EUPHRATES RIVER

Sumerian Buranunu, Akkadian Purattu, Old Persian Ufrat, Greek and Latin Euphrates, biblical Perath, Arabic Furat, Turkish Firat the largest river of western Asia, rising on the Armenian plateau in Turkey and flowing generally southeastward across Syria and southern Iraq, where it joins the Tigris River to form the Shatt al-'Arab, which empties into the Persian Gulf. The total length of the Euphrates is about 1,700 miles (2,700 km). The Euphrates may be divided topographically into three sections: (1) The upper Euphrates begins with two principal tributaries, the Kara (Muddy), the more northerly branch, and the Murat (Clear), the easterly branch. These two streams flow off the high Armenian plateau in a series of relatively wide valleys linked by narrow, deep gorges. They unite about 30 miles (50 km) northwest of the town of Elazig. From this highland confluence the Euphrates itself continues in a great reverse curve between major ranges of the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey and drops nearly 1,000 feet (300 m) by the time that it emerges onto the Syrian plateau at the village of Samsat, Tur. (2) The middle Euphrates, from its emergence onto the Syrian plateau at Samsat to the Iraqi lowlands at Hit, is approximately 900 miles (1,500 km) long. The river occupies a typically steep-sided valley cut several hundred feet into the plateau surface, and the floodplain ranges from 2 to 4 miles (3 to 6 km) wide. The chief tributaries of the Euphrates, including the Al-Khabur, join the river during this middle course. (3) The lower Euphrates emerges at Hit from the entrenched valley in the Syrian plateau and spreads out onto the plains of Iraq, where it decreases in both volume and velocity. In the dry climate of this region much water is lost by evaporation from the surfaces of the river and overflow marshes and by irrigation. There is widespread deposition of sediment on the delta plain, and the difficult drainage is accompanied by the extensive development of braided channels, marshes, and shallow permanent lakes; these absorb much of the flow of the Euphrates and fluctuate greatly according to the season. From Hit to Al-Musayyib there is a single channel. Between these points, at Al-Fallujah, the Euphrates approaches most closely to the Tigris, giving support from ancient times to a city of some sort, today Baghdad. Just below Al-Musayyid the river divides into two branches, the more easterly, the Shatt al-Hillah, being a former main channel and the more westerly, the Shatt al-Hindiyah, carrying the present main stream. The two branches reunite near As-Samawah, 110 miles (175 km) from their beginning, and continue as a single stream to An-Nasiriyah. There the Euphrates divides into numerous channels and spreads out into marshy land and Lake al-Hammar, at the eastern end of which it merges with the Tigris. From this point onward the combined rivers, as the Shatt al-'Arab, flow 120 miles (193 km) to the Persian Gulf. The irregularity in the seasonal and annual flow of the Euphrates has made the problem of controlling floods and providing adequate irrigation facilities especially difficult in Iraq. Over the centuries and especially in modern times, there has been developed a great array of embankments, dikes, reservoirs, dams, weirs, canals, and other drainage facilities. The Euphrates made possible the great civilizations of southern Mesopotamia from Sumerian to 'Abbasid times. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, the valley was divided between the Babylonians in the south, the Aramaeans on the middle Euphrates, and the Hittites in the north. The Aramaean territory formed part of the late Assyrian empire. Later the Syrian Euphrates became the frontier between Rome and Parthia.