THE TIGRIS RIVER
The streams that join to form the Tigris River begin in the high mountains rimming
Lake 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, the Little Zab, and the Diyala. The Euphrates, west
of the Tigris, runs in the same general direction. In ancient times, the two rivers had
separate mouths. Now they meet in a swamp in southern Iraq and form a single stream,
the Shaft al-'Arab, which flows into the head of the Persian Gulf. At 1,900 kilometres,
the Tigris is shorter than the Euphrates, but it is more important commercially because
its channel is deeper. The fertile region between the Tigris and the Euphrates was called
Mesopotamia by the ancient Greeks, and it was here that the earliest known civilization
flourished. The Tigris was the great river 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. River
steamers make regular trips between Basra, a modern port on the Shatt al-Arab, and
Baghdad.
Since ancient times the people of Mesopotamia have depended on the water of the
two rivers to irrigate their hot, dry land. The soil itself is largely a gift of the rivers, which
deposit tremendous quantities of silt on their lower course. The shallow Persian Gulf is
being filled at the rate of about 20 metres a year, and ruins of cities that were once gulf
ports now lie far inland.
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