Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1916-07-07
LONG the flooded banks of the
Y Tigris river the English cam.
paign in Mesopotamia is still

n paign in Mesopotamia is still
being waged. 1t has brought
into the limelight this great water
course of western Asia which has al
most as many historical associations
as the Euphrates, which flowed
through the Garden of Eden A bull
letin issued by the National Geo
graphic society gives an interesting
account of this highway Of ancient civ
ilization, which seems to have assumed
once more the role of history maker.
The great Tigris, upon whose banks
there f1ourished the magnificent city of
Lagash and the great Babylonian en-
pire more than three thousand years
before the Christian era, today has
fallen to such lowly estate that even
the Turks and Arabs, whom it sus-
tains, scorn to do it honor. Almost
contemptuously they have given it the
sobriquet, Hthe cheap cameleer," be-
cause it is used by the natives of its
upper reaches to bring down RATS or
keleks from Diarbekir to Bagdad,
where the wood is sold while the in
fated skins used as floats are debated.
On it's turbid course through Meso-
potamia, the Tigris, which is ira
versed by small boats for distance
nearly four times as great as the nav
igable reaches of the Hudson river,
flows past many ruins which have
proved an almost inexhaustible mine
of information for Psychologists. Op-
posite Mosul, from which we have de-
rived the word muslin, applied to the
fabric first imported into Europe from
this town in the twelfth century, there
are to be found the extensive remains
of what was once naughty Nineveh,
ever associated in the popular mind
with the Biblical account of Jonah, the
great fish and the gourd vine.
Ruins of Once Mighty Assur.
Sixty miles down the river from Nj
| neveh, which was the last capital of
/ Assyria, there squats the mean little
Arab village of Kal'at-Shergat, on the
/ buried ruins of Assur, the first great
! city of the Assyrian empire. 1t was
in honor of their god Assur that high
priests founded the city of the same
name. These priestly builders and ad
ministrators were at first under the
suzerainty of Babylonia, but when that
empire fell into decay they succeeded
in establishing themselves as indie
pendent kings, founding a dynasty
which held ruthless sway over this
! section of the world for centuries.
Another historic place on the banks
| of the Tigris is Nimrud, which legend
who in addition to being mighty
hunter is credited with having beer
the protector of the Tower of Babel
and also with having cast Abraham in
to the fire because the father of thu
Israelites refused to worship idols.
Not long ago British soldiers wer,
contending with the Turks in the en-
virons of the ancient capital of tn
Parthian kings, Ctesiphon, a few mile
south of Bagdad. Here one finds tn
ruins of the great palace known a
"the throne of Khosrau," the most re
markable example of sassanian arch
lecture extant.
The Tigris has two main sources il
the Taurus mountains, at an elevation
of 5000 feet. The headwaters of tn
western branch are only two or thre
miles from one of the sources of tn
Euphrates. After the two branche
join the river flows in southeastern
direction for 800 miles until it unite
with the Euphrates 70 miles above tn
Persian gulf, and forms the Shatt-e
Arab. The two principal towns o
this waterway of ancient glory ar
Bagdad and Basra
Darbekir Once Was Rich.
Diarbekir, situated on the uppe
Tigris, has an impressive situation
Built upon a basaltic table land, su
rounded by walls constructed of basa
tic rock, the city overlooks a broa
bend of the Tigris, which flows by il
eastern side. Beneath the walls of tn
city and within the bend of the rive
lies plain covered with vegetation
every shade of green that the Ea.
can produce.
Few cities of the earth have unde
gone greater vicissitudes than Diarb
kir. Roman and Persian, Armenia
and Parthian, Arab and Turk have di