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HIT

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 533 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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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 See also: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 See also: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 See also:minaret, which leans quite perceptibly. Behind and around Hit is an extensive but utterly barren See also:plain, through which flow several streams of See also:bitter See also:water, coming from See also:mineral springs. Directly behind the town are two See also:bitumen springs, one See also: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 See also:crop out here and there in the plain, are full of seams of bitumen, and the whole See also:place is redolent of sulphuretted See also: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 See also:oils and the like. Hit, with its fringe of palms, is like an See also:oasis in the See also:desert occasioned by the outcrop of these deposits. From See also:time immemorial it has been the See also:chief source of See also: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 See also:navigation on the Euphrates. It is also the point from which the See also: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 See also: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 See also:note by H. C. Rawlinson; J.

P. See also:

Peters, See also:Nippur (1897); H. V. Geere, By See also:Nile and Euphrates (190}}). (J. P.

End of Article: HIT

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