Where the cave dwellers once lived

Cradling a baby goat in his arms, my driver, Mourad, crouched next to me on the bank of the mighty Tigris River. All around us in the shade of centuries-old trees, young girls in colourful dresses and old men with weather-beaten faces tended to their flocks of sheep and goats. Some animals strayed into the shallow waters, followed by splashing girls who made sure none of their charges, particularly the babies, came to any harm.