Euphrates River

Attractions refers to the countries:IraqSyriaTurkey

The Euphrates River, which crosses Western Asia from the Turkish Taurus to the Persian Gulf, is the largest watercourse in this arid region. The Euphrates is associated with the development of the most ancient civilizations of the Middle East, on its banks are preserved ruins of cities of long-vanished empires of the legendary Mesopotamia. Since the first years of this century, the region has been turbulent, but travelers fascinated by the history and culture of the Ancient East still venture to visit the banks of the great river and get acquainted with many local attractions.

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Video: Euphrates River

Contents

Highlights

The Euphrates River carries its waters through the territories of three Middle Eastern countries – Turkey, Syria and Iraq. Many tourists coming to Turkish seaside resorts do not even realize what wonderful monuments of deep antiquity are located in the southeast of the country, in the historical region of Anatolia, also known as Northern Mesopotamia. Here, on the steep banks of the Euphrates River, the ruins of ancient cities have been preserved, and Neolithic structures from the Stone Age have been discovered. The flow of tourists coming to Turkey and prefer the study of antiquities to beach vacation, every year is increasing, so in the cities of Anatolia created a decent tourist infrastructure. But outside of Turkey, the situation is different.

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Unfortunately, the prolonged armed conflicts and unrest that have engulfed the region of the middle and lower reaches of the Euphrates, hinder the study of antiquities, making it difficult or impossible for travelers who want to get acquainted with the sights of the great river. The war in Syria is now in its second decade, and the fate of historical monuments on the Syrian banks of the Euphrates can only be guessed.

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Many states officially warn their citizens against traveling to Iraq. But this does not mean that the country is closed for visits. Participants of international conferences, archaeologists, scientists and, of course, inquisitive travelers come here.

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Water activities on the Euphrates are scarce. It is possible to swim with pleasure only in the Turkish part of the river. Here the cool water, flowing through mountain gorges, is clear and transparent. On the reservoirs it is pleasant to fish, go boating. In the middle and lower reaches of the Euphrates you should not swim. Local waters are polluted with fertilizers and salts washed from the soil of the fields, and in coastal towns and villages sewage is discharged directly into the river.

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History of the Euphrates

People have settled in the Euphrates Valley since prehistoric times. In the floodplain of the upper reaches of the river, on the foothills of the Zagros mountain range in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Shanidar cave was discovered in the middle of the last century. The remains of people who lived about 70,000 years ago are buried here.

Sites of even more venerable age have been found in the gorges of the Armenian Highlands, from where the main tributaries of the Euphrates flow.

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The valley bounded by the beds of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, ancient geographers called Mesopotamia, which means in Greek “Interfluves”. Among the early proto-cities that emerged in this region about 11,000 – 12,000 years ago is the impressive megalithic complex of Gebekli Tepe, excavated 12 kilometers northeast of the modern Turkish city of Şanlıurfa.

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At the turn of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age, about 8,000 years ago, the Sumerian civilization emerged in Mesopotamia. The history of state formations on the banks of the Euphrates goes back to the city of Uruk, founded in the middle of the 4th millennium B.C. It is very likely that the name of present-day Iraq is derived from this city.

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In Uruk cuneiform writing appeared, the first architectural structures were built, which later became models for buildings in other settlements of Mesopotamia. According to cuneiform chronicles, in 2900 B.C. the legendary hero Gilgamesh, the central character of the first epic known in ancient literature, reigned here. The remains of Uruk have been excavated near the modern Iraqi city of Es-Samawa.

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Already by the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, numerous city-states competed in Mesopotamia. These cities and their rulers are listed in the “List of Sumerian Kings”, written in 2112 B.C. Among them was mentioned Babylon, which in Akkadian means “Gate of the Gods”. In the 18th century BC, the great king Hammurabi conquered neighboring states and transformed Mesopotamia into the vast Babylonian Empire, irrigated by two divine rivers. According to Babylonian cosmogony, the Euphrates and the neighboring Tigris flow from the eyes of the great goddess Tiamat.

