The district known as Hawrayn-Shaykhān is situated about 40 miles north-east of Khānaqīn in the narrow strip of territory between the Sirwān (Diyālá) river and the hog's back of Bamō, which here marks the Iraqi-Persian boundary. Shaykhān proper comprises only the villages of Shāwāzī, Bākh-Hanārān, Bēlūla, Qulingachīn and Darband, the last two within one of the great ravines that scar Bamō on its western side.

It was my good fortune to make my first visit in the middle of March (1926), a lovely time of year, when the streams were full and the whole country was carpeted with the tender green of lush grass and the brilliant colours of ranunculus, anemones, and countless other wild flowers.

The rock carving (Plate XLV a) is up in the face of the cliff, here called Kuwālē, on the southern side of the Shaykhān ravine and overlooking the village of Darband. Without much difficulty we reached a point from which we could see quite clearly the small, beardless, principal personage looking towards the mouth of the gorge, dressed apparently in only a rolled cap, a necklace with a circular plaque falling over the chest, and a knee-length loin cloth, and holding a spindle-shaped object, presumably a dagger, in the right hand and a bow in the left. Immediately behind him, below the dagger hand, there is an upright cylindrical object, no doubt the quiver. He appears to be taking a step forward onto a supine enemy and towards another on bended knee in a posture of supplication. A cuneiform inscription occupies the space behind the suppliant. All the figures seem wooden and lifeless, with the legs and feet of the principal personage in particular badly out of proportion, all in striking contrast to the tremendous vitality of the Naram-Sin carving of Darband-i Gawr (Plate XLVb) about 30 miles away to the north-west.