'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎17] (26/568)

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BOUNDARIES AND PHYSICAL FEATURES 17
)0 Ji» sand. There are also large areas in which water from wadis collects
Wih and on evaporation leaves an incrustation of salt. It appears that
underground supplies of water can be tapped at many places. The
southern Jezlreh is traversed for most of its length by the large
watercourse known as the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Tartar, which rises near the eastern
111 en ^ ^ ie ^ e ^ el ^ n i ar I'uns southwards to terminate in a saline
depression about 40 miles SW. of Samarra. The country near
ml the Tartar in the upper part of its course has excellent pasture in
ob i spring. The depression at its lower end may possibly prove of use
L; as a storage-reservoir for surplus flood-water from the Tigris.
' i ' I D n the western and eastern sides of the Jezlreh the Euphrates and
, Tigris have cut for themselves shallow valleys or troughs 1-5 miles
miii wide, bordered by low hills or cliffs. At the bottom of these valleys
and fit occur stretches of alluvium, where the rivers have deposited their
imp sediment in flood-time. Parts of the Euphrates trough are moderately
cultivated by means of water-lifts or water-wheels (e .g. in the
pa- neighbourhood of Alus, Hadlseh, Anah, Meyyadln, and Deir ez-Zor);
i elsewhere the valley is either bare or filled with tamarisk and other
thepli 1 scrub. There is a considerable amount of cultivation along the
?•"! banks of the Tigris between Mosul and the mouth of the Great Zab.
eipiB Between the two Zabs the villages are few and far between, and S.
ssofl of the Lesser Zab the river-valley is mostly empty and untilled ;
ist i here, down to the beginning of the alluvial plain near Beled, there
ssaltl" is hardly any cultivation except a little round Tekrit, Dur, and
5Willi' Samarra.
(6) I'he Plains East of the Middle —These plains slope from
lietol the southern Kurdish hills down to the Tigris. They are about
ttlejri 40-50 miles broad in their southern part, and narrow to 10-20 miles
jiaitiii towards their northern end in the neighbourhood of Mosul, till they
1(0 terminate under the Jebel Abyadh range. Their total length is
inotlli about 230 miles. They are traversed by the Adheim, the Lesser
ha I* Zab, and the Great Zab, tributaries of the Tigris flowing from the
e bnf hills. In the neighbourhood and north of the Great Zab they are
je pt®' watered by a number of smaller streams. The southern part of this
onfimll country is traversed from SE. to NW. by the rocky sandstone and
few# conglomerate range of the Jebel HamrTn (about 400-600 ft. above
plenli the plain-levels), which is pierced by the Diyaleh near Delli Abbas,
jricuii by the Adheim about 35 miles farther north-west, and by the
fereiti Tigris at the Eethah gorge, some 65 miles above Samarra. Between
the Zabs the massif of the Qara Chok Dagh rises out of the plain to
n be«)i a height of about 2,000 ft. North of the Great Zab the plains are
interrupted by the Jebel Maqlub, a large spur from the hill-country
boifi, lying about 12-15 miles E. of Mosul, and the immediate neighbour-
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