Channel Structure at

Mesopotamia

Canal Structure at Mesopotamia

Collected by

Ing. Jaafar Mohammed

Mesopotamia. The word 'Mesopotamia' is in origin a

Greek name (mesos 'middle' and potamos 'river', so 'land
between the rivers').in this case, the rivers are the Tigris
(Tie-grus) River and the Euphrates (You-fray-teez)
River. It was about 300 miles long and about 150 miles
wide. The current name for this area is Iraq.
The Tigris River is the blue line in the east and the
Euphrates River is the blue line in the west. The
Mesopotamia region was the area in between those two
rivers, where you see Assyria and Babylonia.
The early settlers of Mesopotamia decided that this land
was a good place to live because they were close to two
pretty big rivers.

The name is used for the area watered by the

Euphrates and Tigris and its tributaries, roughly
comprising modern Iraq and part of Syria. South of
modern Bagdad, the alluvial plains of the rivers were
called the land of Sumer and Akkad in the third
millennium. Sumer is the most southern part, while
the land of Akkad is the area around modern Bagdad,
where the Euphrates and Tigris are close to each other.
In the second millennium both regions together are
called Babylonia, a mostly flat country. The territory
in the north (between the rivers Tigris and the Great
Zab) is called Assyria, with the city A ur as center. It
borders to the mountains.
http://www.sron.nl/~jheise/akkadian/mesopotamia.html

All of the worlds earliest civilizations had something in

common. They all arose in areas bordering great
rivers. These included: the Huang He (Yellow River) in
China, the Indus in Central Asia, and the Nile in Africa. The
earliest civilization of all evolved in the land between the
Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This area was called
Mesopotamia by the Greeks.
We think that early civilizations developed along the banks
of rivers because they were perfect for farming. Towns are
created by settled people. To settle down, people need a
local food source. Farming provides that. Hunter-gather
groups first came to Mesopotamia more than 12,000 years
ago. Every year, floods on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
brought silt, a mixture of rich soil and water, to the land
along them. The silt deposits made the river banks very
fertile. Many plants grew there.

The first farm settlements formed along the Tigris and

Euphrates rivers as early as 7000 BC. But farming
wasnt easy there. The region itself received little rain.
Water levels in the rivers depended on how much rain
fell in the mountains out of which they flowed. When
little rain fell, water levels were low and crops dried
up. When a great deal of rain fell, floods destroyed
crops and washed away settlements.
To solve their water problems, the early Mesopotamians
invented irrigation. They dug large storage basins to
hold water and connected these by canals to their
fields. The canals brought water to the fields in dry
times, and diverted water away from settlements in wet
ones. The settlers also built up the banks of the rivers
to hold back flood waters when the river levels were too
high.
http://www.rcet.org/twd/students/socialstudies/ss_extensions_1intro.html

http://www.rcet.org/twd/students/socialstudies/ss_extensions_1intro.html

Locations of the six areas where the Urban Revolution

happened independently [Michael E. Smith]

city of Babylon, along with a good deal of the southern

alluvium of Iraq, was under water at the time that the
descendants of Noah were building the Tower of
Babel. In the period immediately after the worldwide
Flood, when the waters had settled, the world ocean
level was higher than it is today. But then a great Ice
Age settled in, considered by creationists to be most
likely caused by post-Flood conditions, and moisture
from the warm oceans started to freeze on the
continents. During this ice-building time, so much
water froze in very thick sheets that the ocean levels
lowered drastically. When the Ice Age ended, a great
deal of the ice melted, and the world ocean level rose
back up to approximately its current level. [Anne
Habermehl]

The total time estimated for the overall Ice Age,

including ice buildup and meltdown, is about 700
years, according to the current creationist model
proposed by Oard (2006). Advances and retreats of
the ice at its edges is considered to account for the
geological formations that make evolutionists
believe that there were multiple separate ice ages.
Secular geologists, who claim over two billion
years for their entire series of ice ages and
interglacials, obviously describe the Ice Age quite
differently from creationists.[Anne Habermehl]

