The two lines in this last case are from 600 to 700 yards apart, and diverge from one another as they run out to the north-east.

The inner of the two meets the north-eastern rampart nearly at a right angle, and is clearly a part of the same work.

It is questioned, however, whether this line of fortification is ancient, and not rather a construction belonging to Parthian times.
A low line of mounds is traceable between the western face of the Amran and Kasr hills, and the present eastern bank of the river, bounding a sort of narrow valley, in which either the main stream of the Euphrates, or at any rate a branch from it, seems anciently to have flowed.
On the right bank of the stream the chief remains are of the same kind.
West of the river, a rampart, twenty feet high, runs for nearly a mile parallel with the general line of the Amran mound, at the distance of about 1000 yards from the old course of the stream.

At either extremity the line of the rampart turns at a right angle, running down towards the river, and being traceable towards the north for 400 yards and towards the south for fifty or sixty.

It is evident that there was once, before the stream flowed in its present channel, a rectangular enclosure, a mile long and 1000 yards broad, opposite to the Amran mound; and there are indications that within this _enceinte_ was at least one important building, which was situated near the south-east angle of the enclosure, on the banks of the old course of the river.