MesopoTMLA WIL This model represents an early brick dwelling from the ancient Mesopotamian settlement of Jericho around 5000 BC The walls are n of packed mud blocks made of fine clay mixed with straw SSPL via Getty Images GEOGRAPHY OF MESOPOTAMIA The flat Mesopotamian plain is very fertile The land was built up of mud and clay depos ited by two great rivers the Tigris and the Euphrates These twin rivers come down from mountains in the north cut southeastward through hilly grasslands and finally cross the plain they created to reach the Persian Gulf TGRIS RIVER The streams that join to form the Tigris River begin in high mountains that rim Lake I2
ESOPOTAMIA TuE BRTHPACE OF CIVILIZATION W Caspian Sea TURKEY SYRIA IR AN IRAQ Persian S AUDI ARABIA KUWAIT Gulf 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc This map shows the course of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers AAA 13
MesopoTMLA Van in eastern Turkey Leaving Turkey the Tigris touches the northeastern border of Syria and then flows southeastward across Iraq In Iraq it is joined by tributaries from the east principally the Great Zab Little Zab and Diyala The Euphrates west of the Tigris runs in the same general direction In ancient times the two rivers had sepa rate mouths Now they meet in a swamp in southern Iraq and form a single stream the Shatt al Arab which flows into the head of the Persian Gulf The Tigris 1 180 miles 1 900 kilometers long is shorter than the Euphrates but it is more important commer cially because its channel is deeper The Tigris was the great river of the king dom of Assyria The ancient city of Assur which gave its name to Assyria stood on its banks as did Nineveh Assyria's splendid capital Much later the Macedonian general Seleucus built his capital city Seleucia on the Tigris and across the river from Seleucia the Parthian kings built Ctesiphon The chief cities on the river today are Baghdad the capital of Iraq and Mosul farther upstream Basra on the Shatt al Arab is Iraq's major port Since ancient times the people of Mesopotamia have depended on the water of 14
ESOPOTAMIA THE BIRTHPLACE OF CIVILIZATION APM the two rivers to irrigate their hot dry la an The soil itself is largely a gift of the rivers which deposit tremendous quantities of silt on their lower course and in the northern part of the Persian Gulf As a result of these depos its ruins of cities that were once gulf ports now lie far inland EUPHRATES RIVER The longest river of western Asia is the 1 700 mile 2 700 kilometer Euphrates It begins in the high mountains of east ern Turkey crosses eastern Syria and then flows southeastward through the length of Iraq Because of Iraq's hot dry climate much of the river s water is lost through evaporation and use for irrigation The river receives most of its water from winter rains and snowfall It is navigable only by flat bottomed riverboats The Tigris runs almost parallel with the Euphrates and together they form a great agriculturally productive alluvial plain that is a plain made of silt sand clay and gravel that is deposited by rivers There are two flood periods each year The major tributaries of the Euphrates are the Balikh Al Khabur and Gharraf Channel 15