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In that era, Babylon was the largest city in the world, its walls surrounded an area of 1,054 hectares, and about 200,000 citizens lived there. In the city on the banks of the Euphrates, the first state laws, philosophical teachings, and outstanding literary works were created. Babylonian scientists laid the foundations of astronomy, mathematics, geometry and many other sciences. The world enjoys the fruits of their discoveries to this day.

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In the middle of the first millennium BC Mesopotamia belonged to the lands of the Persian Empire, and in 330 BC the Persians were defeated by the army of Alexander the Great. But the Greek armies returned home from here: the great general died suddenly in Babylon. Nevertheless, a Hellenistic culture with strong Greek and then Roman influence flourished in the Inter-Area for several centuries.

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In 636, Utba ibn Ghazwan, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad, led the troops of Caliph Umar into Mesopotamia and built a military camp on the lower Euphrates River, which grew into the crowded city of Basra. The invasion of Muslims from Arabia broke the resistance of local rulers, and soon all the inhabitants of the Middle Ages accepted the new faith – Islam. For about a thousand years the dynasty of Arab caliphs ruled here, choosing Baghdad as their capital.

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From the 16th century until World War I, Mesopotamia was part of the Ottoman Empire. After the overthrow of Sultan Mehmed VI, Iraq was ruled by Britain for several years and became an independent monarchy in 1932. In 1958, a republic was proclaimed in Iraq.

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In the 1960s, Turkey, Syria and Iraq disagreed over the right to use the water resources of the Euphrates. Sixteen hydroelectric dams have been erected in the riverbed. Most of the hydropower plants, which form vast reservoirs, are built on Turkish territory. Three more dams are under completion.

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Hydroelectric construction has led the Euphrates to serious environmental problems. In recent years, the river’s water level has fallen to dangerous levels. The flow of water in the middle and lower reaches has almost halved, and in some places the river has become a narrow ribbon of muddy water. The once fertile land and pastures are fast becoming a desert, and the water itself, saturated with salts, is unsuitable neither for watering plants nor for drinking. Thus, a few years ago it was reported that olive groves on the banks of the Euphrates in Syria had withered away. Farmers tried to grow corn there, but to no avail. Only date palms survive in such saline waters.

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Iraq, especially in its northern and western regions bordering Syria, is troubled today, but the search for ancient cities mentioned in Sumerian tablets, the Bible and the Koran continues. Their approximate location has been determined by archaeologists. For example, on the east bank of the Euphrates, somewhere in the area of the modern city of Ramadi, should be the ruins of Rapicum, often mentioned in Sumerian texts of the XXI century BC.

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The ruins of the famous Babylon were inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2019. Despite the significant destruction of the structures freed from the ground, archaeologists have hope for new discoveries, because about 85% of the territory of the ancient capital is still unexplored.

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Geography

The Euphrates has its source in the rocky mountains of the Armenian Highlands in Turkey. Actually, the main channel of the Euphrates is formed at the confluence of the Karasu (West Euphrates) and Murat (East Euphrates) rivers. From here to its mouth, the length of the Euphrates is 2,736 km, but with the Murat River beginning near Mount Ararat, its length increases to 3,380 km, which is comparable to the length of the Yenisei (3,400 km).

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In some places in the Mesopotamian lowlands, the width of the Euphrates exceeds one and a half kilometers, and the depth of the channel reaches 10 meters.

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From the Armenian Highlands, the Euphrates (Firat in Turkey) flows south through the gorges and deep canyons of the Taurus Mountains, irrigating several Turkish provinces located in Northern and Eastern Anatolia. Turkish hydroelectric dams have been built on this stretch of the riverbed, and reservoirs have been formed in the dams.

