Note 183 — Chapter VIII · ZÂKHÔ TO DIYÂRBEKR May 10—June 4
Reading edition
The caves are carefully excavated and I should say that they are ancient. Layard (Nineveh and Babylon, p. 54) speaks of them as tombs and some may have been intended as burial-places, but I do not doubt that many were from all time used by the living. The troglodyte habits of the dwellers in these mountains are still strongly marked. Above Bâ’adrî I saw an underground village; at Ḥiṣn Keif, higher up the Tigris, the people live in rock-hewn chambers.