Tigris–Euphrates river system

The Tigris and Euphrates, with their tributaries, form a major in. From sources originating in the of eastern Turkey they flow by/through Syria through Iraq into the. The system is part of the –, which includes Iraq and parts of Turkey, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Jordan. The region has historical importance as part of the Fertile Crescent region.

Quotes

 * In those ancient days, when the good destinies had been decreed,﻿ and after An and Enlil had set up the divine rules of heaven and earth,﻿ then ... Enki, the master of﻿ destinies, ... founded dwelling places; he took in﻿ his hand waters to encourage and create good seed; he laid out side by﻿ side the Tigris and the Euphrates, and caused them to bring water from﻿ the mountains; he scoured out the smaller streams, and positioned the﻿ other watercourses.
 * Debate between Bird and Fish (mid to late (late to early ).


 * By hand Enten guided the spring floods, the abundance and life of the Land, down from the edge of the hills. He set his foot upon the Tigris and Euphrates like a big bull and released them into the fields and fruitful acres of Enlil. He shaped lagoons in the water of the sea. He let fish and birds together come into existence by the sea.
 * Debate between Winter and Summer (mid to late ).


 * After day had broken and Utu had risen, the of the Land lifted his head high. The king combined the Tigris with the Euphrates. He combined the Euphrates with the Tigris. Large vessels were placed in the open air, and he stood small vessels beside them, like lambs lying on the grass.
 * Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, period (ca. 21st century BCE). English

About the Euphrates

 * In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.
 * The Bible, Genesis 15:18, King James Version.


 * My guides, sniffing the air like dogs, led me from crumbling room to room, saying, 'This is jessamine, this violet, this rose'. But at last Dahoum drew me: 'Come and smell the very sweetest scent of all', and we went into the main lodging, to the gaping window sockets of its eastern face, and there drank with open mouths of the effortless, empty, eddyless wind of the desert, throbbing past. That slow breath had been born somewhere beyond the distant Euphrates and had dragged its way across many days and nights of dead grass, to its first obstacle, the man-made walls of our broken palace.
 * T. E. Lawrence,  (1922), Ch. 3.


 * Now scantier limits the proud arch confine, And scarce are seen the prostrate Nile or Rhine; A small Euphrates thro' the piece is roll'd, And little eagles wave their wings in gold.
 * Alexander Pope, Moral Essays. Epistle to Addison. line 27.


 * All the superior religions had their growth between the and the Euphrates.
 * Vivekananda, in The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Lectures And Discourses/The Soul And God

About the Tigris

 * Every object and being in the universe is a jar overflowing with wisdom and beauty, a drop of the Tigris that cannot be contained by any skin. Every jarful spills and makes the earth more shining, as though covered in satin.
 * Rumi, "The Gift of Water" Ch. 18 : The Three Fish, p. 200


 * The heavens were separated from the earth, … my father Enlil created me in a single day, and then the Tigris charged like a great wild bull.
 * Strong Copper, in Debate between Silver and Copper, middle to late.