. Nineveh and Babylon : a narrative of a second expedition to Assyria during the years 1849, 1850, & 1851. th the superintendenceof the excavations, I quitted Mosul on the i8th of October,accompanied by Hormuzd Rassam and Mr. Romaine, anEnglish traveller, on his way to India. There were casesenough containing sculptures from Kouyunjik to load a raftof considerable size. My Jebours, armed with guns, wentwith them for defence, as the banks of the Tigris were swarm-ing with Bedouins, who had nearly interrupted all intercourseboth by the river and high road between Mosul and Bagh-dad. I occupied a
. Nineveh and Babylon : a narrative of a second expedition to Assyria during the years 1849, 1850, & 1851. th the superintendenceof the excavations, I quitted Mosul on the i8th of October,accompanied by Hormuzd Rassam and Mr. Romaine, anEnglish traveller, on his way to India. There were casesenough containing sculptures from Kouyunjik to load a raftof considerable size. My Jebours, armed with guns, wentwith them for defence, as the banks of the Tigris were swarm-ing with Bedouins, who had nearly interrupted all intercourseboth by the river and high road between Mosul and Bagh-dad. I occupied a smaller rait. We stopped for the first night beneath the mound of Ham-mum Ali. On the following morning we crossed the foamingrapids of the Awai, or great dam. During the previous three XL] DEPARTURE FOR BABYLON. 261 years the river had gained much ground to the eastward,washing away the alluvial soil of the plain, and graduallyseeking its ancient bed at the foot of the mound. The stone-work which, on my first visit to Nimroud, was only justvisible in the high bank, now stood, like a tower, almost in. A Kellek, or Raft of Skins, on the Tigris. the centre of the Tigris, dividing the impetuous stream intotwo roaring cataracts. Solid masonry beneath the level ofthe river connected this isolated mass with the oppositebank. I endeavoured to trace it inland, but after diggingfor some days without coming to the end, I relinquished theattempt. The result of this experiment shows that the Awaimay possibly be the remains of a wall now covered by thedeposits of tlie river, and not an ancient dam. It wouldhave required time and labour to trace its course, and todetermine its original object, deeply buried as it is beneaththe soil. The navigation of tlie Tigris as far as Kalah Sherghat wasso insecure, that I deemed it prudent, in order to avoid acollision with the Arabs, to engage a Bedouin chief, namedAwaythe, a Sheikh of the Fedagha Shammar, to accompanyus. Placing one of his sons on his
Size: 2147px × 1164px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidninevehbabyl, bookyear1882
