposed
to be the ancient Amida; by Pocock, the Dorbeta of Ptolemy; and Mr.
Ainsworth considers it to be the Tigranocerta of the campaigns of Lucullus.
1 Voyage de Constantinople a Bassora par Sestini. Paris, l’An VI., pp.
104 and 105.
3 Niebuhr, tom. II., pp. 324, 325.
4 Once a crater, according to Sestini, p. 94.
5 Sestini, Voyage h Bassora, p. 93. 0 Niebuhr, Plan, tome II., p, 326.
terraces, one above another.1 The streets are paved, and
there are 16 mosques, most of them covered with lead.2
Diyar Bekr in its prosperity contained 40,000 houses, with
numerous cotton-looms constantly at work; and it enjoyed
an active trade in gall-nuts, not only with Kurdistan, but
also with India, on one side, through Baghdad, and with
Europe, through Aleppo, on the other; but at present there
are scarcely 8000 houses,3 and its commerce is almost annihilated.
The situation of Diyar Bekr is admirably calculated for
that of a great commercial city,4 and nothing appears necessary
to revive its ancient importance but the removal of the
chief cause of its decline ; namely, the insecurity of its commercial
communications with Syria, Asia Minor, and Kurdistan,
and with the estuary of the Shatt el Arab.
Although the course above described is not long, the Tigris
has already collected a considerable body of water, which
spreads out to some extent on entering a small level tract
opposite the town of Diyar Bekr, where it is about 250 yards
wide in the season of floods ;5 but it is not here used for any
other purpose than, occasionally, to float down rafts of timber
from the mountains.6
Below Diyar Bekr the Tigris contains several islands. Its
banks are thinly peopled, and the country about them is only
partially cultivated; but the pasture grounds are rich and
well suited for the visits of the nomadic tribes which
come occasionally to the river from the neighbouring
countries.
Soon after passing through the level tract alluded to, the
river becomes narrower and deeper, being inclosed between
steep banks; at one mile and three-quarters from the Mardin
1 Niebubr, Vol. II., p. 326. 2 Ibid.
3 1500 Armenians and 6300 Turks.—Brant’s Journey through a part of
Asia Minor: Vol. VI. Part II., of the Geographical Journal, p. 210.
4 Ibid.
5 Captain Estcourt found it fordable at two places opposite the town in
May, 1835.
8 Mr. Brant’s Journey: Vol. VI. Part II., p. 210, Journal of the Geographical
Society.