Identifier: travelsingeorgia02port (find matches)
Title: Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, ancient Babylonia, &c. &c. : during the years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820
Year: 1821 (1820s)
Authors: Porter, Robert Ker, Sir, 1777-1842
Subjects: Porter, Robert Ker, Sir, 1777-1842
Publisher: London : Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown
Contributing Library: Tisch Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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square court, partially shaded with date-trees, andevery where else totally filled up with accumulations of rubbishof every possible description. I made this peep behind thecurtain, during my visit to the governor of the district; to whoseattentions^ the pasha of Bagdad (under whom he serves) hadrecommended me ; and I found also, that- my passage throughhis excellencys state chambers demanded as many golden keysas any where else. In short, every attendant officer stands withan open hand for money ; though they are certainly contentedwith smaller sums than are grasped at by similar cormorants inPersia. Excepting the governors residence, no house of anyrespectable front, presents itself along the waters edge; yet thestretching, unbroken walls of the place, give it a shew of con-sequence ; and the minarets of the only mosque • it contains,rising from behind the battlements, and mingling with thefeathery tops of the trees, add greatly to the character of the view. ^ * See Plate LXXXII.
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I ^S^ eJCV ^ BANKS OF THE EUPHRATES. 335 The whole of the town, towards the desert, is defended by apretty deep ditch, overlooked by a proportionate number ofbrick-built towers, (all the spoil of Babylon,) flanking the inter-mediate compartments of wall. Three gates open from thisrampart; namely, that of Nejef, or Imaun Ali ; that of Tha-masia, and that of Hossein or Kerbela. All these gates lead tothe places whence they take their names. As far as the eye canreach from the town, both up and down the Euphrates, thebanks appear to be thickly shaded with groves of date-trees ;displacing, it should seem, the other beautiful species of treesin its noblest growth, from which Isaiah names this scene the Brook, or Valley of Willows ; though the humbler races ofthat graceful tribe, in the osier, &c. are yet the prolific offspringof its shores. To the north-west, not far from the Kerbela gate, and in themidst of the gardens, rises the mosque called Mesched Esshems,surmounted by an obelisk

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