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Eu·phra·tes (yū-frā'tēz)  |
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One of the largest rivers of western Asia, about 1,700 miles (2,700 km) long. In the Bible it is referred to by several names, among them the "great river" or just "the river".
The Euphrates is formed by the confluence of two rivers, the Muradsu, which comes down from Armenia, and the Karasu, flowing from the Anti-Taurus. At first the river runs through a deep narrow gorge, but as they descend towards Babylon, the Euphrates and the Tigris (Hiddekel) form the broad plain of Mesopotamia. The rivers join at the head of the Persian Gulf to form the Shat al-Arab, though this union is quite recent. The Euphrates has a very strong current and for this reason was navigable only in its lower reaches. Along it flourished some of the important cities of Mesopotamia, the greatest of which was Babylon. Another, Carchemish, was an important road junction and a river-crossing for the caravans coming from the Far East. Some of the great battles of history took place on the Euphrates, notably the battle between Nebuchadnezzar II and Pharaoh Necho II of Egypt, in 605 B.C. (Jer 46:2).
In the Bible the Euphrates is named among the four rivers which flowed from the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:14), and it formed the northeastern limit of the promised land (Gen 15:18). Throughout all periods it was the boundary between east and west, between the spheres of influence of Assyria and Egypt, and each of the great empires attempted the conquest of the borderland of Syria and Palestine. This is also true of the Persian period (Ezra 4:10, etc.). In the Hellenistic and Roman periods the Euphrates served as the boundary between the kingdoms of Armenia and Cappadocia, Sophene and Commagene. In the early Roman period it separated Rome from Parthia.
Concordance
Gen 2:14; 15:18. Deut 1:7; 11:24. Josh 1:4. II Sam 8:3. II Kgs 23:29; 24:7. I Chr 5:9; 18:3. II Chr 35:20. Jer 13:4-7; 46:2, 6, 10; 51:63. Rev 9:14; 16:12
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Euphrates |
In its upper course, the Euphrates flows rapidly through deep canyons and narrow gorges. In 1990, the Atatürk Dam, the first in the Southeastern Anatolia project in Turkey, was completed. Plans ultimately call for 22 dams on the Tigris and Euphrates that altogether will provide enough water to irrigate over 3,700,000 acres (1.5 million hectares) of land. A series of hydroelectric power stations will also be built. This huge diversion of water in Turkey may have serious implications for other countries, such as Syria and Iraq, that rely on the river.
The middle Euphrates traverses a wide floodplain in Syria, where it is used extensively for irrigation. Euphrates Dam, 230 ft (70 m) high, constructed with Soviet aid at Tabqa, N Syria, is the main unit of the Tabqa Barrage Scheme. The huge reservoir impounded by the dam provides electrical power but has failed to transform the region into a productive agricultural area. Below the dam the Euphrates receives the Belikh and Khabur rivers, its only major tributaries.
Entering the Syrian Desert and the plains of Iraq, the river loses velocity and becomes a sluggish stream with shifting channels. In N Iraq it is studded with islands, some with remains of old castles. The river's lower course supplies water through a system of dams and canals to allow wheat and barley cultivation. Flooding and overirrigation have resulted in serious problems of soil salinization. Before merging with the Tigris at Basra, Iraq, the Euphrates divided into many channels, forming a marshland and Lake Hammar. The marshes were drained in the early 1990s to increase Iraqi government control over the Shitte Marsh Arabs living there; restoration of the marshes began in 2003, and roughly half the marshes had been restored by 2006.
The modern waterworks along the Euphrates do not equal in scope those of ancient times when Sippar, Uruk, Ur, and Babylon flourished on the banks of the lower Euphrates. Mesopotamia, birthplace of many great civilizations, depended on the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris for survival. However, as the maintenance of irrigation and drainage networks was neglected, the siltation of canals and the salinization of fields eventually made the land unsuitable for agriculture.
| Geography: Euphrates River |
River in southwestern Asia that flows through eastern Turkey, Syria, and Iraq before uniting with the Tigres River and emptying into the Persian Gulf.
