_ 322 _ Many Arab merchants, Turks, Jews and Armenians always gather here with their merchandise, which come across the desert and in boats which come down the River Tigris from Babylon. Its boundaries stretch seven or eight leagues along these rivers as far as the sea, peopled by Arab Moors and Jacobites, who live from dates and rearing livestock. It is watered by the same rivers with the high tides. They collect the drinking-water they use. At low tide they throw away their excreta and filth which are carried into the sea. On the other side from these ranges of mountains the second river rises, called Araks, which flows in a westerly direction, straighter and faster-flowing than the Tigris and the Euphrates. It flows past the foot of the mountains of Noah’s Ark. It goes on to Nakichevan and Jugan, the first two cities built by Noah when he came out of the Ark, and from there to a city called Arduar, and on through many other cities and places in Upper Armenia, until, about three days’ journey from the Caspian Sea, it reaches a port called Javas, where it joins another river which comes from Gurjistan, called Cur, and the two, together with the Hoi, which also joins them as mentioned before, flow into the Caspian Sea.
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