Geography of Mesopotamia
While the southern is flat and marshy, the near approach of the two rivers to one another, at a spot where the undulating plateau of the north sinks suddenly into the Babylonian alluvium, tends to separate them still more completely.
Apart from Assur, the original capital of Assyria, the chief cities of the country, Nineveh, Kalaḫ and Arbela, were all on the east bank of the Tigris.
[1] The oldest known occurrence of the name Mesopotamia dates to the 4th century BCE, when it was used to designate the land east of the Euphrates in north Syria.
[3][8] This vast flat is about 250 miles (400 km) in length, interrupted only by a single limestone range rising abruptly out of the plain, and branching off from the Zagros Mountains under the names of Sarazur, Hainrin and Sinjar.
North of the plateau rises a well-watered and undulating belt of country, into which run low ranges of limestone hills, sometimes arid, sometimes covered with dwarf oak, and often shutting in, between their northern and northeastern flank and the main mountain line from which they detach themselves, rich plains and fertile valleys.
The name Assyria itself was derived from that of the city of Assur or Asur, now Qal'at Sherqat (Kaleh Shergat), on the right bank of the Tigris, midway between the Great and Little Zab.
It remained the capital long after the Assyrians had become the dominant power in western Asia, but was finally supplanted by Calah (Nimrud), Nineveh (Nebi Vunus and Kuyunjik), and Dur-Sharrukin (Khorsabad), some 60 miles (97 km) farther north.
In contrast with the arid plateau of Mesopotamia stretched the rich alluvial plain of Chaldea, formed by the deposits of the two great rivers that encircled it.
Eastward rose the mountains of Elam, southward were the sea-marshes and the Kaldy or Chaldeans and other Arameans, while on the west the civilization of Babylonia encroached beyond the banks of the Euphrates, upon the territory of the nomadic ancient Semitic-speaking peoples (or Suti).
Here stood Ur (Mugheir, more correctly Muqayyar) the earliest capital of the country; and Babylon, with its suburb, Borsippa (Birs Nimrud), as well as the two Sippars (the Sepharvaim of Scripture, now Abu Habba), occupied both the Arabian and Chaldaean sides of the river.
The Arakhtu, or "river of Babylon," flowed past the southern side of the city, and to the southwest of it on the Arabian bank lay the great inland freshwater sea of Najaf, surrounded by red sandstone cliffs of considerable height, 40 miles (64 km) in length and 35 in breadth in the widest part.
Eastward of the Euphrates and southward of Sippara, Kutha and Babylon were Kish (Ultaimir, 9 miles (14 km) E. of Hillah), Nippur (Niffer)-where stood the great sanctuary of El-lu, the older Bel-Uruk or Uruk (Arabic Warka) and Larsa (Arabic Senkera) with its temple of the sun god, while eastward of the Shatt el-Hai, probably the ancient channel of the Tigris, was Lagash (Tello), which played an important part in early Babylonian history.
The marshes in the south, like the adjoining desert, were frequented by Aramaic tribes; of these, the most famous were the Chaldaeans, who, under Marduk-apla-iddina II, made themselves masters of Babylon and gave their name in later days to the whole population of the country.
After the Kassite conquest of the country, northern Babylonia came to be known as Kar-Duniyash, "the wall of the god Duniyask," from a line of forts similar to that built by Nebuchadnezzar II between Sippar and Opis, to defend his kingdom from attacks from the north.
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.
