Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

538 EXPLOBATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
During the Easter week I decided to extend our excursions
considerably farther to the south and to examine especially
the low mounds of Abu Hatab and Fara, where,
since the davs of Loftus, antiquities had constantly been
excavated and sold bv the Arabs. No trustworthy account
of either of these ruins was yet at our disposal. In fact,
there was not one modern map which indicated even their
general situation, 1 because they lie outside the ordinary track
taken by Babylonian explorers. It is true some travellers
had been in that neighborhood before, two of them even paying
a hurried visit to the low site of Fara, but nobody thus
far had been able to ascertain anything definite with regard
to their age and importance. Having previously gathered
all the necessary information from several members of the
tribes camping along the Shatt el-Kar, the present writer,
accompanied by Haynes, Geere, and half-a-dozen trusted
Arabs, left Nuffar one day in April shortly after sunset to
examine that whole district.
We crossed the Khor el-'Afej
in two long narrow boats {turradas), and entered the great
canal on the opposite side of the swamps, descending the
latter in our primitive means of conveyance. The white
blossoms of the caper shrub (Babyl. sikh/u), 2
growing abundantly
along the embankments of the Shatt el-Kar and the
smaller canals, filled the air with their strong aroma. Nothing
but the occasional cry of an unknown water-bird, disturbed
in his rest by our swiftly gliding boats, interrupted
the impressive stillness of that beautiful Babylonian night.
At a place nearly opposite the two ruins we halted.
Stretched on the ground or in the bottom of our boats
we awaited the first rays of the sun that we might proceed
with our archaeological mission.
1
The only attempt made by the earlier travellers at locating Fara is found
on Loftus'
map.
2
The proof for this identification will be found in Hilprecht, " The Bab.
Exp. of the U. of Pa.," series A, vol. x, Introduction.