Al-Qayyāra

Qayyarah lies beside the Tigris south of Mosul, in a district marked by natural seepages of bitumen. The name itself recalls pitch, and travellers found numerous springs of the dark substance near the river. Such deposits gave this stretch of the valley a striking character, contrasting with the cultivated land along the water and the dry plains beyond. The Tigris linked the district with Mosul upstream and the towns of central Iraq to the south.