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Reaching the territory of Syria, the stream flows through the stony Syrian plateau. Here several tributaries flow into the Euphrates River. The largest of these are the Khabur (486 km), the Sajur (108 km) and the Balikh (100 km).

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Then begins the hilly Mesopotamian Lowland, spreading across Iraq. Here the Euphrates is called the “Nahr al-Furat.” To the west of the river banks stretches the sultry desert adjacent to Arabia, and to the east lies the fertile lands of Mesopotamia, the fertile interfluve between the streams of the Euphrates and the Tigris. Iraqi engineers built long dikes along the banks of the Euphrates to withstand the river’s seasonal overflows. Since 1956, flood waters have been diverted into a natural basin, where the largest reservoir in the country, Lake Buhairat al-Tartar, with an area of 2,710 km², has been formed. The Taksim Tartar Canal leads from the Euphrates to the reservoir. The lake feeds vast fields where wheat, barley and corn are grown. However, the entire territory of historical Mesopotamia is riddled with irrigation canals. Many of them were laid in ancient times.

To the north of the city of Haditha, the Euphrates riverbed is blocked by the 57-meter-high El-Qadisiyah dam, which extends 9 kilometers into the adjacent lowlands. In 1986, a hydroelectric power plant was established here, and an artificial lake called Qadisiyah spilled over behind the dam. Unfortunately, its waters buried the ruins of the city of Ha-Naat, mentioned in the ancient Babylonian cuneiform text of 1775 B.C. Before the flooding here worked archaeological expeditions, which found many valuable artifacts.

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In its lower reaches, slightly above the city of Basra, the Euphrates merges with the Tigris River to form the full-flowing Shatt al-Arab (195 km), which flows into the Persian Gulf. This body of water was formed relatively recently, less than 2500 years ago. Previously, both rivers carried their waters into the Indian Ocean Gulf along separate parallel channels. Thus, in the 5th century B.C. Herodotus wrote that the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates flowed into the sea not far from each other. Accretion of silt and sand gradually changed the beds of both rivers, connecting them into a single channel.

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Downstream of the common mouth of the Euphrates and Tigris are the marshy plains that occupy vast areas of southern Iraq and southwestern Iran. The ruins of the Sumerian cities of Ur and Uruk, as well as the ruins of Eridu, have been discovered here.

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Curiously, these areas are home to the Madan, Shrug and Ahwari tribes, also known as the Marsh Arabs, who are considered by some researchers to be descendants of the ancient Sumerians. They dwell on inaccessible islets or on log rafts where they build arched huts made of reeds.

The Swamp Arabs raise black water buffalo, cultivate rice, fish, and weave reed baskets and mats for sale. From reed stalks they make round boats in the shape of a hemisphere. This archaic design of a fishing boat was probably invented in the Neolithic period. The round boat with a shallow draft glides smoothly through shallow water covered with marsh grass. The Ahwari hunt fish with long spears, the tips of which are smeared with the poisonous juice of the flowers of the dharman, which grows abundantly here. The marsh Arabs never use nets, however, for they consider such fishing an unworthy and dishonorable business.

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Climate

Within a few hundred kilometers of its upper course in the Armenian Highlands, the Euphrates River flows in a zone of moderate mild climate with average summer temperatures of +25…+28 ° Celsius. In winter the thermometer columns fall down to +3…+5 °С, frosts occur only in the high mountainous parts of the river. In February 2023 this region was hit by a series of powerful earthquakes. Underground tremors destroyed residential buildings in cities and many historical monuments, dangerous cracks appeared in dams on the Euphrates River.

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However, most of the Euphrates floodplain is located in the subtropical belt, with the climate getting hotter as its waters approach the Persian Gulf. The average temperature in January is +12 °C, and in the summer months the air warms up to +40 °C. In the desert on the right bank of the Euphrates in summer it is often hot up to +48…+50 °С.

