Euphrates

u-fra'tez, the historic river of Mesopotamia. It rises in the Armenian Mountains, receives the waters of Lake Van, makes a wide circuit to the westward, breaks through the mountain chain of Taurus, and meanders southward to a junction with the Tigris,--a twin river borne on the eastern side of the same mountains. The lower portion of the valley is naturally one of the most fertile sections in the world. During the winter months there is little water, but in the late spring and early summer an immense amount of water from the melting snows comes down, causing the river to overflow. As its snows lie on northern and western slopes they melt late in the season and the floods of the Euphrates are a month later than those of the Tigris. The geographical conditions are very similar to those of lower Egypt; in fact, Mesopotamia, or the country between the Tigris and Euphrates, has been called the Egypt of Asia; and Babylonia is said to be "the gift of the Euphrates and the Tigris." An immense amount of silt is brought down by the spring floods. The head of the gulf of Persia has been filled up to such an extent that an ancient seaport, formerly at the mouth of the river, is now 100 miles from the gulf. See Syria; Babylonia; Bagdad; Nineveh; Mesopotamia