The mighty Euphrates River – better known as Al Furat to the locals – starts as a trickle in the highlands of eastern Turkey and flows for 700 kilometres through northeastern Syria before joining the Tigris River in southern Iraq. The basins of both rivers form the cradle of civilisation – Mesopotamia. The banks of the Euphrates are rich in archaeological sites – but you’d probably need a mask and snorkel to see them as they have been inundated by the rising waters caused by dams.
The Roman fortress of Halabiye sits downstream of Syria’s dams just a few kilometres from the eastern Syria town of Deir ez-Zor. At the moment the site of the ruins is above the water line but this may change soon with the construction of the Halabiye dam. The site originally was settled in the third century during the reign of Queen Zenobia. I have to admit I wasn’t terribly impressed with the ruins but the view of the Euphrates from the site is spectacular.
In 1974 Syria closed the Tabqa Dam on the Euphrates and hence began filling up the Lake Assad reservoir. The reservoir now provides drinking water to Aleppo via a pipeline and irrigation water via canals to agricultural areas. The Euphrates passes through the water-starved countries of Turkey, Syria and Iraq and the politics regarding the sharing of the water between the three countries can be complex.
The marshlands on the shores of the reservoir are an interesting place to explore and look for birds – or to catch a water taxi as this man and his daughter are doing.
15 December. Drove to Kamishly with Faik Bahhady and Scott Christiansen. Departed at 6:00 and arrived at 10:30. Visited Hemo Experiment Station, checked pastures, took pictures as a part of a ley farming slide show and picked up seed samples taken from pastures to assess amounts of seed in seed banks. Later went to the State Farm near Kamishly to check on medic seed increase activities being carried out by Abdulhamid Antar and Akram Semaan from PFLP in association with State Farm personnel. Departed to Deir Zor AT 16:00 and arrived at 19:00. Stayed in the Alfurat Sham Palace
16. Visited with the DG of state farms in Deir Zor at 8:30. Departed for Aleppo at 9:30 and arrived at 12:30.15 December. Drove to Kamishly with Faik Bahhady and Scott Christiansen. Departed at 6:00 and arrived at 10:30. Visited Hemo Experiment Station, checked pastures, took pictures as a part of a ley farming slide show and picked up seed samples taken from pastures to assess amounts of seed in seed banks. Later went to the State Farm near Kamishly to check on medic seed increase activities being carried out by Abdulhamid Antar and Akram Semaan from PFLP in association with State Farm personnel. Departed to Deir Zor AT 16:00 and arrived at 19:00. Stayed in the Alfurat Sham Palace
16. Visited with the DG of state farms in Deir Zor at 8:30. Departed for Aleppo at 9:30 and arrived at 12:30.15 December. Drove to Kamishly with Faik Bahhady and Scott Christiansen. Departed at 6:00 and arrived at 10:30. Visited Hemo Experiment Station, checked pastures, took pictures as a part of a ley farming slide show and picked up seed samples taken from pastures to assess amounts of seed in seed banks. Later went to the State Farm near Kamishly to check on medic seed increase activities being carried out by Abdulhamid Antar and Akram Semaan from PFLP in association with State Farm personnel. Departed to Deir Zor AT 16:00 and arrived at 19:00. Stayed in the Alfurat Sham Palace
16. Visited with the DG of state farms in Deir Zor at 8:30. Departed for Aleppo at 9:30 and arrived at 12:30.
Villagers filling up water containers at a canal near the Euphrates River.
This farmer has used his allocation of Euphrates irrigation water to grow rice in an otherwise parched area a few kilometres south of the Euphrates.
