Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-10-27
SAMARRA NOW
GHOST OF PAST
Ancient Persian City is Now
Moldering in Ruins; Walls
Still Remain.

From the battlefield or lstabulat, |
beyond Bagdad. tho pebbled desert |
opens out east and west and north |
into ancient Assyria. Here eager
Tigris mas gnawed It's way through
the alluvium. and flaws out OF slg..t
between crumbing cliffs Undula-
tons appcar--iow gravel hills. swell
ing up and flattening out again. as
iledglings try their wings. In the
spring, after tho early rain. an ocean
OF waving flowers and green grass
enamels the bald desert; there are
flaming red anemones, golden rag
wort. scented stock. crane's bill mig
nonette. II is no small cause for
wonder. this garden Of flowers. after
the lifeless gray silt holow I3agdadl
+ with the coming of May. the hot
breath OF the desert sweeps over the
land, parching everything; sunshine
scorches whatever Il touches. so that
the flowers soon droop, wither and
finally shrivel up. scattering their seeds
as they collapse. These Turk under
the pebbles all through the summer
weather. Winter comes, and in De-
cember the first rain fallH-~the first
rain for eight months. In a few days
the desert ia fedged with emerald
! green. changing with the advent Of
spring 10 a carpet of interviewer coli
ors.
Past Glory Is Gone.
Beyond Istabulat. crowning the high
river Cliff. stands the poor little city
of Samarra. today III called that
which naketh glad the heart OF mani"
/ for Il Is mean and squalid, no longer
great and noble.
In the very center Of the city rises
the golden dome Of the mosque. daz-
zling 10 the sunlight and visible az n
fash of light from far across the
plain. II IS flanked by the scarcely
less azure blue dome swelling up In "a
bold curve above the house roofs,
and by the turquoise minarets. The
mosque is sacred 10 the Shah sect,
who come mostly from Persia, and
who hold unorthodoX views concern
ling the succession Of the caliphate.
There are few shops In the city
land those Of the poorest kind; no
valuable goods are exported for sale
A great quiet not indeed Of peace. but
OF apathy, reigna over the place
4AuINlNN tiAE ItiUNttuE AiAt AatFA Ath ttsff~Nt
breathing stertoriously; but at sun
set a procession OF black-cloaked wo-
inen steal joylcssly down the river
to draw water. marching slowly back
in twns and threes with the heavy
metal cans on their shoulders. j
is tho only sign Of life. No longer
lis the once proud city Of the caliphate
of Haroun-al l,aschid. city to make
glad the heart Of man. Babylon i
fallen, is fallen" and no less is sa
MARIA humbled to the dust.
one may walk around the city OF
, tho top OF the wall and look Owe
, leagues OF level desert to the distan
a foothills OF Persia, shimmering blu'
5 in the haze. Smooth and green as 81
English lawn appears the far plateau
3 in spring, before the winds have swep
: It bare. Close by. TO the north, rise
e the spiral minaret of the ancien
= mosque, the most wonderful in all Irao
!, Fragments of four great walls. tn
4 empty husk of that famous building
n inclose a huge barren space. Nothin
=, besides remains. Thousands of pair
y trunks, costly beams Of timber brough
; from afar, and marble slabs, tile
). bricks and much material of commo
e sort. were used in the building OF tn
Il mosque. Today nothing remains who
q but the spiral tower 100 feet high, u
e which the adventurous may still wal
v by the ledge which clasps It like
$ whorled collar.
o A couple of miles distant across til
: alluvial fiat from the Tigris stands
Q ragged birch arch; just that and notf
4 Ing more II is another remnant of Ii
&c lost city On high bluff across II
river, which swings suddenly arour
in deep arc clasping the mud fla
, in the Samarra shore. are the ruiz
y Of El Ajeck. All is ruins and deca
- In the stiffness one listens for the ia
7, of another brick, the crumbling
. another mound. Sleep has come
:, the land where once the clash Of arm
- rang out. the tramp Of hosts revel
n berated. Here noble cities rose on II
!, plain, green with crops and tree
n Perched up there on the bold cliff
~ that il overlooks all the fiat land
- the river bed. which the river has II
il, deed wandered over and abandoned,
n that from 1t one may stare across
Is the opposite cliff far away. where Il
,d spiral tower looks no more than
il corkscrew standing on its head,
IN Ajeck much resembled some feud
le castle of the Middle Ages. aloof al
naughty.
Wells Show Former Size.
But there IS more yet; the who
vast plain--or plateau rather, for
are in a gravel terrace a few hu
ne dred feet above the silt Of lower Ir
OF 10 a history hook ouef, hpforn ,