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Tigris

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Geography of Asia

                          Tigris
   Map of the Tigris-Euphrates Watershed

                    Map of the Tigris-Euphrates Watershed

   Origin          Eastern Turkey
   Mouth           Shatt al Arab
   Basin countries Turkey, Syria, Iran, Iraq

   The Tigris 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.

Etymology

   The original Sumerian name was Idigna or Idigina, which can be
   interpreted as "the swift river" or "the river that goes", contrasted
   to its neighbour, the Euphrates, whose leisurely pace caused it to
   deposit more silt and build up a higher bed than the Tigris. This form
   was borrowed and gave rise to Akkadian Idiqlat. Either through a
   Persian intermediary or borrowed directly from Akkadian, the word was
   adopted into Greek as Tigris.

   In Pahlavi, tigr means "arrow", in the same family as Old Persian
   tigra- "pointed" (compare tigra-xauda), Modern Persian têz "sharp",
   Kurdish tij "sharp" (hence the variants in Dicle). However, it does not
   appear that this was the original name of the river, but that it (like
   the Semitic forms of the name) was coined as an imitation of the
   indigenous Sumerian name. This is similar to the name Persian name of
   the Euphrates, Ufratu, which does have a meaning in Persian, but is
   still modelled after the Sumerian name Purattu.

   Another name for this watercourse, used from the time of the Persian
   Empire, is Arvand; today, the name Arvand refers to the lower part of
   the Tigris (ie. the Shatt al-Arab) in Persian.

   The name of the Tigris in different languages that have been important
   to the region:
   The Tigris outside Diyarbakır, Turkey
   Enlarge
   The Tigris outside Diyarbakır, Turkey
   Language       Name for Tigris ( transliteration)
   Akkadian       Idiqlat
   Arabic         دجلة (Diğlä)
   Greek          ἡ Τίγρης, -ητος (hē Tígrēs);

                  ἡ, ὁ Τίγρις, -ιδος (hē, ho Tígris)
   Hebrew         חידקל (Ḥîddeqel)
   Kurdish        Dîjle
   Old Persian    Tigrā; Middle Persian Tigr
   Modern Persian دجله (Dijle)
   Sumerian       Idigna/Idigina 𒈦𒄘𒃼
   Syriac         ܕܩܠܬ (Deqlaṯ)
   Turkish        Dicle

Description

   Tigris River in Mosul, Iraq
   Enlarge
   Tigris River in Mosul, Iraq

   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 both the Upper and Lower Zab
   rivers.

   Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, stands on the banks of the Tigris, while
   the port city of Basra straddles the Shatt al-Arab. 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 hometown, Tikrit, is
   also located on the river and derives its name from it.

   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.

Management and water quality

   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. Recent
   Turkish damming of the river has been the subject of some controversy,
   both for its environmental effects within Turkey and its potential to
   reduce the flow of water downstream.

   A coalition of 34 countries destroyed Iraq's water treatment plants
   during the 1990 Gulf War, affecting the water quality of the Tigris.

   Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq the Tigris has seen significant water
   quality improvement in Iraq due to efforts of the United States of
   America in rehabilitating and expanding sewage treatment plants.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigris"
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