Mesopotamia marsh drainage. Image 2 of 3. Coloured Landsat image of drained areas (grey) amongst marshland (dark red) around the Tigris (up centre) an

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Mesopotamia marsh drainage. Image 2 of 3. Coloured Landsat image of drained areas (grey) amongst marshland (dark red) around the Tigris (up centre) and Euphrates (along lower centre) rivers in Iraq. This image was taken in 1990. The marshes straddle the border between Iraq and Iran (which lies east of the Tigris river, at far right). The marshes were systematically drained in the mid- to late 20th century. This was done to provide agricultural land, but also to destroy the habitat of the Shi'a Muslim Marsh Arabs, who were persecuted by the Iraqi ruling Ba'athist Party. For a sequence of images showing the marshes shrinking between 1973 and 2000, see E600/094-096.

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Size: 7302px × 5694px
Photo credit: © NASA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 1990, aquatic, arab, destruction, drainage, draining, drying, earth, east, ecosystem, environment, euphrates, geography, habitat, image, imagery, iran, iranian, iraq, iraqi, landsat, marsh, marshland, mesopotamia, mesopotamian, middle, observation, river, rivers, satellite, shatt-al-arab, space, tigris, water