'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎108] (241/458)

jAg COMMANDER F. JONES
doubtless enjoyed, as among themselves it is but seldom they taste ani
mal food. The following morning we sent them rejoicing on tlieir
way to their tents with a new suit of apparel for the Sheikh and some
articles of clothing for each of themselves, promising them an early
visit on their own grounds, which, they assure us, abound in wrecks of
former cities, over which they will be delighted to escort us.
March 28 th.—We now bent our steps to the shoulder of land
topped off as it were, by the change in the Tigris’s course which
situated as it was between the old channel of the river the Atkeim, as
it formerly existed and the large intestinal stream the Katul-al-
Kesrdwi contained many cities, and perhaps the position of Opis also.
Modern geographers, either ignorant or forgetful of the great change
the Tigris underwent, have insisted on identifying the ruins in the
angle embraced by the arms of the Katul-al-Kesr&wl with the vestiges
of the lost Opis, but as the remains in question are evidently of a
comparatively recent time, and moreover not in the position which we
can fairly accord to Opis, we are compelled to seek for the site of this
city in another place. Passing through the ruins of Harbeh, (where,
by the bye we had further proof of a pre-Islam era in finding a much
worn female face in terra cotta, having between the hair, which is high
and curling, the curved horns of the bull, as represented in the sketch of
devices accompanying the paper).* Vv e crossed the old channel of the
Tigris, and in an hour and seven minutes from the bridge of Harbeh came
upon another place of the great labyrinth of canals that, previous to the
irruption, emanated from the Kfitul, now on the other side of the river.
A platform of brick, imbedded in the soil of a great age, points to the
position of a bridgef across it and its direction would show that it w
the arm that supported the town on the east bank of the old bed of
the Tigris, just north of Tel’Aabar. Twenty-one minutes further on,
in an E S E direction, after crossing the minor bed of the Shatayt, we
stood upon a lofty mound of ruin, now termed Tel I)ha.hab,t that was
W ' „ r . n , 1r . n - iT| n , , • i i *1 r , b -it, ■ „ . Tinr - ,-1
* Marked a,
‘f’ See Appendix W,
$ Tel d** is the common epithet for a C{ mound” Dh&hab ^ ^
andManjur have occupied opposite angles formed by the junction of the Atkeim witntn ' of the
in the early ages. The , old fortress of Tel Aabr seems to have been an outworK ^
former Tel Hyr, would appear tn have performed the same office for the largei j
M anjur. See Appendix X for bearings at Tel Dhahab.
> itael
)|lkf'o rls 1
# ta* deof
fatentty sub
Jirectioo
of a
tig 0
leliad to cross
altogether T
supposed, the \
jeceptive was t
of th
cisiderable mi
n
itinuity of tl
Isold channel
F
lie on this a
ioue time the
wiilar shape (
fctface, or
occupied by th
( *rly) differ
loftier th
Klikeia i
'^ied un( j er
^^eristic o
city_ c
ve beet
“iiice, W(
the „
10111 the s,
>61'