Livius Picture Archive: Euphrates

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	Euphrates
	Unless otherwise indicated, pictures on this page © Marco Prins and Jona Lendering. Photos can be downloaded and used for non-commercial purposes, but you have to acknowledge Livius.
	The Euphrates -or Purattu, as the Babylonians and Assyrians called it- is the longest river of the Near East: it is about 2,760 kilometers long. Its two sources and upper streams are in what was once called Armenia; these rivers, now called Kara Su and Murat Su, unite near the city once known as Melitene. Here, the Euphrates passed through a range of high mountains, the western part of which was called Taurus (or Antitaurus) and is famous for Nemrud dagi (pictures), which oversees the Euphrates, as one can see on the photo. This was the natural frontier between Armenia and Cappadocia.
	More to the south, the country opens itself. This picture shows the plain of the Euphrates near the modern Atatürk Dam. The river enters the region that used to be known as Mesopotamia. The northern part is fertile and was dominated by very ancient cities like Samosata, Edessa, and Harran - the latter two situated on the banks of the Khabur, a tributary of the Euphrates.
	This picture shows the Euphrates at Zeugma, "bridge". Here, the river was crossed by the main road from Assyria through Mesopotamia to Cilicia and Syria. The river is now becoming navigable, although ships can be in danger during a storm. Following the meanders, merchants could reach Babylon. During the Achaemenid age, the east bank was called, in Aramaic, beyhn nahrîn, which is translated as Mesopotamia, "between the rivers" (the other one being the Tigris). The west bank was called eber nâri, "across the river", or Syria.
	The Euphrates at Birecik. The country between this city, which is just north of ancient Carchemish, and Sippar, the northernmost city of Babylonia, is essentially a narrow green corridor through a desert. Throughout history, the towns were heavily fortified. After Sippar, which produced bitumen, the Euphrates reached Babylon. More to the west, there was a canal called Pallakattu, which was opened during the river flood. (As the Euphrates receives its water from the Armenian mountains, it is subject to flooding in May-June, during the harvest.) A second canal, known as the 'royal river', carried water to the Tigris and joined this river near Opis.
	Because the water of the Euphrates is comparatively salty, there is always the risk of salination in Babylonia. Yet, with the necessary care, the alluvial plain can be extremely fertile, and it is often said that this is behind the Biblical story of the earthly paradise, the "garden of Eden", in which the Euphrates is mentioned. Many cities were built on the banks of the Euphrates.
	This transport of a ship carrying wood can be seen on an Assyrian relief in the Louvre museum. Today, the rivers Tigris and Euphrates unite some 165 km northwest of the shore of the Persian Gulf; their united course is the well-known Shatt al-Arab. The reconstruction of the ancient landscape is something of a puzzle.
	Several scholars have claimed that the shore of the Gulf was much more to the northwest, because Sumerian texts say that Eridu was close to the sea; on the other hand, geologists have shown that the shoreline has not really advanced or receded. Probably, the area was very marshy, and there were large, brackish lakes. This is confirmed by the fact that in Eridu, fish bones have been found of a species of bass that does not live in a salty climate. The Euphrates became a favorite mosaic in Christian art, as one of the four rivers in Paradise; this mosaic is from Theodorias in the Cyrenaica.

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