bitumen-pits

Updated: May 12, 2025

The bitumen is of excellent quality, and was largely employed by the ancients. The naphtha is of two kinds, black naphtha or petroleum, and white naphtha, which is much preferred to the other. The bitumen-pits also, in some places, yielded salt. Another useful mineral with which the Persians were very plentifully supplied, was sulphur.

George Rawlinson - The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 5: Persia : The History, Geography, And Antiquities Of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Parthia, And Sassanian or New Persian Empire; With Maps and Illustrations.

Petroleum, called by the Orientals mumia, is another product of the bitumen-pits. The wild animals indigenous in Babylonia appear to be chiefly the following: the lion, the leopard, the hyeena, the lynx, the wild-cat, the wolf, the jackal, the wild-boar, the buffalo, the stag, the gazelle, the jerboa, the fox, the hare, the badger, and the porcupine. The Mesopotamian lion is a noble animal.

George Rawlinson - The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 1: Chaldaea : The History, Geography, And Antiquities Of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Parthia, And Sassanian or New Persian Empire; With Maps and Illustrations.