There is an important geological feature in Iraq that

runs roughly eastwest from the Euphrates to the
Tigris, north of Baghdad, from Ramadi (near Hit)
to Samarra. This curving ridge or escarpment,
about 615m (1949ft) high, is located at an
altitude of about 76m (249ft) and is considered to
be an ancient ocean shoreline .The altitude of this
ridge is significant because it sits right in the range
of 7080m (229262ft) where the ocean shoreline
might be today if all the global ice on land melted,
as already noted. [Anne Habermehl]

Fig. below shows how this feature, described by

Ragozin (1893, p.1) as a pale, undulating line, and
by Held and Held (2000, p.337) as a sinuous cliff,
probably the feature for which Iraq is named, divides
Iraq into two parts: the northern section (called al
Jezirah, meaning the island) that is desert and rocky,
and the southern delta, the alluvium, that is quite
different in character. About this cliff, the nineteenthcentury traveler, Rawlinson (1885, p.3) wrote:But
nature has set a permanent mark, half way down the
Mesopotamian lowland, by a difference of geological
structure, which is very conspicuous. Near Hit on the
Euphrates, and a little below Samarah on the Tigris,
the traveller who descends the streams, bids adieu to a
somewhat waving and slightly elevated plain of
secondary formation, and enters on the dead flat and
low level of the mere alluvium. [Anne Habermehl]

This is Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

In addition, the entire area of Iraq (except the

northeast corner) is included in what geologists
call the Stable Shelf ,we would not expect
appreciable uplift or subsidence to have taken
place as a result of other geological forces. We
could therefore conclude that this ancient
geological feature may indeed have been the
shoreline where the post-Flood waters settled after
the earth dried out from Noahs Flood, before the
ice started to form. [Anne Habermehl]

However, the alluvium in the south of Iraq that we

see today would not yet have been there at the time
of building the Tower. This alluvium is a delta that
was formed later on, well after the Babel
dispersion, by vast amounts of materials washed
down from the Turkish mountains in the north by
the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and also from the
Zagros mountains to the east, during the
catastrophic period of the Ice Age meltdown.
[Anne Habermehl]

The early Mesopotamians irrigation systems were a huge

success. Soon, farmers were producing more than they
needed. Some people became free to do other jobs such as
tend the irrigation system. For the first time in history, people
became canal builders, potters, and textile workers. This
arrangement, in which workers specialize in particular jobs, is
called division of labor, and it is the basis for civilization.
Early settlements accomplished more when people were able
to work at different jobs. They expanded their irrigation
systems and built large buildings.
Organization and
managers were needed to complete these projects. Over time,
the Mesopotamian settlements grew in size and complexity.
As they grew, they developed laws and government. Between
4000 and 3000 BC, some of the larger settlements developed
into cities.
http://www.rcet.org/twd/students/socialstudies/ss_extensions_1intro.html

Aqueducts Canal
The first aqueduct was built in 690 BC on the orders of the Assyrian
king Sennacherib as part of the system of canals that supplied water
to the capital city of Nineveh. One of the eighteen canals that
connected Nineveh with the Tebitu reservoir unavoidably crossed
over another stream near the modern village of Jerwan in northern
Iraq. The Assyrians built a 90-foot stone aqueduct of stone that
bridged the stream. A fine slope kept water flowing.

http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/assyrian-agricultural-technology/

The heart of ancient Assyria was situated along the Tigris

River, in what is now northern Iraq. The Two Rivers were
vital to farming in what would otherwise be a desert, but
they also carry six times the silt of the Nile River.

