Khabur (Euphrates)

Coordinates: 35°8′33″N 40°25′51″E / 35.14250°N 40.43083°E / 35.14250; 40.43083
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the tributary of River Tigris, see Khabur (Tigris).
Khabur
Busayrah
Physical characteristics
SourceRas al-Ayn
 • elevation350 m (1,150 ft)
MouthEuphrates
 • coordinates
35°8′33″N 40°25′51″E / 35.14250°N 40.43083°E / 35.14250; 40.43083
Length486 km (302 mi)
Basin size37,081 km2 (14,317 sq mi)
Discharge 
 • average45 m3/s (1,600 cu ft/s)
 • minimum2 m3/s (71 cu ft/s)
 • maximum57 m3/s (2,000 cu ft/s)
[1][2]

The Khabur River is the largest perennial tributary to the

Busayrah
.

Geography

The course of the Khabur can be divided in two distinct zones: the Upper Khabur area or Khabur Triangle north of Al-Hasakah, and the Middle and Lower Khabur between Al-Hasakah and Busayrah.

Tributaries

The tributaries to the Khabur are listed from east to west. Most of these wadis only carry water for part of the year.

History

The river was well noted by ancient writers, with various names used by various writers:

Julian the Apostate crossed it "per navalem Aborae pontem". Strabo describes it as near the town of Anthemusias
.

The river is fed by several smaller streams, the names of which are mentioned in the later classical writers. These are, the

Julian
. Or. i.).

Nicephorion, and which probably derives its name from the river, and Theophylact Simocatta mentions Ἀβορέων φρούριον, which is, as certainly, the same place.[7]

Since the 1930s, numerous archaeological excavations and

northern Mesopotamia and Syria in the early 2nd millennium BCE, called Khabur ware. The region of the Khabur River is also associated with the rise of the Kingdom of the Mitanni
that flourished c. 1500–1300 BC.

The Khabur River is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible: "Tiglath-Pileser ... took the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh into exile. He took them to Halah, Habor (Khabur), Hara and the River Gozan, where they are to this day".[9] The identification of the Khabur with the Habor is not contested.

The ancient city of Corsote, visited by Cyrus the Younger on his ill-fated expedition against the Persians as told by Xenophon, was located at the confluence of the Khabur River, known by them as the 'Mascas', and the Euphrates according to Robin Waterfield.[10] Other authors have been circumspect upon the precise location of Corsote due to the changing names and courses of the rivers since that time.[11]

The Khabur river was sometimes identified with the Chebar or Kebar, the location of Tel Abib and setting of several important scenes of the Book of Ezekiel. However, recent scholarship identifies the Chebar as the ka-ba-ru waterway mentioned among the 5th century BCE Murushu archives from Nippur, close to Nippur and the Shatt el-Nil, a silted up canal toward the east of Babylon.[12]

Modern Khabur River Valley

Assyrian Church in Khabur River Valley.

The Khabur River Project, begun in the 1960s, involved the construction of a series of dams and canals. Three dams were built in the Khabur Basin as part of a large irrigation scheme that also includes the Tabqa Dam on the Euphrates. The section of the Khabur River within Tell Tamer Subdistrict are home to a self-governing Assyrian enclave. Two dams, Hasakah West and Hasakah East, have been constructed on tributaries to the Khabur between Ra's al-'Ayn and Al-Hasakah. The capacity of the reservoir of Hasakah West is 0.09 km3, and is also the southeastern end of the Assyrian enclave. The capacity of Hasakah East is 0.2 km3. A third dam, Hassakeh South, was constructed on the Khabur 25 km south of Al-Hasakah. The reservoir of this dam has a capacity of 0.7 km3.[13] The Khabur Valley, which now has about four million acres (16,000 km2) of farmland, is Syria's main wheat-cultivation area. The northeastern part is also the center for Syria's oil production.

References

  1. S2CID 129117310
    .
  2. doi:10.1016/0022-1694(63)90033-7
    .
  3. ^ Ptolemy, The Geography, 5.18.3; Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 30.3.
  4. ^ Procopius, B.P., 2.5.
  5. ^ Strabo, xvi; Zosimus, Historia Nova, 3.13; Ammianus Marcellinus, Rerum Gestarum, 14.3, 23.5.
  6. ^ Isidore of Charax
  7. ^ The History of Theophylact Simocatta, 4.10.
  8. doi:10.3406/paleo.1992.4566
    . Retrieved 7 July 2010.
  9. ^ 1 Chronicles 5:26
  10. ISBN 9780674023567
    . Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  11. ^ Rennell, James (1816). Illustrations, chiefly geographical, of the history of the expedition of Cyrus, From Sardis to Babylonia and the retreat of the 10,000 Greeks. Bulmer. p. 101. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  12. ISBN 0-385-19351-3
    .
  13. doi:10.4000/vertigo.3869
    . Retrieved 18 December 2009.
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