Sat Ap 17. [17 April 1909] Woke up all aches and pains, a stiff back
and Heaven knows what. We rode off at 6.30 to El Gowwer where
there has been a big palace. Lots of fragments of marble, pink, green
and white with grey lines. By the river, and partly washed away by the
river are great fragments of brick work that look like huge
substructures. It took us over an hour to ride here. Then to Tell 'Alij
and then to the Bait el Khalifa which I planned. Wind and rain. A man
who was digging out bricks near by uncovered a beautiful bit of
plaster decoration while I was there. To the E quantities of ruins, all
libin. They call them the kubab es sud. In one long wall there were
remains of small square chambers with domes on pendentives. The
so called prison and medresseh are no doubt serdabs. They are cut
out of the solid pebbly rock, all underground. They look very rough
now but they were once all covered with plaster. So got in about 1
very tired. It rained and blew all the afternoon and I drew pottery. The
mosque too has been plastered. There are remains of it on the
outside of the N wall for instance.