This means that their river beds are shallower and

fill up faster, and therefore the rivers change
courses more often. They also flow faster, and the
Tigris flows even faster than the Euphrates. While
the Nile flooded regularly and predictably and
gently inundated Egypts fields every year, the
shallow beds, fast rate of flow and heavy silt load
meant that the Tigris and Euphrates were prone to
violent, unpredictable floods that spilled over their
banks and washed away fields rather than
replenished them.
http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/assyrian-agricultural-technology/

As a result, systems of levees and canals were built in

Mesopotamia from as early as Sumerian times. Canals
were used to trap water, which could then be used to
irrigate fields. There were no sluice gates to control the
water flow, rather, fields were flooded by digging
through the canal wall to flood the field, and then
shoveling mud into the breach to seal it back up again
once the desired amount of water had come through.
This meant that each farmers field had to directly
border a canal. As a result, complex canal systems
sprung up everywhere people lived in Mesopotamia.
Maintaining the canals was a major duty of
government. The nations food supply depended on it.
http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/assyrian-agricultural-technology/

Rivers flooded in the spring as mountaintop snows melted at

the sources of the rivers. Canal breaching was done at this
time on fallow fields to prepare them for planting. The fields
would then be plowed in autumn after a rain. If there were no
rains, more irrigation was required. Once the field had dried
out enough so that the ground was not wet, but before it was
rock hard, it was ready to be plowed.
Plowing was done with oxen, typically four to a plow. The
soil was tough enough that the plow required three or more
passes for the point to break up the soil create a good furrow.
It took three men to work a plow team, to guide the oxen and
hold down the plow handles. There was no steering
mechanism on plows or any wheels. Once the end of the
furrow was reached, the oxen had to be unhitched and the
plow turned around, and the oxen re-hitched and the process
begun again in the other direction.
http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/assyrian-agricultural-technology/

Drawing of a relief from Mesopotamia, c. 1500 BC, showing a

mechanical seeder. b) indicates the seed hopper while a) indicates
the chute.
http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/assyrian-agricultural-technology/

At the end of this laborious process came the seeding,

usually done in October. Barley was by far the most
common crop. Wheat, emmer, millet, flax and onions
were also grown in the fields. Seeding could be done
by hand, but from the mid 2nd millennium BC
mechanical seeders started to appear. These tools
resembled plows pulled by oxen, but with a very small
blade. Above the blade was a hopper, which fed a chute
that ran down behind the blade. As the seeder moved
forwards, seed was deposited into the furrows. Once
the field had been seeded, it was flooded again up to
the height of the furrows. The water leached away salts
from the soil on sides of the furrows. The field could be
watered several more times during the winter, once a
month in January, February and March.
http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/assyrian-agricultural-technology/

In the late 8th century, Sargon II (who ruled from 722 to 704
BC) built a new capital at Dur-Sharrukin. As part of this new
city, he planted an even bigger garden. More importantly,
Sargon worked to expand the canal system. When his troops
marched into the Caucasus Mountains against the kingdom of
Urartu in 714 BC, they discovered a new type of water system:
the qanat (so called in modern Arabic, also called kerez in
Persian). This was a tunnel used to funnel water down from hills
to the plains below. They were built by digging a series of shafts
straight down from the surface. Tunnels were then dug between
the bottoms of the shafts to create an underground tunnel. The
first shaft was dug at a water source, a stream or natural well at
higher elevations. The resulting tunnel sloped gently downhill,
allowing the water to flow down the mountain. Sargon of course
devastated the Urartian countryside, but he brought the qanat
system back to Assyria, where many qanawat were built and are
still in use to this day.
http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/assyrian-agricultural-technology/

Sennacherib began even greater public works

projects. He moved the capital again, this time to
Nineveh, which he vastly expanded. Nineveh was
bisected by the Tebitu River, so to control the river
while still supplying the city with water he dammed
the Tebitu ten miles upstream from Nineveh and
then dug a canal from the reservoir to the city. This
allowed flooding to be controlled. The canal was
shallower than the river, so water could more easily
be used to irrigate the fields by digging out the
canal walls and refilling them.
http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/assyrian-agricultural-technology

Diagram of a typical qanat system.