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Interesting places along the Euphrates

In the 1990s, construction of the Birecik hydroelectric power plant began in the Turkish part of the Euphrates riverbed. The construction of the 62-meter dam was preceded by large-scale archaeological excavations of the ancient city of Zeugma, located on the west bank of the river. The city was founded in the 3rd century BC by Seleucus Nicator, one of Alexander the Great’s generals.

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After the dam was built, most of the Hellenistic and Roman ruins were flooded, but the salvaged artifacts are on display in the purpose-built archaeological museum of Zeugma, which has become the world’s largest collection of ancient Greek and Roman mosaics. Opened in 2011, this repository of ancient treasures is worthy of a tour. Hundreds of works of mosaic art with a total area of 2,448 m² are displayed here. The narrative paintings depict recognizable scenes from myths and legends.

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The compositions “The Triumph of Dionysus”, “Eros and Psyche”, “Ocean and Tephia” have been perfectly preserved. A valuable find was a mosaic painting “Metiochus and Parthenope”, which is a colorful illustration of the eponymous ancient novel, known only from a few fragments of decayed papyrus. A separate room is provided for a genuine masterpiece by an unknown artist of the II century BC – an emotional portrait of a swarthy girl with expressive brown eyes.

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The museum’s halls also display rare frescoes, marble fountains, columns and sarcophagi with rich decorations, antique bronze statues, stone bas-reliefs. Some of the mosaics and wall paintings are placed in their original architectural context, transferred to the museum.

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The exhibition is arranged with large interactive displays showing the history of the city of Zeugma. On the game monitors, you can try to assemble a computer-generated mosaic image by looking at the original.

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Many mosaics are still painstakingly restored in workshops located in the east wing of the museum building. Visitors have the opportunity to observe the work of the restorers from a glassed-in viewing gallery. The museum has a congress hall, a café and a souvenir store. The exposition is available for viewing from 10:00 to 18:00, the ticket price is 40 Turkish Liras (about $2).

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The main goal of many travelers to Iraq is to see the ruins of ancient Babylon. The famous archaeological location is located in the province of Babil (i.e. Babylon), on the left bank of the Euphrates, 110 kilometers south of Baghdad, near the modern city of El-Hila. This district center is connected to Baghdad and Basra by rail and bus services.

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At the end of the last century, Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein, who fancied himself Nebuchadnezzar’s heir, ordered Babylon to be rebuilt in all its glory. Fortunately for archaeologists, his plan was not realized to the end, but on the excavated foundations of buildings managed to lay a few rows of bricks, marking the direction of streets. The architects completely restored the city walls, recreated a copy of the magnificent Ishtar Gate, taken to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin at the beginning of the last century. As in the original, the solemn portal dedicated to the goddess is decorated with watered tiles with images of dragons, lions and bulls. It is noteworthy that on all the bricks specially made for the new building, the name of Saddam Hussein is stamped, accompanied by a panegyric in the style of ancient Babylonian royal inscriptions. On a hill in the center of the archaeological site stands a massive palace built for Saddam as a summer residence. These days, this empty pompous building is open to visitors.

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The ruins of Babylon are located 5 km north of the center of El Hila, you can approach the ruins of the legendary capital by cab. There is a fee of 25,000 Iraqi dinars ($19.35) to enter the location.

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Taking advantage of the opportunity, it is worth going to the neighboring archaeological sites 12 km east of Babylon, near the village of Tell al-Ukhaimira, are the ruins of the city of Kish, known since 5300 BC.

The location is crossed by a hollow, this is the ancient bed of the Euphrates River. The patron of the settlement was considered the god of water Ennana, in his honor was erected a temple complex.

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The remains of the city occupy about 230 hectares. Now there are 38 hills, under which are buried fortifications, temples, palaces. Here you can see the excavated remains of stepped towers-ziggurats and other structures. In 1912, French archaeologists found here a library, where 1400 cuneiform tablets were folded. These texts are preserved in the Louvre and the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. Several hundred more clay books were found by researchers from Oxford University between 1923 and 1933. Discoveries continue to be made in modern times. In 2001, Japanese archaeologists excavated the remains of a palace and a large pogost. Among the finds are about 1,000 tablets with economic texts, household items, weapons, and ceramic vessels.

