Description: ÒBasin of the Tigris and Euphrates. — The northern part of the Tigris and Euphrates valley, the portion that comprised ancient Assyria, consists of undulating plains, broken in places by considerable mountain ridges. But all the southern portion of the basin, the part known as Chaldæa, or Babylonia, having been formed by the gradual encroachment of deposits of the Tigris and Euphrates upon the waters of the Persian Gulf, is as level as the sea. During a large part of the year, rains are infrequent; hence agriculture is dependent mainly upon artificial irrigation. The distribution of the waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates was secured, in ancient times, by a stupendous system of canals and irrigants, which, at the present day, in a sand-choked and ruined condition, spread like a perfect network over the face of the country.Ó —Myers, 1896
Source: P. V. N. Myers, A General History for Colleges and High Schools (Boston, MA: Ginn & Company, 1896) 42
Map Credit: Courtesy the private collection of Roy Winkelman. |
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