'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎96r] (196/862)

DESCRIPTION OF THE LAND
121
better conserved along the route, as disused water-holes and the ruins
of a Roman tank at Kubbaz indicate (photo. 119). Little was known
of this region until the end of the war of 1914-1918 when reconnais
sances were made for an air route. In 1923 the Australian brothers
Nairn, two ex-Service men, made the crossing of the desert possible for
travellers and freight by running a regular motor convoy service from
Damascus by Rutba to Baghdad, though it sometimes suffered inter
ruption by Druse tribesmen or by wet weather in winter when the
western section became impassable from mud. In 1932 the Iraq
Petroleum Company laid a pipe through the region to carry oil from
the fields at Kirkuk to Haifa. This pipe follows an almost direct
course from Haditha to Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan , regardless of grade and topo
graphy, changing direction only slightly in order to keep within
water-range of the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Hauran. A track for motor vehicles was
constructed parallel to the pipe-line and air landing-grounds were
made and tube-wells sunk along the route. Imperial Airways took
the same route for their mail service to India and Australia. Lastly, in
1941, a metalled road with bitumen surface was completed and
opened between Haifa and Baghdad, following approximately the
same route as the Nairn route between the Euphrates and Rutba, and
thence the general alinement of the pipe-line to Palestine.
Permanent Settlements and Oases
There are few permanent settlements in the Iraq deserts west and
south of the Euphrates. Zubair is the desert outpost of Basra; Rutba,
2,018 feet above sea-level, has been created in the western desert to
meet the needs of modern communications, and is on the air route,
motor road, and Iraq Petroleum Company’s pipe-line. It is a growing
settlement with police post, fort, post and telegraph office, and hotel.
Other police posts are maintained at Nukhaib in the Wadiyan region,
and at Shabicha, Salman, and Busaiya in the Hajara, all good watering
points which can be reached by motors from the Euphrates, and all
having air landing-grounds. Elsewhere there are occasional Arab
forts, few of them permanently occupied and most of them in ruins.
There are few oases in the true sense of the word in these deserts and
two only are notable, Rahhaliya and Shithatha, both on the fringe of
the desert between Hit and Najaf, and within a few miles of the latter
is the remarkable ruin of Ukhaidhir. All of them are on the edge of
the low ground where the Wadis Ghadaf and Ubaiyidh leave the
desert and are dissipated in salt marshes. This collection of oases is
remarkable and appears to date from very early times. From its