The famous Portuguese traveler "Pedro Teixeira" visited the holy city of Karbala after coming from the holy city of Najaf in 1013 Hijri – 1604 AD. He stayed in one of the city's visitors' centers and described it as "A town with 4,000 houses, most of their residents are Arabs, Iranians and few Ottomans. Its markets were firmly built with bricks, and were full of goods, commercial items and meat shops, as well as grocery stores and grain yards, in addition to the water boys who were providing free water for pilgrims and visitors, carrying leather bags, with beautiful copper cups".
Teixeira was amazed by the view of the city's orchards, saying that "The whole city is surrounded by large numbers of palm trees and other types of trees that were watered from the streams coming from the Euphrates river, which is eight acres away from the town".
Source:
The City of Hussein – Summary of the history of Karbala: by Mohammed Hassan Al-Kelidar Vol. 3.