http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/assyrian-agricultural-technology

As Nineveh grew, one canal was not enough. More canals

were dug, until eighteen canals connected Nineveh to the
Tebitu reservoir and other water sources. This in turn created
greater demand on the reservoirs water supplies. To remedy
this, Sennacheribs engineers dammed the Atrush river and
built another canal to feed into the Tebitu at Bavian. This
canal featured a working sluice gate which according to an
inscription opens by itself, without using a spade or a
shovel, and allows the waters of prosperity to flow. Its gate is
not opened by any action of mens hands. This was a huge
technological leap ahead of canal banks that were dug
through with a shovel and closed by shoveling dirt back into
the breach. Now, gates could be opened and closed and water
re-routed by mechanical process instead of back-breaking
labor.
http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/assyrian-agricultural-technology

Plan of the structure erected by

Sennacherib where the canal
separated from the river at
Bavian.
http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2012/02/1
5/assyrian-agricultural-technology

The course of the new canal required crossing over another

stream near the modern village of Jerwan in Iraq, so the
engineers built an aqueduct thirty feet high and ninety feet
long to bridge the waters. This structure was built of stone
and sealed with concrete to prevent the water from leaking.
In order to keep the water flowing, the bed of the aqueduct
was built on a finely graded slope. The structure was
supported by a type of false arch in which stones were
stacked in a staggered fashion, appearing arch-like but
lacking the weight-bearing properties of a true arch.
Sennacherib was very proud of this structure, having
inscribed on the aqueduct that I caused a canal to be dug to
the meadows of Nineveh. Over deep-cut ravines I spanned a
bridge of white stone blocks. Those waters I caused to pass
over it.
http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/assyrian-agricultural-technology

Reconstructed plan of the Jerwan aqueduct, completed in 690 BC.

Artists depiction of the Jerwan aqueduct.

http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/assyrian-agricultural-technology

http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/File:Canal
_des_Pharaons.svg

The first canals marks on the landscape are still visible, as can be
seen by the strip of green fertile land that follows the path of the
ancient canal.

The new canal system was completed in 690 BC after fifteen

months of work. Just before the sluice-gates were scheduled to be
opened in a ceremony at which Sennacherib and priests were to be
present to make sacrifices to the river-gods Ea and Enbilulu.
Before they could conduct the ceremony, water pressure built up
behind the sluices and burst them open. While many Assyrians
likely feared that this was a sign of divine disfavor, Sennacherib
declared that the gods had been so pleased with the work of the canal
that they had opened the gates themselves without waiting for his
ceremony.
The ceremonies went ahead as planned, just without the dramatic
opening of the canal. Priests offered oxen and sheep as sacrifices,
and Sennacherib gave gifts of linen, and brightly colored garments,
golden rings and daggers of gold to the engineers, architects and
workmen who had built the canal. At the head of the sluice gates at
Bavian, he set up six steles with images of the gods carved onto them
. Eventually, the water system of Nineveh featured 150km of canals,
aqueducts, qanawat and other water works.
http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/assyrian-agricultural-technology

Sennacherib summed up his accomplishments in an

inscription at Bavian:
At that time I greatly enlarged the site of Nineveh. Its wall
and outer wall thereof, which had not existed before, I built
anew and raised mountain high. Its fields, which through lack
of water had fallen into neglect andwhile its people,
ignorant of artificial irrigation, turned their eyes heavenward
for showers of rain[these fields] I watered; and from the
villages of Masiti, Banbarina, Shapparishu, Kar-Shamashnasir, Kar-Nuri, Rimusa, Hata, Dalain, Resh, Eni, Sulu, Dur,
Shibaniba, Isparrira, Gingilinish, Nampa-gate, Tillu,
Alumsusi, and the waters which were above the town of
Hadabiti eighteen canals I dug and directed their course to the
Khosr River. From the border of the town of Kisiri to the
midst of Nineveh I dug a canal; these waters I caused to flow
therein. Sennacheribs Channel I called its name.
http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/assyrian-agricultural-technology

Where was Mesopotamia?

