The principal town is Al-Hindiya, which lies on the road from Karbala to the west and Hillah to the east.[1] The district is at an altitude of about 30 metres (98 ft) above sea level.[2] Observations of rainfall at Hindiya in the 1920s and 1930s gave a mean annual precipitation of 160 millimetres (6.3 in), but there were wide variances from a maximum of 568 millimetres (22.4 in) to a minimum of 37 millimetres (1.5 in).[3]