during the reign of
Ashurbanipal. Showing Assyrian soldiers on boat chasing enemies trying to run away; some are hiding in the reeds. In the 4th millennium BC, the first literate societies emerged in Southern
Mesopotamia, often referred to as the "
Cradle of Civilization", and the first cities and complex state bureaucracies were developed there during the
Uruk period. Due to the geographical location and ecological factors of the
Fertile Crescent, a crescent-shape fertile area running from the basins of the
Nile in
Egypt, northwards along the
Mediterranean coast in
Palestine and
Israel, and southwards again along the
Euphrates and the
Tigris towards the
Persian Gulf, civilizations were able to develop agricultural and technological programmes. The crucial trigger was the availability of wild edible plant species. Farming arose early in the Fertile Crescent because the area had a large quantity of wild wheat and pulse species that were nutritious and easy to domesticate. In the 10th and 11th centuries, the marshes were the site of the
state of Batihah founded by
'Imran ibn Shahin.
Draining and subsequent restoration efforts The draining of Mesopotamian Marshes began in the 1950s with the Central Marshes and gradually accelerated as it affected the two other main marshes until early in the 21st century with the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The draining of the marshes was intended at first to reclaim land for agriculture along with oil exploration but later served as a punishment for Shia Arabs in response to the
1991 uprisings in Iraq. The draining of the marshes was largely due to
dams,
dykes and other diversion structures constructed into Iraq but were exacerbated by upstream dam construction in Syria and Turkey. While the British engineers worked with the Iraqi government, Frank Haigh developed the Haigh Report in 1951. His report recommended a complex of
canals,
sluices, and dykes on the lower portions of both the Tigris and Euphrates. These water control structures could be used to drain marshes therefore creating profitable farmland. In 1953, construction began on the Third River or Main Outfall Drain and later the Saddam River which would drain water from the Central Marsh under the Euphrates and through a canal eventually into the Persian Gulf. After the 1991
Gulf War, Shia Muslims in southern Iraq rebelled against Saddam Hussein, who in turn crushed the rebellion and further accelerated the draining of the Central and Hammar marshes in order to evict Shias that have taken refuge in the marshes. The
Glory River was also constructed to divert water from the Tigris's southern-flowing distributaries east and parallel along the Tigris until they reached the Euphrates near its confluence with the Tigris at
Qurna. As of late 2006, 58% of the original marshes had been reinundated. The Nasiriyah Drainage Pump Station was completed in 2009, affording the Third River to be used for agricultural drainage. Recent drought and continued upstream dam construction and operation in Turkey, Syria, and Iran have reduced the marshes to around 30% of their original size by 2009. From a high of around 75% restored in 2008, the wetlands receded to 58% of their average pre-drained level by spring 2015. Meanwhile, as the water level fell, salinity increased to 15,000 parts per million in some areas, up from 300 to 500 ppm in the 1980s. "When the river water levels were high, the low-saline Tigris washed over the marshes, cleansed them, and pushed the salty residue into the saltier Euphrates, which flows along the western edge. But now the Tigris is so low that the Euphrates provides most of the water in the marshes." The government prioritizes providing water to cities along the Tigris and the
Shatt al-Arab, resulting in reduced flow to the marshes. ==See also==