FROM BASRA TO BAGDAD

Nelson Evening Mail, 8 May 1916, Page 7

FROM BASRA TO BAGDAD

SCENES ON THE TIGRIS.

RELICS OF ANCIENT DAYS-

The gateway to Mesopotamia is the beautiful Shat-el-Arab, or "The Arabs' River/' formed by,the junction' of the Euphrates audi Tigris. From- its very mouth right up to Kui-nil, a distance of nearly a hundred miles, its banks M-e lined with magnificent palm groves, stretching back in some places several; miles, for it is the centre of the date industry. Midway between Rurna and Fao, the rnud-walled village at the entrance to the Shat, is Basra, the principal port of Turkish Arabia, boasting of a population of- 80,000 souls. For centuries Basra was the home of Arabian poetry and learning, while tradition says it was from here that Sinbad the Sailor made his' memorable voyages. Some 50 miles above Basra, in the elbow of the land at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, stands Kurna, the traditional site of the Oarden of Eden. It is difficult to-day to associate this spot with a garden of any sort, as it is nothing more than a dreary, desolate waste. Some day, however, perhaps in the near future, this desert land will •blooni again, for all that is needed to make it fertile is water, and there ]s plenty of water to be had. A step in chis direction has already been taken, for. on the Euphrates, near the ruins of ancient Babylon, stands .the completed Hindieh Barrage,' built by Sir William Willcocks, which even so far has meant the reclamation of several) thousand) acres of hitherto useless land).

This is, however, only part of a great scheme by which no less than- 2,800.000 acres o'f land could be reclaimed. _ While this work would entail an expenditure of £21,000,000, the reclaimed ground, nowvalueless, would be worth £60,000,000. The journey up to Baghdad from Basrais full of interest. The river teems with life and all kinds of wild fowl and duck abound in the marshes. On the banks are Arab encampments and picturesque native villages and all kinds of weird native craft are encountered 1 , such as large rafts built of ( logs lashed over inflated goatskins, and those strange circular basket boat® known as "gophers," not unlike the ancient British coracle. Here and there the. eye is arrested! by wonderful ruins, ancient monuments, , an d' historic tombs. A few miles below Baghdad stands the arch of Ofcesiphon, all that remains to-day of the ancient capital -of the Parthian kingdom.

. The ruin- consists- of an immense open vault, 81ft by 154 ft, -with: an arched •roof im one single span, whose crown towers 104 ft above the gionnd. One one side of the arch extends a wing? or facade. Otesiphon 'reached - its greatest splendour, under the celebrated Persian King Ghosrbes. History records that his palace, of which only, this l arch' remains,; "was of prodigious ■ and was So vast that it was. supported by 40,000 silver columns, all i*ainged; im diverse architectural beauty.; Its.xoof : was enriched with a thousand golden globes,, which all had their different motioni»and represented the planets and .tJie different constellations. The walls were adorned by 30,000 pieces of embroidery'' hung in ;is many different compartments'."