| Wikipedia: Euphrates |
| Euphrates | |
| Arabic: الفرات, al-Furāt, Turkish: Fırat, Syriac: ܦܪܬ, Prāṯ | |
| River | |
 The Euphrates in Iraq
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| Countries |  Turkey,  Syria,  Iraq |
|---|---|
| Basin area | Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait |
| Tributaries | |
| - left | Balikh, Khabur |
| - right | Sajur |
| Cities | Birecik, Ar-Raqqah, Deir ez-Zor, Ramadi, Fallujah, Kufa, Samawah, Nasiriyah |
| Primary source | Murat Su |
| Secondary source | Kara Su |
| Source confluence | Keban |
| - elevation | 610 m (2,001 ft) |
| Mouth | Shatt al-Arab |
| - location | Al-Qurnah, Basra Governorate, Iraq |
| Length | 2,289 km (1,422 mi) |
| Basin | 378,000 km2 (145,947 sq mi) |
| Discharge | for Hīt |
| - average | 356 m3/s (12,572 cu ft/s) |
| - max | 2,514 m3/s (88,781 cu ft/s) |
| - min | 58 m3/s (2,048 cu ft/s) |
 Map of the Tigris - Euphrates watershed
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The Euphrates (
juːˈfreɪtiːz (help·info)) is the longest and historically one of the most important rivers of Southwest Asia. Together with the Tigris, the Euphrates is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia. The river originates in the Taurus Mountains and then flows through Syria and Iraq to join the Tigris in the Shatt al-Arab, which flows into the Persian Gulf.
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Modern names for the Euphrates may have been derived by popular etymology from the Sumerian and Akkadian names, respectively Buranun and Pu-rat-tu. The former appears in an inscription from the 22nd century BC[citation needed] associated with King Gudea.
Etymologically, the name "Euphrates" is the Greek form of the original name, Phrat, which means "fertilizing" or "fruitful".[3]
Alternatively, the second half of the word Euphrates may also derive from either the Persian Ferat or the Greek φέρω (pronounced [fero]), both of which mean "to carry" or "to bring forward".
Avestan hu-pərəθwa 'good to cross over' has been proposed as the etymology of Euphrates. It derives from PIE *su- 'good' (a cognate of Sanskrit su-, Greek eu-) + *per- 'to pass over' (a cognate of English ferry and ford).[4]
| Language | Name for Euphrates |
| Akkadian | Pu-rat-tu |
| Arabic | الفرات Al-Furāt |
| Aramaic | ܦܪܬ Prāṯ, Froṯ |
| Armenian | Եփրատ Yeṗrat |
| Greek | Ευφράτης Euphrátēs |
| Hebrew | פְּרָת Pĕrāṯ |
| Kurdish | فره ات Firat, Ferat |
| Persian | فرات Forat |
| Sumerian | Buranun |
| Turkish | Fırat |
The Euphrates emerges from the confluence of the Murat Su and the Kara Su. The Murat Su rises 70 km northeast of Lake Van, about midway between Lake Van and Mount Ararat, whereas the Kara Su rises about 30 km northeast of Erzurum, in the Kargapazari Mountains. The courses of the Kara Su and the Murat Nehri run fairly parallel in a westerly direction until they unite near the city of Keban. From this point on, the combined streams form the Euphrates proper.
The length of the Euphrates from the confluence of the Marat Su and the Kara Su to its mouth in the Shatt al-Arab is estimated at 2289 km. The river flows through three countries; Turkey, Syria and Iraq. The length of the Turkish Euphrates is approximately 526 km, whereas the Syrian and Iraqi parts of the river are estimated at 604 and 1159 km, respectively.[2]
The upper reaches of the Euphrates flow through steep canyons and gorges, southeast across Syria, and through Iraq.
The Euphrates enters Syria near ancient Carchemish on the Syro-Turkish border and leaves Syrian territory near the modern town of Abu Kemal. The river generally flows in a southeasterly direction. The Syrian Euphrates is joined by three tributaries; the Sajur northeast of modern Manbij, the Balikh near Ar-Raqqah, and the Khabur upstream of Deir ez-Zor. The Euphrates has created a wide and deep valley, except for the narrow gap near Halabiyeh.
