Euphrates Riverriver, Middle East

Assorted References

• major reference ( in Tigris-Euphrates river system )

  ...Persian Gulf. The lower portion of the region that they define, known as Mesopotamia (Greek: “Land Between the Rivers”), was one of the cradles of civilization. The total length of the Euphrates (Sumerian: Buranun; Akkadian: Purattu; biblical: Perath; Arabic: Al-Furāt; Turkish: Fırat) is about 1,740 miles (2,800 km). The Tigris (Sumerian: Idigna; Akkadian: Idiklat;...

• ancient agriculture ( in Middle East, ancient: Evolution of Middle Eastern civilizations )

  ...in Mesopotamia is somewhat doubtful because most of the early sites of irrigation culture were covered long ago by accumulation of alluvial soil brought down by the spring floods of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Archaeologists once thought that all irrigation originated in the foothills of the Zagros and that the earliest true farmers lived in the plains of Iran. But recent excavations and...

• control project of Hammurabi ( in Hammurabi )

  Hammurabi inherited one major direction for his political activity: to succeed in controlling the Euphrates waters—important in an area that depended exclusively on irrigation agriculture. Such a policy naturally led to conflicts with the kingdom of Larsa, which was situated in a disadvantageous downstream position. This policy, begun by Hammurabi’s great-grandfather but most forcefully...

• development of Ur ( in Ur )

  important city of ancient southern Mesopotamia (Sumer), situated about 140 miles (225 km) southeast of the site of Babylon and about 10 miles (16 km) west of the present bed of the Euphrates River. In antiquity the river ran much closer to the city; the change in its course has left the ruins in a desert that once was irrigated and fertile land. The first serious excavations at Ur were made...

• hydrology of Khābūr River ( in Khābūr River )

  river, an important tributary of the Euphrates River. It rises in the mountains of southeastern Turkey near Diyarbakır and flows southeastward to Al-Ḥasakah, Syria, where it receives its main tributary, the Jaghjagh; it then meanders south to join the Euphrates downstream from Dayr az-Zawr. The Khābūr (“Source of Fertility”) has a total length of about 200...

• importance in Syria ( in Syria: Drainage )

  The Euphrates River is the most important water source and the only navigable river in Syria. It originates in Turkey and flows southeastward across the eastern part of Syria (see Tigris-Euphrates river system). The Euphrates Dam, constructed on the river at Ṭabaqah, was completed in the 1970s. The reservoir behind the dam, Lake Al-Asad, began to fill in 1973.

  in Syria: Resources and power )

  ...and domestic natural gas reserves are becoming an increasingly important resource as well. Electricity is largely generated by thermal stations fired by natural gas or oil. With the exception of the Euphrates River, rivers flowing through Syria produce only small amounts of hydroelectric power. There are small hydroelectric stations, such as those on the Orontes and Baradā rivers, and a...

dams

...by the tensions among Syria, Israel, and Jordan over the use of the Jordan River. Another dispute, between Iraq and Syria on the one hand and upstream Turkey on the other, concerns the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, whose headwaters lie in Turkey. Turkey had already built several dams, including the Atatürk Dam, on the two rivers, and construction has been underway on two more dams on the...

• Ataturk Dam ( in Ataturk Dam )

  dam on the Euphrates River in southeastern Turkey, the centrepiece of the Southeastern Anatolia Project. The Ataturk Dam is the largest in a series of 22 dams and 19 hydroelectric stations built on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the 1980s and ’90s in order to provide irrigation water and hydroelectricity to arid southeastern Turkey. Completed in 1990, the Ataturk Dam is one of the world’s...

• Euphrates Dam ( in Euphrates Dam )

  dam on the Euphrates River in north-central Syria. The dam, which is located 30 miles (50 km) upriver from the town of Ar-Raqqah, was begun in 1968. Its construction prompted an intense archaeological excavation of the area around the town of Ṭabaqah. The dam is of earth-fill construction, some 197 feet (60 m) high and 2.8 miles (4.5 km) long. It was completed in 1973, and the...

history of

• ʿĀnah ( in ʿĀnah )

  town, western Iraq. Located on the Euphrates River and on a main road connecting Iraq and Syria, it is a local trade centre for crops grown in the fertile strip along the river below the cliffs of the desert. A town with a similar name has existed on or near the present site at least since the beginning of the 2nd millennium bc. By the 14th century ad the town was on an island in the river;...

• Babylon ( in Babylon )

  ...to the early 1st millennium bc and capital of the Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) empire in the 7th and 6th centuries bc, when it was at the height of its splendour. Its extensive ruins, on the Euphrates River about 55 miles (88 km) south of Baghdad, lie near the modern town of Al-Ḥillah, Iraq.

• Mesopotamia ( in Mesopotamia, history of: The background )

  In the narrow sense, Mesopotamia is the area between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, north or northwest of the bottleneck at Baghdad, in modern Iraq; it is Al-Jazīrah (“The Island”) of the Arabs. South of this lies Babylonia, named after the city of Babylon. However, in the broader sense, the name Mesopotamia has come to be used for the area bounded on the northeast by the...

relief and drainage

• Iraq ( in Iraq: Relief )

  ...regions: the alluvial plains of the central and southeastern parts of the country; Al-Jazīrah (Arabic: “the Island”), an upland region in the north between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; deserts in the west and south; and the highlands in the northeast. Each of these regions extends into neighbouring countries, although the alluvial plains lie largely within Iraq.

• Turkey ( in Turkey: Rivers )

  ...south of Erzurum and flows east for some 250 miles (400 km) to the frontier with Azerbaijan, eventually reaching the Caspian Sea. The bulk of eastern Turkey, however, is drained by the Euphrates (Fırat) and Tigris rivers, which flow south for some 780 miles (1,250 km) and 330 (530 km) miles, respectively, before entering Syria and then Iraq, where they converge to enter the Persian...