In 17 km southwest of Babylon, on the western bank of the Euphrates, are the remains of the city of Til-Barsil (Birs-Nimrud). Here rises the most fully preserved stepped ziggurat, built in the VI century BC.

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History buffs should see the remains of the once mighty Sumerian city of Ur. The ancient ruins are located 16 kilometers from the modern city of Nasiriyah. In the 1930s, a well-preserved temple of Nanna, the Sumerian and Akkadian god of the moon, was excavated there. Ancient architects built a huge structure of raw brick in the XXI century B.C. The temple once stood on a hill on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, but over the past millennia the riverbed has deviated to the west, and now the ruins of Ur lie in a waterless semi-desert.

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Dams and bridges

The most impressive engineering structures crossing the bed of the Euphrates have been built in Turkey. In 1974, the river was dammed by the colossal Keban Dam, located in the Keban district of Elazig province. The dam, 210 meters high and 1,097 meters long, was built in a narrow mountain gorge, 10 kilometers downstream from the confluence of the Karasu and Murat rivers into the Euphrates. The Keban Dam reservoir, with an area of 675 km², was formed here. Now both tributaries of the Euphrates flow into this man-made lake.

In the middle of the reservoir, 5 km from its northern shore, rises a rocky island. It is crowned by the ancient fortress of Pertek Kalesi, built by the Seljuks in the 11th century over copper mines, now flooded. Archaeologists have found that the castle was built on the ruins of even more ancient fortifications dating back to the Urartu kingdom, known since the 13th century BC

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Nearby was an ancient tract crossing the Euphrates River on a stone arch bridge built by Byzantine engineers in the 5th century. Above the bridge, there was a man-made cave in the black basalt wall of the canyon where this important crossing was guarded, so the bridge was called “Karamagara Kyopryushu” (“Black Cave Bridge”). Before the Keban Dam reservoir was filled, the bridge was dismantled and reassembled on the grounds of a museum in the neighboring town of Elazığ. The lake is now crossed by a 520-meter cable-stayed bridge that retains its historical name, “Agyin Karamagara” Kyopryushu.

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Another 610-meter-long cable-stayed bridge, Nissibi Köprüsü, crosses the Euphrates in Turkey’s Adıyaman province in the southeast of the country. In terms of length, this crossing is slightly second only to the bridges over the Bosphorus. It is laid over the waters of an artificial lake formed by one of the world’s largest dams Atatürk Barazi. The height of the dam reaches 169 meters and its length is 1,820 meters.

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Interestingly, in 2018, fishermen who approached the steep cliff near the shore of Atatürk Reservoir by boat were amazed to find rock paintings with figures of people and animals. Scientists determined that they depict deer hunting scenes drawn by Stone Age artists. Before the formation of the artificial lake, the barely visible drawings were located a few dozen meters above the Euphrates riverbed and were inaccessible to the public.

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In 2010, Turkey’s longest river bridge, the Euphrates Road Viaduct, was built over the Euphrates River. The 1,197-meter-long crossing is located in the coastal town of Birecik in Şanlıurfa province. The roadway carries a six-lane highway connecting Istanbul and Ankara to the southeastern regions of the country.

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Inside Syria, near the town of al-Sawra in the northern province of Raqqa, the Euphrates riverbed is blocked by the Ed Tabqa hydroelectric dam, also known as Sawra al-Dam. The Buheirat al-Asad reservoir was formed behind a 60-meter-long dam about 5 kilometers long. It is 80 kilometers long and the distance between the banks of the reservoir reaches 8 kilometers.

