|
|
|
|
|
Tigris....
|
|
The Tigris (Old Persian: Tigr, Syriac Aramaic: Deqlath,
Arabic: دجلة,
Dijla, Turkish: Dicle; biblical Hiddekel) is the eastern member of the
pair of great rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the
Euphrates,
which flows from the mountains of Anatolia through Iraq. (Indeed, the name
"Mesopotamia" is a Greek translation from the Old Persian Miyanrudan,
which means "the Land between the Rivers". Bethnahrin is the
Aramaic word
for the area.). The name Tigris comes from Old Persian and means "the fast
one". Another name for this watercourse, used from the time of the
Persian
Empire, is Arvand, which has the same meaning. Today, the name Arvand
refers to the lower part of the Tigris.
|
 |
|
The Tigris is approximately 1,800 km (1,150 miles) long,
rising in the Taurus Mountains of eastern Turkey and flowing in a generally
southeasterly direction until it joins the Euphrates near Al Qurna in
southern Iraq. The two rivers together form the Shatt al-Arab waterway,
which empties into the Persian Gulf. The river is joined by many
tributaries, including the Diyala and Zab. |
|
|
|
Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, stands on the western bank
of the Tigris, while the port city of Basra straddles both the Tigris and
the Euphrates. In ancient times, many of the great cities of
Mesopotamia
stood on or near the river, drawing water from it to irrigate the
civilization of the Sumerians. Notable Tigris-side cities included Nineveh, Ctesiphon and Seleucia, while the city of Lagash was irrigated by
Tigris
water delivered to it via a canal dug around 2400 BC. Saddam Hussein's home
town of Tikrit is also located on the river and derives its name from it. |
|
|
|
Tigris River in Mosul,
Iraq
|
|
|
|
|
The Tigris has long been an important transport route
in a largely desert country. It is navigable as far as Baghdad by
shallow-draft vessels, but rafts are required for transport upstream to
Mosul. River trade declined in importance during the 20th century as the
Basra-Baghdad-Mosul railway and roads took over much of the freight
traffic. The river is heavily dammed in both Iraq and
Turkey, in order to
provide water for irrigating the arid and semi-desert regions bordering
the river valley. Damming has also been important for averting floods in
Iraq, to which the Tigris has historically been
notoriously prone following snowmelt in the Turkish mountains around
April. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
