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HIT , a See also: town of See also: Asiatic See also: Turkey, in the vilayet of See also: Bagdad, on the west See also: bank of the See also: Euphrates, 70 M
.
W.N.W. of Bagdad, in 330 38' 8" N., 42° 52' 15" E
.
It is picturesquely situated on a See also: line of hills, partly natural, but in large See also: part certainly artificial, the accumulation of centuries of former habitation, from 30 to 100 ft. in height, bordering the See also: river
.
The houses are built of See also: field stones and mud
.
A striking feature of the town is a lofty and well-proportioned minaret, which leans quite perceptibly
.
Behind and around Hit is an extensive but utterly barren plain, through which flow several streams of bitter
See also: water, coming from See also: mineral springs
.
Directly behind the town are two See also: bitumen springs, one cold and one hot, within 30 ft. of one another
.
The See also: gypsum cliffs on the edge of the plain, and the rocks which crop out here and there in the plain, are full of seams of bitumen, and the whole place is redolent of sulphuretted hydrogen
.
Across the river there are See also: naphtha springs
.
Indeed, the entire region is one possessing See also: great potential See also: wealth in mineral oils and the like
.
Hit, with its fringe of palms, is like an oasis in the See also: desert occasioned by the outcrop of these deposits
.
From See also: time immemorial it has been the chief source of supply of bitumen for Babylonia, the prosperity of the town depending always upon its bitumen fountains, which are still the See also: property of the See also: government, but are rented out to any one who wishes to use them
.
There is also a shipyard at Hit, where the characteristic Babylonian boats are still made, smeared within and without with bitumen . Hit is the See also: head of navigation on the Euphrates
.
It is also the point from which the camel-See also: post starts across the desert to See also: Damascus
.
About 8 m. inland from Hit, on a bitter stream, lies the small town of Kubeitha
.
Hit is mentioned, under the name of Ist, in the See also: Karnak inscription as paying tribute to Tethmosis (Thothmes) III
.
In the See also: Bible (See also: Ezra viii
.
15) it is called Ahava; the See also: original Babylonian name seems to have been Ihi, which becomes in the See also: Talmud Ihidakira, in See also: Ptolemy Ibttapa, and in See also: Zosimus and See also: Ammianus DaKipa and Diacira
.
See Geo
.
See also: Rawlinson's Ilerodotus, i
.
179, and note by H
.
C
.
Rawlinson; J
.
P . Peters,See also: Nippur (1897); H
.
V
.
Geere, By See also: Nile and Euphrates (190}})
.
(J
.
P
.
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