Alike in the east and in the west, in Syria and Palestine, no less than in Babylonia Proper and Susiana, there are times when a fierce and scorching wind prevails for days together--a wind whose breath withers the herbage and is unspeakably depressing to man.

Called in the east the Sherghis, and in the west the Khamsin, this fiery sirocco comes laden with fine particles of heated sand, which at once raise the temperature and render the air unwholesome to breathe.

In Syria these winds occur commonly in the spring, from February to April; but in Susiana and Babylonia the time for them is the height of summer.
They blow from various quarters, according to the position, with respect to Arabia, occupied by the different provinces.

In Palestine the worst are from the east, the direction in which the desert is nearest; in Lower Babylonia they are from the south; in Susiana from the west or the north-west.

During their continuance the air is darkened, a lurid glow is cast over the earth, the animal world pines and droops, vegetation languishes, and, if the traveller cannot obtain shelter, and the wind continues, he may sink and die under its deleterious influence.
The climate of the entire tract included within the limits of the Empire was probably much the same in ancient times as in our own days.