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250 KAREN RADNER
The area is also accessible via Rowanduz – the controlling point on the route leading from Erbil to Lake
Urmia via the Gawre Shinke Pass (also Garaushinke Pass; see Fig. 17.04) – but this requires the repeated
crossing of the Rowanduz river, which a trek with livestock would better aim to avoid. 56
Fig. 17.04. The route from Erbil to Iran prior to the construction of Hamilton’s Rowanduz Road
(reproduced from Mason 1919: 337).
To sum up, Musasir is separated from Assyria by Mount Andaruttu (the Baradost mountain range) and
from Urartu by Mount Uajais (the Zagros main ridge with peaks like Mount Halgurt reaching over 3600 m).
The Assyrian and Urartian texts would therefore indicate Musasir’s general location in the area of Sidikan
(Fig. 17.05); Rainer M. Boehmer, 57 prompted by the apparent similarity of the two toponyms, suggested that
Musasir should be identified with the fortified Iron Age site of Mudjesir, some 7 km west of Topzawa, but
while this remains possible it must be pointed out that the identification has never been proven conclusively. 58
Yet although the city itself may not be located precisely at present, few would argue with the assumption that
56 The British officer Major Kenneth Mason (1919: 334-335; the useful area map on p. 337 is reproduced here), dispatched from Mosul
to Rowanduz in January 1919, gives a good account on the difficulty of travelling along that route, especially in regard to the crossing of the
Rowanduz river. The perils of this route are also clear from the account of the engineer A.M. Hamilton (1937) who was responsible for the
construction of the road from Erbil to Rowanduz between 1928 and 1932.
57 Boehmer 1973; Boehmer & Fenner 1973b; Boehmer 1993-1997: 446-448.
58 For a critique see Zimansky 1990: 3 n. 11 who remains unconvinced of the identification; others, e.g. Russell 1984: 177 and Postgate
1995: 9, are more positive.