A reservoir has also been built, and caravans of asses bring water
in skins from the Shatt el-Hai to keep it filled with a constant supply
of water, while the excellent relations which Capt. Cros has established
with the Karagul Arabs, who occupy Telloh and its neighbourhood, have
proved to be the best kind of protection for the mission engaged in
scientific work upon the site.
The group of mounds and hillocks, known as Telloh, which marks the site
of the ancient Sumerian city of Shirpurla, is easily distinguished from
the flat surrounding desert. The mounds extend in a rough oval formation
running north and south, about two and a half miles long and one and a
quarter broad. In the early spring, when the desert is covered with a
light green verdure, the ruins are clearly marked out as a yellow spot
in the surrounding green, for vegetation does not grow upon them. In the
centre of this oval, which approximately marks the limits of the ancient
city and its suburbs, are four large tells or mounds running, roughly,
north and south, their sides descending steeply on the east, but with
their western slopes rising by easier undulations from the plain. These
four principal tells are known as the "Palace Tell," the "Tell of the
Fruit-house," the "Tell of the Tablets," and the "Great Tell," and,
rising as they do in the centre of the site, they mark the position of
the temples and the other principal buildings of the city.
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