Mesopotamia was approximately 300 miles long and 150 miles
wide. It was located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. These
rivers flow into the Persian Gulf. The climate for the region ranged
from seasons of cool to hot seasons with temperatures often over
110 degrees Fahrenheit. Mesopotamia experienced moderate
rainfall.
Most of Mesopotamia was located in the present day country of
Iraq. The land of Mesopotamia was once dominated by floods, but
today is mostly desert. The seasonal flooding was a challenge to the
farmers of Mesopotamia. These farmers learned to control the
flooding to some degree. The fertile land along the rivers produced
such crops as wheat, barley, sesame, flax, and various fruits and
vegetables.
http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/showcase/dlottmesopotamia.html

http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/showcase/dlottmesopotamia.html

Broken by river channels teeming with fish and re-fertilized

frequently by alluvial silt laid down by uncontrolled floods,
Sumer had a splendid agricultural potential if the
environmental problems could be solved. "Arable land had
literally to be created out of a chaos of swamps and sand
banks by a 'separation' of land from water; the swamps ...
drained; the floods controlled; and life giving waters led to
the rainless desert by artificial canals". In the course of the
several successive cultural phases that followed the arrival of
the first Neolithic farmers, these and other related problems
were solved by cooperative effort. Between 3500 B.C. and
3100 B.C. the foundations were laid for a type of economy
and social order markedly different from anything previously
known. This far more complex culture, based on large urban
centers rather than simple villages, is what we associate with
civilization.

http://sumer2sargon.blogspot.cz/p/history.html

THE CANAL SYSTEMS OF MESOPOTAMIA

http://www.naval-history.net/WW1Battle1408Mesopotamia.htm

http://www.navalhistory.net/WW1Battle1408Mesopotamia.htm

Room C32 showing water tank, copper ring and ovens

http://www.odysseyadventures.ca/articles/ur%20of%20the%20chaldees/ur_article02gip.html

View of the tank and pillar in the north corner of Court C7

http://www.odysseyadventures.ca/articles/ur%20of%20the%20chaldees/ur_article02gip.html

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~rauhn/mesopotamia.htm

White Temple & ziggurat, Uruk, ca. 3200-3000 B.C.

https://bucks.instructure.com/courses/200544/files/2586378?module_item_id=1474292

Close up of the baked bricks and bitumen mortar of the ziggurat at Ur They
used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar Let us make bricks and burn them
thoroughly' (Gen 11:3).

Summary
The Sumerians developed irrigation systems, dikes, and canals to provide
protection from floods and water for crops. This was important because it allowed
them to grow food in fields that were far away from the rivers. This allowed them
to grow more food to feed a growing population.
Sumerians learned new ideas and technologies from the people with whom they
traded. As a result of this social classes began to develop.
The Sumerians invented the first wheel, which allowed them to transport goods and
people more quickly. This helped them with trade and improved transportation.
The Sumerians also invented the first plow. A plow is a machine that is used to
prepare land for planting seeds. The first plow allowed the Sumerians to plant and
grow more food.
They also developed cuneiform, a wedge-shaped writing formed by pressing a penlike instrument into clay. Cuneiform is the first-known written language. The
development of cuneiform was important because it was used to record information
like laws and taxes. Today, we can use this information to know more about the
Sumerian civilization.

References
http://www.crutchercpa.com/adamcpts.htm
http://aratta.wordpress.com/mesopotamia-sumer/
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14189/14189-h/14189-h.htm
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~rauhn/Image_Links.htm
http://www.odysseyadventures.ca/articles/ur%20of%20the%20chaldees/ur_article01zig.html
http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/rawlinson/2assyria/r2c.htm
http://katachriston.wordpress.com/2011/09/16/was-the-tower-of-babel-a-ziggurat/
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24654/24654-h/24654-h.htm#illus_58