2-751-870 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'El Bedieh', c1906-1913, (1915). Bedouin at the salt wells near Tell-’Afar, (Iraq or Syria). 'The next day we pushed on to El Bedieh, where the Bedawin have sunk wells in a dry wadi, and have found salt water, just drinkable. While we were there seven Bedawin with lances galloped up amid a storm of dust...they explained to us, all breathless, that they had been racing to choose water-holes for their tribe, who were coming the next day to camp. Each man represented a party of tents, and came to mark a well for his own people'. From "The Caliphs' Last Heritage, a short history of the Turkish Empire" by Lt.-Col. Sir Mark Sykes. [Macmillan & Co, London, 1915]