ASSYRIA
488
ASSYRIA
reached from the neighborhood of Damascus to Anti- Taurus and Amanus. — Smith.
3. General geographical character. — The country within these limits is of a varied aspect. "Assyria," says Mr. Ainsworth {Researches in Assyria, Babylonia, and Chaldtea, Lond. 1838, p. 17), "including Taurus, is distinguished into three districts : by its structure, into a district of plutonic and metamorphic rocks, a district of sedimentary formations, and a district of alluvial deposits; by configuration, into a district of mountains, a district of stony or sandy plains, and a district of low watery plains ; by natural productions, into a country of forests and fruit-trees, of olives, wine, corn, and pasturage, or of barren rocks ; a coun- try of mulberry, cotton, maize, tobacco, or of barren clay, sand, pebbly or rocky plains ; and into a country of date-trees, rice, and pasturage, or a land of saline plants." The northern part is little else than a mass of mountains, which, near Julamerk, rise to a very great height, Mount Jewar being supposed to have an elevation of 15,000 feet ; in the south it is more level, but the plains are often burnt up with scorching heat, while the traveller, looking northward, sees a snowy alpine ridge hanging like a cloud in mid air. On the west this country is skirted by the great river Tigris, the Hiddekel of the Hebrews (Gen. ii, 14; Dan. x, 4), the Dijlah of the Arabs, noted for the impetuosity of its current. Its banks, once the residence of mighty kings, are now desolate, covered, like those of its twin river the Euphrates, with relics of ancient greatness, in the ruins of fortresses, mounds, and dams, which had been erected for the defence or irrigation of the country. Niebuhr describes a large stone dam at the castle of Nimrod, eight leagues below Mosul, as a work of great skill and labor, and now venerable ft r its antiquity ; and some suppose that it was from the circumstance of so many canals from the Tigris water- ing the country, and rendering it fruitful, that that river received the Arabic name of Nahr es-Salam, the River of Peace, i. e. prosperity. It leaves the high land at some distance above Tekrit, rushing with great velocity through a pass in the Hamrine mountains. Ta its progress along Assyria, the Tigris receives from that country, besides other rivers, two rapid mountain streams — the Great and Little Zab (Arab. Dhab, i. e. Wolf), called by the Greeks the Lykos, or Wolf, and the Capros, or Wild Boar. The Greater Zab (called by the Kurds Zerb), used to be laid down as a differ- ent river from the Hakkary, but Dr. Grant found them to be identic il ; and he likewise detected an error of Kinneir, in representing the Bitlis-su as the same as the Khabur, whereas they are different streams. (See Grant's Nestorians, p. 46.) — Kitto.
On the north and east the high mountain chains of Armenia and Kurdistan are succeeded by low ranges of limestone hills of a somewhat arid aspect, which detach themselves from the principal ridges, running parallel to them, and occasionally inclosing, between their northern or north-eastern flank and the main mountain-line, rich plains and fertile valleys. To these ridges there succeeds at first an undulating zone of country, well watered and fairly productive, which finally -inks down with some suddenness upon the great Mesopotamian plain, the modern district of P>1- Jezireh. This vast flat, which extends in length for 260 miles from the latitude of Mardin (37° 20') to that of Tekrit c. i ;;:,',. and which is in places of nearly equal width, is interrupted only by a single limestone range, a narrow- ridge rising abruptly out of the plain, which, splitting off' from Zagroa in lat. 33° 30', may be traced under the names of Sarazur, Hamrin, and Sinjar, from Iwan in Luristan nearly to Rakkah on the Euphrates. " Prom all parts of the plain the Sin- jar is a beautiful object. Its limestone rocks, wooded hero and there with dwarf oak, are of a rich golden color; anil the numberless ravines which furrow its sides form ribs of deep purple shadow'' (Layard, Nil*
ereh and Babylon, p. 2G5). Above and below this bar- rier, stretching southward and westward farther than the eye can reach, and extending northward and east- ward 70 or 80 miles to the hill-country before men- tioned, is an immense level tract, now for the most part a wilderness, scantily watered on the right bank of the Tigris, but abundantly supplied on the left, which bears marks of having been in early times throughout well cultivated and thickly peopled. This plain is not alluvial, and most parts of it are even con- siderably raised above the level of the rivers. It is covered in spring time with the richest vegetation, presenting to the eye a carpet of flowers, varying in hue from day to day ; but as the summer advances it is parched up, and gradually changes to an arid and yellow waste, except along the courses of the rivers. All over this vast flat, on both sides of the Tigris, rise "grass-covered heaps, marking the site of ancient habitations" (Layard, p. 2-15). Mr. Layard counted from one spot nearly a hundred {Nineveh and its Re- mains, i, 315) ; from another above 200 of these lofty mounds (Am. and Bab. p. 245). Those which have been examined have been uniformly found to present appearances distinctly connecting them with the re- mains of Nineveh. See Nineveh. It may there- fore be regarded as certain that they belong to tho time of Assyrian greatness, and thus they will serve to mark the extent of the real Assyrian dominion. They are numerous on the left bank of the Tigris from Bavian to the Diyaleh, and on the right the}' thickly stud the entire country both north and south of the Sinjar range, extending eastward beyond the Khabouv (Layard, chs. xii-xiv), northward to Mardin", and southward to the vicinity of Bagdad. — Smith.