If you aren’t reading the comments on my last few Syria posts, you are missing some great contributions by readers including:
- John Hogan has used satellite images to pin down the construction date of the “Box-on-the-Euphrates” to between 26 May 2001 and 8 September 2002 (a 67-week interval).
- Andrew Foland, MTC and Anon all found additional pictures of the area that suggest a ground truth image of the site wouldn’t be too difficult to acquire. (The German transliteration, Halabiye, seems to produce the best images.) MTC, using his pretty amazing language skills, found a picture from a Japanese tourist (duh!) that, had the tourist turned 90 degrees, might have looked right up the Wadi-with-the-Box.
- Yale Simkin estimated the height of the Box-on-the-Euphrates at 24 meters, while conversing with Allen Thomson on the capacity of the pump station.
There are other solid contributions — these just struck my fancy. The debates are as technical, funny and polite as any in Washington, if not more so. I am truly honored (and a little terrified) to have such an amazing readership.
Thanks, folks.