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The lake flooded about a dozen outstanding archaeological sites, ruins of ancient structures. Near the left bank, the medieval castle of Kalat Jabar, built during the Crusades, is preserved on an islet. The citadel, built on top of a hill, controlled the trade route in the Euphrates valley. Now an embankment leads to the walls of the fortress from the coast.

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In 1965-1974, the ancient castle was restored by UNESCO specialists and became popular among tourists. During the civil war that broke out in Syria in 2011, the fort was seized by ISIS militants, but in 2017, Syrian army units drove them out of there. As a result of the fighting, some of the fort’s buildings were destroyed.

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During the war, bridges over the Euphrates River in Syria were blown up. But recently the situation has been improving. For example, in April 2022, a new road bridge connected the banks of the Euphrates in the city of Dayr al-Zawr, the center of the province of the same name on the edge of the Syrian desert.

There are several bridge crossings across the Euphrates in Iraq. The longest cable-stayed bridge (1,188 meters) was opened in 2015 in Basra, a large ancient city of more than 1,300,000 inhabitants. A new seaport is being built near the city, with 100 berths for large ocean-going ships, which will be the largest in the Middle East. In 2020, the world’s largest breakwater with a length of 14,523 meters was built here. This structure became a Guinness Book record holder.

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Local cuisine

Even in ancient times, the cuisine of Mesopotamia was characterized by a great variety of dishes. This is evidenced by a stone bas-relief from Nineveh, depicting a procession of servants carrying dishes with viands to a royal feast held 3,800 years ago. The records of the court guards who recorded the products delivered to the palace have been deciphered. Among them were baskets with grain and onions, salt, carcasses of bulls, boars, deer, live chickens, vessels with hop drinks. In the diet of the inhabitants of the Middle Ages, as today, nuts and fruits were widely represented: apples, pears, grapes, pistachios, pomegranates, figs, and dates.

French Assyrologist Jean Bottereau deciphered several clay tablets found in Babylon. They turned out to be the world’s oldest recipe books, describing the preparation of lamb and vegetable stew, the baking of pies stuffed with chicken fillets, and many other delicacies. In telegraphic style, the preparation of Elamite cream cheese and Assyrian chowder, fermented sauces made from fish and shellfish are described. There is also a recipe for the sausage familiar to us, consisting of minced meat flavored with cumin or coriander, filled with intestinal casings. Bottero admitted that when he read the cuneiform signs 4,000 years later, he could almost smell the tantalizing odor of lamb brisket simmering in a thick sauce with garlic, onions, and spicy Mesopotamian herbs.

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In the upper reaches of the Euphrates, traditional Turkish cuisine is widespread, while in the middle reaches of the river, grains and legumes, meat, and fish make up a significant part of the diet. In modern Iraq, Arabic cooking with Persian overtones prevails, but not only. Middle Eastern tradition has brought here many miniature appetizers to precede the meal, and in the recipe of vegetarian dishes one can feel the influence of Indian cuisine.

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All the variety of Iraqi delicacies can be tasted, for example, in the restaurants of Basra. Among the popular establishments with pleasant interiors and good service tourists call Zarzour Restaurant, Al Tabeekh, Yassamin Al Sham and Shanasheel Basra Restaurant. The terraces overlooking the river serve a variety of desserts and excellent strong coffee.

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Street cafes offer a hearty meal for $4-$5, while a lunch for two at a decent restaurant will run you $25-$30.

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Shopping

In Basra and other cities on the banks of the Euphrates River there are large shopping centers with large souvenir departments. Attracting attention are the elegant mabharas, beautiful metal vessels for incense. They represent a sphere of fine copper or bronze, covered with chased patterns. In the vessel smolder aromatic powders (bhuvur), sets of sachets with a variety of odors are available. Traditional mabharas are filled with coals from the hearth, and there are modern models with an electric mini-fireplace inside. Such a scented lamp will serve as a stylish detail of the home interior. Popular and natural aromatic oils that give the skin the smell of jasmine or rose.

