'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎334v] (671/862)

PORTS AND INLAND TOWNS
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distinctive appearance from the extensive use made of speckled grey
alabastrine rock as building material. Another special feature is the
considerable space within the town which is devoted to cemeteries.
The old town was surrounded by walls, pierced with eleven gates,
which have mostly disappeared except on the north-west and west;
the ancient ruined castle in the north-east dating from the eighth
century is impressive from outside. Southwards beyond the walls
the town has spread in a small suburb. The double-storied houses
are generally built round courtyards, often entered by elaborately
carved doorways, and present a blank wall to the street; rooms are
lofty and barrel-vaulted. There are some 20 mosques and 8 churches.
The Great Mosque Jami al Kabir or A 1 Arbain (‘the Forty’), so
named from the church of St. Paul and the Forty Martyrs which it
replaced, is in the centre of the town, and is remarkable for its
decorated minaret. The picturesque mosque of Nabi Shait amid
cemeteries in the south, near the Bab Lagash, contains the so-called
‘tomb of Seth’. The oldest of the churches, which mostly date from
the twelfth to thirteenth centuries and have been much restored,
is the Chaldean church of Mar Shimun, originally built in the
fifth century. The Chaldean church of Mar Ahudani is decorated
in Arab style, and the Syrian church of Mar Tuma resembles the
Moslem shrine of Imam Yahya, a fine building among the northern
cemeteries built by Sultan Lulu. On the left bank of the old bed of
the Tigris the smaller of the mounds of Nineveh is surmounted by
the mosque of Nabi Yunis, marking the traditional site of the prophet
Jonah’s tomb.
The streets of the town are mostly narrow, winding, and unpaved;
but during the War of 1914-1918 a broad street was driven through
the town from east to west, and this, now the main thoroughfare,
Nineveh Street, contains most of the modern offices and shops. A
similar road cuts across the town from the south. Many new build
ings have been erected in the last twenty-five years, the principal
being the sarai and municipal offices, the schools, with which the
town is well provided, both governmental and communal, the public
library, and the barracks. Hospitals include the Royal (227 beds), the
Isolation (50 beds), Venereal Diseases (22 beds), the Jail (28 beds),
and the Iraqi army hospital (80 beds). Social life is provided by
three clubs, British, Civil, and Iraqi Army, a modern hotel, and a
railway resthouse. There is a modern royal palace, built in 1933, the
old palace being used as military offices. The jail, police station, and
G.P.O. are in the centre of the town; the headquarters of the Northern