Editing Geography of Mesopotamia (section)

==Perennial irrigation==
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The dense population arose from the elaborate irrigation of the Babylonian plain, which had originally reclaimed it from a pestiferous and uninhabitable swamp, and had made it the most fertile country in the world. The science of irrigation and engineering seems to have been first developed in Babylonia, which was covered by a network of canals, all skillfully planned and regulated. The three chief of them carried off the waters of the Euphrates to the Tigris above Babylon: the Zabzallat canal (or Nahr Sarsar) running from Faluja to [[Ctesiphon]], the Kutha canal from Sippara to Madam, passing Tell Ibrahim or Kuth'a on the way, and the King's canal or Ar-Malcha between the other two. This last, which perhaps owed its name to [[Hammurabi]], was conducted from the Euphrates towards Upi or Opis, which has been shown by H. Winckler (''Altorientalische Forschungen'', ii. pp.&nbsp;509 seq.) to have been close to [[Seleucia]] on the western side of the Tigris. The Pallacopas, called Pallukkatu in the Neo-Babylonian texts, started from Pallukkatu or Falluja, and running parallel to the western bank of the Euphrates as far as Iddaratu or Teredon, (?) watered an immense tract of land and supplied a large lake near Borsippa. B. Meissner may be right in identifying it with "the Canal of the Sun-god" of the early texts.

Thanks to this system of irrigation, the cultivation of the soil was highly advanced in Babylonia. According to [[Herodotus]] (1.193), wheat commonly returned two hundredfold to the sower, and occasionally three hundredfold. [[Pliny the Elder]] ([[Pliny's Natural History|H. N.]] xviii. 11) states that it was cut twice, and afterwards was good keep for sheep, and Berossus remarked that wheat, [[sesame]], [[barley]], [[ophrys]], [[palm tree|palm]]s, [[Apple (fruit)|apple]]s and many kinds of shelled fruit grew wild, as wheat still does in the neighbourhood of [[Anah]]. A [[Persian language|Persian]] poem celebrated the 360 uses of the palm (Strabo xvi. I. 14), and [[Ammianus Marcellinus]] (xxiv. 3) says that from the point reached by [[Julian the Apostate|Julian]]'s army to the shores of the Persian Gulf was one continuous forest of verdure.

===Ancient canals===
The location of most of the major cities such as [[Kish (Sumer)|Kish]], [[Uruk]], [[Lagash]] etc. is known with certainty, while the location of minor settlements, situated along a network of canals, is more difficult to reconstruct.
An important source of Mesopotamian toponymy is the great Babylonian encyclopedia ''[[Urra=hubullu]]'' and its commentaries. These texts contain lists of toponyms, but circumstantial evidence is required to correlate these with their geographical location. The most useful category of texts for this purpose are itineraries, which list settlements in the sequence they are passed by a traveller.

Important canals of Sumer included
*the ''Zubi'' canal (''Izubi'', Akkadian ''Izubitum''), a short-cut of the [[Tigris]] between the locations of modern [[Samarra]] and [[Baghdad]]. Settlements along this canal included Hibaritum and Push.
*the ''Irnina'' canal, joined the Zubi canal above Push. Settlements along this canal included Hiritum, Hursitum, Sarru-Laba, Namzium.
*the ''Gibil'' canal ran southwest from the Tigris to a point south of the frontier city of [[Kesh (Sumer)|Kesh]], past a branch which went north to that city.  The Gibil continued on to Apisala where it intersected with the Ninagina Canal which flowed southeast from Zabalam. From Apisala, the Gibil went on to Umma, where it joined the Iturungal Canal.
*The ''Issinnitum'' canal left the right bank of the [[Euphrates]] above Nippur to run by the city of Isin, and thence to rejoin the Euphrates at Kisurra.
*The ''Iturungal'' canal left the Euphrates below Nippur running past Adab, Dabrum, Zabalam, Umma, Nagsu, Bad-tibira and Larsa and between Uruk and [[Enegi]] before rejoining the Euphrates.
*The ''Nanagugal'' canal  departed from the left bank of the Iturungal canal downstream of Bad-tibira. It marked the eastern boundary of Ur and the western boundary of Lagash.
*The Ninagina canal ran from Iturungal at Zabalam southeast passing Girsu, Lagash, and Nina. It intersected with the Gibil canal at Apicella.
*The ''Susuka'' canal ran southeast from Ur to Eridu.