Where are the Mesopotamian Marshes located?
Where are the Mesopotamian Marshes located?
southern Iraq
The Mesopotamian marshes are found in southern Iraq on the floodplains of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, bound by the cities of Basra, Nasiriyah and Amarah. They are subdivided into three distinct marshes – Hammar, Central, and Hawizeh.
Why did Saddam Hussein drain marshes?
Saddam Hussein, who accused the region’s Marsh Arab inhabitants of treachery during the 1980-1988 war with Iran, dammed and drained the marshes in the 1990s to flush out rebels hiding in the reeds.
What percentage of the marshes in Iraq did Saddam Hussein drain?
About 90 percent of the swamps in which they lived have been drained. Thus, the alternatives are for them to adapt to a new environment or for their old environment to be restored to them. The second alternative, if feasible, is more desirable as the ecosystem of the Iraqi marshlands was rich and irreplaceable.
What is the significance of the Al Hawizeh Marsh?
The Hawizeh marsh is critical to the survival of the Central and Hammar marshes, which also make up the Mesopotamian Marshes, because they are a refuge for species that may recolonize or reproduce in the other marshlands.
Where are the marshes in Iraq?
The Mesopotamian Marshes, also known as the Iraqi Marshes, are a wetland area located in Southern Iraq, Southwestern Iran, and small parts of Northern Kuwait.
What is Southern Iraq?
Southern Iraq stretches south of the Baghdad Belts of Iraq to Kuwait. It is also referred to as Lower Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia meaning the Land between the Rivers – the Euphrates and Tigris) or the Cradle of Civilization. The largest religious group in the area is Shia Islam.
Who drained the Mesopotamian marshes?
leader Saddam Hussein
Then, in the 1990s, the marshes became a political pawn: former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein drained large areas at least in part to punish the tribes living there, the Marsh Arabs, for participating in anti-government rebellions.
How did people drain marshes?
Series of dams created large “staircases”, which drained the marshland water out of the valleys. At the same time as building the dams, the settlers were also clearing the tops of the hills for agriculture. This released soil which gathered in large deposits behind the dams.
What happened to the Marsh Arabs in Iraq?
At the end of the first Gulf war, the marshlands of southern Iraq were drained in what was widely seen as retaliation by Saddam Hussein for the failed upraising of the Marsh Arabs, around 200,000 of whom subsequently fled the region.
Why are the marshes so important to birds?
Wetlands are important bird habitats, and birds use them for breeding, nesting, and rearing young (fig. 30). Birds also use wetlands as a source of drinking water and for feeding, resting, shelter, and social interactions.
Are the Marsh Arabs Sumerians?
The Marsh Arabs are the primary inhabitants of the Mesopotamian Marshes and are theorized by some to be the descendants of ancient Sumerians, as their civilization dates back 5,000 years. They live in secluded villages of elaborate reed houses throughout the marshes, often only reached by boat.
Why did Mesopotamia change its name to Iraq?
That decision eventually went in favor of the French, but in compensation, on Aug. 23, 1921, the British installed Feisal as king of Mesopotamia, changing the official name of the country at that time to Iraq, an Arabic word which, Fromkin says, means “well-rooted country.”