by Doug Couch

About the size of California, Iraq is home to more than 24 million people, 97% Muslim and 3% "Christian," 80% of whom are Arabs and 20% are Kurds. Two great river systems, the Tigris (550 miles long) and Euphrates (800 miles long), join to form the Shatt al Arab River about 100 miles north of the Persian Gulf into which it empties. The ancient Greeks called the land between these two river systems, Mesopotamia, meaning "land between the rivers."

Iraq was once home to the world's greatest civilizations including the Sumerians (2800-2000 BC), the Assyrians (1850-612 BC) and the Babylonians (626-539 BC). The Sumerians invented irrigation technology by using water from the higher Euphrates River that drained across the river valleys into the Tigris River. Through a series of canals, dikes, and reservoirs, ancient Mesopotamia became a "Fertile Crescent" with agricultural yields per acre which exceed anything we can reproduce in the Western world with cultivation, irrigation, and fertilization. This allowed these nations to become wealthy and powerful.

Genesis 11 also records the beginnings of ancient tribes which lived in the Mesopotamian River valleys including Nimrud, Accad, Assur, and Calah (Gen. 11:10-11). The remains of a dozen royal Sumerian and Assyrian palaces exist today up and down the Tigris River including Tiglath-Pilezer's palace (called Pul in 2 Kings 15:19 & 1 Chronicles 5:26) and Sargon's palace near modern Khorsabad.

Nineveh was once the capital of the Assyrian Empire. Located on the Tigris and Khosr rivers, it had broad streets, parks, gardens, and a system of canals and aqueducts that transported clean drinking water 30 miles into the city. The warnings of the prophet Jonah were unheeded, and it fell in 612 B.C. Today, near the remains of Nineveh is a mound that for centuries (according to Jewish, Islamic, and Christian sources) is the tomb of the prophet Jonah. Across the Tigris River from Nineveh's ruins is the modern city of Mosul with 570,000 people.

Babylon was once the capital city of the Babylonian Empire. Located on the Euphrates River about 55 miles SW of Baghdad, the city was geometrically designed with streets at right angles, canals, bridges, an underwater tunnel, and an artificial mountain (the Hanging Gardens of Babylon). An impenetrable wall surrounded the city that was wide enough for chariot races. Navy vessels patrolled the moat that protected the walls. Nebuchadnezzar expanded and beautified the city and had his name inscribed on every brick of every wall and building. Saddam Hussein rebuilt some of the ruins of ancient Babylon and had his name inscribed on the newer bricks.

Today much of what was Babylon lies in marshy land. Erosion from the brick mortar of ancient walls poisons the soil with nitrites. Irrigation through the centuries brought salt into the soil, rendering it sterile. Nomads avoid the city fearing their sheep may be poisoned.

Isaiah’s words have been literally fulfilled:

"And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there" (Isaiah 13:19-20).