264 THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



developing extended irrigation systems, which converted the natur- 

 ally sterile valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris into the most fertile 

 of fields. We are told that the country below Hit, on the Euphrates, 

 and Samarra, on the Tigris, was at one time intersected with numer- 

 ous canals, one of the most ancient of which was the Nahr Malikah, 

 connecting the Euphrates with the Tigris. The ancient city of Baby- 

 lon seems to have been protected from the floods of June, July and 

 August by high cemented brick embankments on both banks of the 

 Euphrates, and, to supplement the protection of these, and to store 

 water for irrigation, a large reservoir was excavated 42 miles in cir- 

 cumference and 35 feet deep, into which the whole river might be 

 turned through an artificial canal. There were five principal canals 

 supplied by the Euphrates the Nahr Malikah, the Nah-raga, the 

 Nahr Sares, the Kutha, and the Pallacopus; while the Tigris furnished 

 water for the great Nahrawan and Dyiel, besides several smaller ones.. 

 Along the banks of the former of these canals fed by the Tigris are 

 now found the ruins of numerous towns and cities on both sides,, 

 which are silent witnesses of the great importance it held, and the 

 great antiquity of the work. It started on the right bank of the river,, 

 where it comes from Hamrine Hills, and was led away at a distance of 

 six or seven miles from the stream towards Samarra, where it joined 

 a second canal. Another feeder was received 10 miles farther on its 

 course to Bagdad, a few miles beyond which its waters fell into the 

 river Shirwan, and were again taken out over a wier and led on 

 through Kurzistan. It absorbed all the streams ' from the Sour and 

 Buckharee Mountains, and finally discharged into Kerkha River, but 

 only after having attained a length exceeding 400 miles, with a width, 

 varying from 250 to 400 feet. This great canal, with its numerous 

 branches on either side, leading water to broad irrigated fields, while 

 it bore along its main waterway the commerce of those far distant 

 days, stands out as a piece of bold engineering hardly equaled by any 

 thing of its kind in modern times. 



"The Phoenicians, in the time of their zenith, were celebrated for 

 their canals, used both for irrigation and city purposes; and at the 

 time of the invasion of Africa the Syracusan General Agathocles 

 wrote that 'the African shore was covered with gardens and large 

 plantations everywhere abounding in canals, by means of which they 

 were plentifully watered;' and fifty years later when the Romans in- 

 vaded the Carthagenian dominions, their historian, Polybius, drew a 

 similar picture of the high state of cultivation of this country. 



In the early days of both Grecian and Roman history, great pro- 

 gress had already been made by these peoples in handling and con- 

 veying water by gravity over long distances for domestic purposes. 

 At Patara the Greeks, according to Herodotus, carried an aqueduct 

 across a ravine 200 feet wide and 250 feet deep, constructing a pipe 

 line by drilling 13-inch holes through 'cubic blocks 3 feet 