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Pay attention to Iraqi daggers. The curved blades of these knives extend like the leaf of a date palm. Weapons of this unusual shape have been made here for many thousands of years, similar daggers have been found by archaeologists in the oldest ruins of Mesopotamia. Modern Iraqi gunsmiths have preserved the traditions of Sumerian craftsmen. The handles and scabbards of daggers are covered with carvings and decorated with polished ornamental stones. The cost of such a souvenir is from $120.

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In jewelry salons, choose jewelry in the Arabian style. As a rule, everywhere there is a large selection of massive men’s rings with precious stones, lapis lazuli, jasper, carnelian. Men’s rings are only silver – in Iraq it is considered harmful for men to wear gold. But women adorn themselves with gold for two. The cost of sets of women’s jewelry ranges from $5,000 to $20,000.

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Inexpensive souvenirs include bracelets and pendants made of ancient coins depicting date palms ($45), palm-sized mirrors encased in brass foil frames (from $5), T-shirts with prints of Babylonian bulls and fantastic animals depicted on the Babylonian Gates of Ishtar.

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Where to stay

There are many hotels and guesthouses in Turkish cities along the banks of the Upper and Middle Euphrates. This region is focused on domestic tourism, there are few foreigners here. Here you can stay, for example, in the ancient city of Gaziantep, where there are interesting museums. Local travel agencies offer excursions to nearby historical monuments and natural reserves of Anatolia.

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There are more than 40 hotels in Gaziantep. To the best of them belongs the chain hotel Double Tree by Hilton Gaziantep 4*. The range of room rates is $99-128 per day. Dedeman Park Gaziantep 4* (94-119 $), Novotel Gaziantep 4* (77-102 $), Holiday Inn Gaziantep4* (98-122 $) are also popular. Cheaper rooms are offered by the Arif Bey Konagi Hotel, which asks $47-69 per room.

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In Iraq, devastated by the recent war, the hospitality industry is still recovering, with few operating tourist hotels in the country. The lower Euphrates River is home to the bustling port city of Basra, from where journeys upriver usually begin. The rating of the best hotels in the city in 2023 was headed by the hotel complex Grand Millennium Al Seef Basra 5 *. In the courtyard there is a swimming pool surrounded by palm trees and fruit trees. Restaurant and bars, Arabian bath, fitness center, souvenir stores are at guests’ disposal. The hotel offers a wide range of rooms, from standard rooms to deluxe suites. The price range for accommodation is $170-$820.

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A little cheaper you can stay at Shams Al-Basra Hotel 4*, located in the city center, near the waterfront. All rooms have air conditioners, mini-bars and TVs, in the bathrooms of suites there are hydromassage baths. The cost of a daily stay is $120-250, breakfast included.

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Basrah International Airport Hotel, recently built in the style of an Arabian palace, awaits guests at Basrah Airport. You can stay here for $175-$500.

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How to get there

The banks of Iraq’s lower Euphrates River are conveniently accessible via Basra International Airport. There are no direct flights from Europe, tourists must first fly to Istanbul, from where airliners of Turkish Airlines regularly depart to Basra. The flight will last 3 hours and 25 minutes, the cost of the ticket – from $138. Basra airport is connected with Cairo, Beirut, Amman, Damascus and other cities in the Middle East.

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Baghdad airport receives much more international flights, but from there to Basra is 545 km. Travelers have to get there by rail or by plane on Iraq’s domestic airlines. A plane ticket for the Baghdad-Basra flight costs from $390 and the travel time is 1 hour 55 minutes. The train from Baghdad goes to Basra about 10 hours, the cost of the ticket – 23-55 $.

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If you decide to explore the sights of the Turkish part of the Euphrates, head to Istanbul. From there you should fly to the airport of Gaziantep, the capital of the province of the same name in Northern Anatolia. From the local airport, the banks of the Euphrates are only 40 kilometers to the west.

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