North of Basra, in southern Iraq, the river merges with the Tigris to form the Shatt al-Arab, which in turn empties into the Persian Gulf. According to Pliny and other ancient historians, the Euphrates originally had its outlet into the sea separate from that of the Tigris[5]. It is thought by some that the silt deposited by the two rivers has built up the delta region at the head of the Persian Gulf and that the original coastline extended much farther north, perhaps reaching as far as the ancient city of Ur of the Chaldeans.
The river used to divide into many channels at Basra, forming an extensive marshland, but the marshes were largely drained by the Saddam Hussein government in the 1990s as a means of driving out the rebellious Marsh Arabs. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the drainage policy has been reversed, but it remains to be seen whether the marshes will recover.
The Euphrates is only navigable by very shallow-draft boats, which can reach as far as the Iraqi city of Hīt, located 1,930 kilometres (1,200 mi) upstream and only 60 meters (200 ft) above sea level. Above Hīt, however, shoals and rapids make the river commercially unnavigable. Its annual inundation, caused by snow melt in the mountains of northeastern Turkey, has been partly checked by new dams and reservoirs in the upper reaches. An 885-kilometer (550 mi) canal links the Euphrates to the Tigris to serve as a route for river barges.[citation needed]
The Euphrates provided the water that led to the first flowering of civilization in Sumer, dating from about the 4th millennium BCE. Many important ancient cities were located on or near the riverside, including Mari, Sippar, Nippur, Shuruppak, Uruk, Ur and Eridu. The river valley formed the heartlands of the later empires of Babylonia and Assyria. For several centuries, the river formed the eastern limit of effective Egyptian and Roman control and western regions of the Persian Empire. Also, the Battle of Karbala occurred at the banks of Euphrates river, where Imam Hussain, along with his family and friends, were killed.
A river named Perath (Hebrew for Euphrates) is one of the four rivers that flow from the Garden of Eden according to Genesis 2:14. This Hebrew word, derived from either the word "stream" or "to break forth", has been translated as Euphrates.[6] It is the fourth river, after the Pishon, the Gihon, and the Tigris (Hebrew name is Hiddekel), to form from the river flowing out of the garden. The river of the same name marked one of the boundaries of the land promised by God to Abraham and his descendants (Isaac, Jacob, etc). In the Hebrew Bible, it is often referred to simply as "The River" (ha-nahar). (Genesis 15:18).
In Islam, some of the hadiths of Muhammad suggest that the Euphrates will dry up (drop off), revealing unknown treasures that will be the cause of strife and war.
As with the Tigris there is much controversy over rights and use of the river. The Southeastern Anatolia Project in Turkey involves the construction of 22 dams and 19 power plants by 2005, the biggest development project ever undertaken by Turkey. The first of the dams was completed in 1990, but attacks of the PKK terrorist organization has slowed down the project and caused significant delays. Southeast Turkey is still struggling economically, adding fuel to the discontent expressed by Turkey's Kurdish minority centered there. The Turkish authorities hope that the project will provide a boost to the region's economy, but domestic and foreign critics have disputed its benefits as well as attacking the social and environmental costs of the scheme.
In Syria the Tabaqah Dam (completed in 1973 and sometimes known simply as the Euphrates Dam) forms a reservoir, Lake Assad that is used for irrigating cotton. Syria has dammed its two tributaries and is in the process of constructing another dam. Iraq has seven dams in operation, but water control lost priority during Saddam Hussein's regime. Since the collapse of Ba'ath Iraq in 2003, water use has come once again to the fore. The scarcity of water in the Middle East leaves Iraq in constant fear that Syria and Turkey will use up most of the water before it reaches Iraq. As it is, irrigation in southern Iraq leaves little water to join the Tigris at the Shatt-al-Arab. The potential for war over these waters is the subject of much diplomacy.[8]
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| Translations: Euphrates |
 | Nippur (ancient city of Babylonia on the Euphrates River) |
| Elazig |
| Dura-Europos |
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| What is the latitude and longitude of the Euphrates river? |
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Bible Guide. Illustrated Dictionary & Concordance of the Bible. Copyright © 1986 by G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House, Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
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| Geography. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Euphrates". Read more |
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