THE story of Cyrus the Younger and his bid for the throne of Persia in b.c. 401 has been made familiar to us by Xenophon. Unfor unately, however, the latter gave us no map of the country he traversed, and the old landmarks have mostly disappeared. From the point at which the invaders entered Mesopotamia to the crossing place of the Greater Zab on their retreat, none of the ancient sites have been identified with any certainty. A land which obliterated nearly all memory of the glories of Nineveh within two hundred years of its sack is not likely to leave much trace above ground of lesser places, such as the Babylonian village of Cunaxa. Archaeologists will no doubt in time lay bare Xenophon's " large and populous city " of Sitace and his " large town of Opis," as they have done in the case of Asshur, Nineveh, Babylon, and many other places of lesser note. Up to the present, however, we have to depend on the commentaries of such distinguished travellers and observers as Chesney, Ainsworth, Sir Henry Rawlinson, etc. The following notes are the result of an attempt to follow Xenophon in greater detail after having had the advantage of modern methods of travel and observation. Colonel Beazeley has pointed out the application of aerial photography and observation to the delineation of ancient sites, citing the Abbasid city of Samarra as an example. Though inexperienced in archaeology, the advantage of flights and motor journeys over nearly all the Mesopotamian country described by Xenophon led me to investigate, as far as I was able, the actual route of the ancient Greeks, and to suggest likely sites for the ancient towns they passed. The claim is not put forward that these sites are established in any way. This can never be the case until the archaeologist has dug up the foundation cylinders or other certain proofs of the identiflcation of the ancient cities. The views set out are the result of investigation of the topography on the ground, and may assist others with more know? ledge of the historical and literary side of the question and less perhaps