Euphrates: Did you mean...?

Map showing the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers flowing from north to south into the Persian Gulf, and the Nile River flowing from south to north into the Mediterranean Sea.

During the late 3rd millennium BCE, the area of the middle Euphrates developed a distinctive regional culture. Between 1963-1973 CE, an international rescue mission excavated a large number of sites in this region which were threatened by...

During the late 3rd millennium BCE, the area of the middle Euphrates developed a distinctive regional culture. Between 1963-1973 CE, an international rescue mission excavated a large number of sites in this region which were threatened by...

Mari was a city-state located near the west bank of the Euphrates River in Northern Mesopotamia (now eastern Syria) during the Early Bronze Age and the Middle Bronze Age. One of the earliest known planned cities, Mari is believed to have...

The ancient Near East, and the historical region of the Fertile Crescent in particular, is generally seen as the birthplace of agriculture. The first agricultural evidence comes from the Levant, from where it spread to Mesopotamia, enabling...

The Hymn to Ninkasi is at once a song of praise to Ninkasi, the Sumerian goddess of beer, and an ancient recipe for brewing (though this claim has been challenged). Written down circa 1800 BCE, the hymn is no doubt much older, as evidenced...

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were the fabled gardens which beautified the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, built by its greatest king Nebuchadnezzar II (r. 605-562 BCE). One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, they are the only...

The Death of Gilgamesh is a Sumerian poem relating the death and afterlife of the famous hero-king of Uruk, who had become a legendary figure. The piece is dated to before the Ur III Period (2047-1750 BCE), and although its theme informs...

The Kingdom of Mitanni, known to the people of the land, and the Assyrians, as Hanigalbat and to the Egyptians as Naharin and Metani, once stretched from present-day northern Iraq, down through Syria and into Turkey and was among the greatest...

Semiramis is the semi-divine Warrior-Queen of Assyria, whose reign is most clearly documented by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (l. 90-30 BCE) in his great work Bibliotheca Historica ("Historical Library") written over thirty years...