[MAP of IRAQ - SHEET of SAMAWAH] Semave (First of 4 feuilles).

[HARITA UMUM MÜDÜRLÜGÜ]. 

Erkân-i Harbiye-i Umûmiye Matbaasi., Ist., [Hegira: 1331] = 1915.

Original chromolithograph folded map. Oblong atlas folio. (49 x 65 cm). In Ottoman script. Repaired with a band in the contemporary period from its backside. Set including 4 sheets. Other sheets are Basrah, Bagdad, and Qut al-Amare. This is the first sheet including 'Samawah'. Rare. Scale is 1/500.000. Samawah city was settled by the Arab tribe of Banu Quda'a around the 3rd century AD. It is built on both sides of the Euphrates river; there are four bridges in the center of town for crossing between the two sides. The west bank of the city contains the commercial heart of the city and includes the old town and the Jewish quarter, Agd al Yahood. The west bank is the site of the covered market Suq Al Masgoof, which dates to the Ottoman period. The area surrounding the market is the old city with its Byzantine maze of crowded markets and streets. The eastern side of the city including 'Qushla' has a more modern feel and contains a number of estates of apartment blocks built during the 1970s and 1980s, As Samawah Stadium, which is home to the local Muthanna football team Samawa FC, as well as technical colleges and the polytechnic. There too is Al Qushla, the historic "Ottoman Barracks". The most famous attraction of Samawah in the ruins of the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk which dates to 4000 BC. This was the largest city in Sumer, extending over 2 km2. Uruk was not only the largest conurbation of the first urban civilization on earth, but it is also the place where the first written script was discovered, the oldest dating back to 3300 BC. The palm groves of Samawah: Samawah is built on both sides of the Euphrates and is surrounded by hundreds of palm groves that give it a tropical feel, especially in the southern and northern suburbs. These groves provide cool respite from the scorching heat of Mesopotamia and were the inspiration for the famous Iraqi folk song "The Palm of Samawah".