The Cradle of Mankind; Life in Eastern Kurdistan

The tale of the British administration of Mesopotamia (or Irak) is the familiar one of magnificent work done by men on the spot, which is yet hampered by the feebleness and inde...

Nine years have elapsed since the last chapter was written, and the hope with which it ends has been most tragically deferred. Nearer Asia has been swept by another of those gre...

To the south of the Christian cantons of Tkhuma and Salabekan, and separated from them by a series of high rocky ridges, lies the long trough-like valley of Amadia, which is her...

Qudshanis is probably a spot that is unique on the world's surface; but on leaving it for the south, the traveller soon finds himself in a land that is fascinating enough, thoug...

We enter a new world as we come up from the south to the land which is never called Armenia officially, but where the Armenians dwell. The great plain of Mesopotamia, the wild g...

On their eastern side the Hakkiari Mountains subside into the plain of Urmi, and the journey down to that town from Tergawar is quite a tame affair after such wild experiences a...

Most of us have some recollection of the legend of "Prester John," particularly in the version given in "Ariosto"; the legend of a Christian king ruling his people in the midst...

"It is real rough travelling in the mountains," says the Mosul resident casually; and the traveller just arrived from Europe hears that innocent observation with dismay. He has...

Due east and west, from the Gulf of Iskanderun almost to the heel of the Caspian, there stretches a range of lofty mountains--a sort of natural bulwark, fencing off the high rug...

One may go to Aleppo by train, and by carriage one may get on to Mosul; but he who would penetrate further must adopt more primitive means. Nothing that runs upon wheels can ent...

The belated Jinn who emerged out of Suleiman's Brass Bottle into twentieth-century London found there, amid much that was strange to him, some beings of his own kin. These were...

We have long been partial to pilgrimage. Partly because we love all old habits. Because "it was so our fathers did in the days of old;" and because, quite apart from that intrin...

From the eastern gate of Mardin the road decants itself plainwards in a skein of curves and zigzags--a vertical descent of 2000 feet, spinning out its gradients to a length of f...

The road from Amadia to Mosul is tolerably easy, by comparison, as the successive ranges sink gradually toward the Mesopotamian level. We had timed our journey craftily; it bein...

Jilu, take it all round, is the most savage bit of primæval chaos in all the "_ashiret_" districts of Kurdistan; yet a short journey beyond it brings us to a district which is i...

There are more pleasant places in the world than the city of Mosul. Hot, white, and dusty, it lies on a rather "hummocky" site along the right (or western) bank of the Tigris, l...

The valley in which Barzan lies is a great fold in the earth's surface, running due east and west from Jezireh on the Tigris past Amadia to the mountains on the Persian frontier...

The country between Urmi and Van is easy, as travel goes in Kurdistan; and, speaking normally, safe. High hills, rising to as much as 11,000 feet, cover the country; and one gre...