o Basra is about 300 miles, and the area traversed by the
Shatt-el-Arab is slowly extending at the rate of a mile every thirty
years or so, as a result of the steady accumulation of silt and mud
carried down by the Tigris and Euphrates. When Sumeria was beginning
to flourish, these two rivers had separate outlets, and Eridu, the
seat of the cult of the sea god Ea, which now lies 125 miles inland,
was a seaport at the head of the Persian Gulf. A day's journey
separated the river mouths when Alexander the Great broke the power of
the Persian Empire.

In the days of Babylonia's prosperity the Euphrates was hailed as "the
soul of the land" and the Tigris as "the bestower of blessings".
Skilful engineers had solved the problem of water distribution by
irrigating sun-parched areas and preventing the excessive flooding of
those districts which are now rendered impassable swamps when the
rivers overflow. A network of canals was constructed throughout the
country, which restricted the destructive tendencies of the Tigris and
Euphrates and developed to a high degree their potentialities as
fertilizing agencies. The greatest of these canals appear to have been
anciently river beds. One, which is called Shatt en Nil to the north,
and Shatt el Kar to the south, curved eastward from Babylon, and
sweeping past Nippur, flowed like the letter S towards Larsa and then
rejoined the river. It is believed to mark the course followed in the
early Sumerian period by the Euphrates river, which has moved steadily
westward many miles beyond the sites of ancient cities that were
erected on its banks. Another important canal, the Shatt el Hai,
crossed the plain from the Tigris to its sister river, which lies
lower at this point, and does not run so fast. Where the artificial
canals were constructed on higher levels than the streams which fed
them, the water was raised by contrivances known as "shaddufs"; the
buckets or skin bags were roped to a weighted beam, with the aid of
which they were swung up by workmen and emptied into the canals. It is
possible that this toilsome mode of irrigation was substituted in
favourable parts by the primitive water wheels which are used in our
own day by the inhabitants of the country who cultivate strips of land
along the river banks.

In Babylonia there are two seasons--the rainy and the dry. Rain falls
from November till March, and the plain is carpeted in spring by
patches of vivid green verdure and brillian