Discoveries Among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon — John Shaqi
Discoveries Among the Ruins of Nineveh and BabylonLayard, Austen Henry
History
Discoveries Among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon
Layard, Austen Henry
Babylon (Extinct city); Middle East -- Description and travel; Nineveh (Extinct city); Scientific expeditions
During the afternoon we crossed the western spur of the Tiektab Mountains,
a high and bold range with three well defined peaks, which had been
visible from the summit of the Ala-Baba pass. From the crest we had the
first view of Subhan, or Sipan, Dagh, a magnificent conical peak, covered
with eternal snow, and rising abruptly from the plain to the north of Lake
Wan. It is a conspicuous and beautiful object from every part of the
surrounding country. We descended into the wide and fertile plain of
Hinnis. The town was just visible in the distance, but we left it to the
right, and halted for the night in the large Armenian village of Kosli,
after a ride of more than nine hours. I was received at the guesthouse (a
house reserved for travellers, and supported by joint contributions), with
great hospitality by one Misrab Agha, a Turk, to whom the village formerly
belonged as Spahilik or military tenure, and who, deprived of his
hereditary rights, had now farmed its revenues. He hurried with a long
stick among the low houses, and heaps of dry dung, piled up in every open
space for winter fuel, collecting fowls, curds, bread, and barley, abusing
at the same time the _tanzimat_, which compelled such exalted travellers
as ourselves, he said, "to pay for the provisions we condescended to
accept." The inhabitants were not, however, backward in furnishing us with
all we wanted, and the flourish of Misrab Agha's stick was only the
remains of an old habit. I invited him to supper with me, an invitation he
gladly accepted, having himself contributed a tender lamb roasted whole
towards our entertainment.
The inhabitants of Kosli could scarcely be distinguished either by their
dress or by their general appearance from the Kurds. They seemed
prosperous and were on the best terms with the Mussulman farmer of their
tithes. The village stands at the foot of the hills forming the southern
boundary of the plain of Hinnis, through which flows a branch of the Murad
Su, or Lower Euphrates. We forded this river near the ruins of a bridge at
Kara Kupri. The plain is generally well cultivated, the principal produce
being corn and hemp. The villages, which are thickly scattered over it,
have the appearance of extreme wretchedness, and, with their low houses
and heaps of dried manure piled upon the roofs and in the open spaces
around, look more like gigantic dunghills than human habitations. The
Kurds and Armenian Christians, both hardy and industrious races, are
pretty equally divided in numbers, and live sociably in the same filth and
misery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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