Everything about The Tigris totally explained
The
Tigris is the eastern member of the two great
rivers that define
Mesopotamia, along with the
Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of
Turkey through
Iraq.
Etymology
The original
Sumerian name was
Idigna or
Idigina, probably from
*id (i)gina "running water", which can be interpreted as "the swift river", contrasted to its neighbor, 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 directly from Akkadian, the word was adopted into Greek as
Tigris (which is also Greek for "
tiger"). In the
Hebrew Bible, the river was called חִדֶּ֫קֶל (Ḥiddẹqel,
KJV Hiddekel)
In
Turkish,
diş means tooth and also explains "sharpness".
Pahlavi tigr means "arrow", in the same family as
Old Persian tigra- "pointed" (compare
tigra-xauda),
Modern Persian têz "sharp". However, it doesn't 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 Persian name of the Euphrates,
Ufratu, which does have a meaning in Persian, but is still modeled after the Sumerian name
Purattu.
Another name for the Tigris, used from the time of the
Persian Empire, is Arvand Rud, literally Arvand River. Today the name Arvand Rud is the
Persian name for the confluence of the
Euphrates and Tigris rivers which in
Arabic is called
Shatt al-Arab.
The name of the Tigris in languages that have been important to the region:
Description
The Tigris is approximately 1,900 km (1,180 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 Tigris 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. 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 Tigris, 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 needed 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 Tigris is heavily dammed in Iraq and Turkey, 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.
Mosul Dam, located on the Tigris, is the largest dam in Iraq.
Coalition forces 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
United States Agency for International Development has refurbished, expanded and improved water and
sewage treatment plants and reports significant improvement in water quality.
Religion
The Tigris appears twice in the Bible. In the
Book of Genesis, the Tigris is the third of the four rivers branching off the river issuing out of the
Garden of Eden.
Daniel received one of his visions "when I was by that great river the Tigris".
Mythology
In
Sumerian mythology, the Tigris river was created by the god
Enki, who
ejaculated and filled the river with flowing water.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Tigris'.
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