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Fifty years ago, wooden rafts called keleks regularly plied the Tigris River, carrying people, livestock, and cargo - with loads up to 35 tons - from southern Turkey to northern Iraq. Built from logs lashed together and made buoyant by inflated goat skins, a fully loaded kelek could travel the 250-mile distance from Diyarbak?r, Turkey, to Mosul, Iraq, in just six days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]