Euphrates

EUPHRA'TES (the abounding), a noted river, the largest in western Asia, rises in Armenia in two sources. One, on the northern side of the mountain of Ararat, runs in a south-easterly course, receives many tributaries in its winding course along the borders of Syria, and skirting the Arabian desert passes through the middle of Babylon to the sea. Its whole length is 1780 miles. It is navigable for large ships to Bassora, 70 miles above its mouth; a steamer drawing 4 feet of water has ascended to Bir, 1197 miles. It flows in a broad, deep current, filled to the level of its banks, and at Babylon is considerably less than a mile in width. For the last 800 miles of its course it does not receive a single tributary. The quantity of water discharged by the river at Hit is estimated at 72,804 cubic feet per second. The Tigris flows in a narrower channel, with deeper banks and a less rapid current. The country between the two rivers slopes toward the Tigris, and thus greatly favors the draining off of the superfluous waters of the Euphrates. The Euphrates overflows its banks in the spring of every year, when the snow of the Armenian mountains dissolves, and it sometimes rises 12 feet. It swells in March, and sinks in July. Dykes, lakes, and canals constructed at vast expense preserved the water for irrigation during the dry season, and prevented its carrying away the soil. History. — Euphrates is named as one of the rivers of Eden, Gen 2:13; called "the great river," Gen 15:18; Deut 1:7; noted as the eastern boundary of the Promised Land, Deut 11:24; Josh 1:4; 1 Chr 5:9; and of David's conquests, 2 Sam 8:3; 1 Chr 18:3; of those of Babylon from Egypt, 2 Kgs 24:7; is referred to in prophecy, Jer 13:4-7; Jer 46:2-10; Jer 51:63, and in Revelation 9:14; Num 16:12. In upward of 26 other passages it is spoken of as "the river." By this stream the captive Jews wept. Ps 137:1. It is now called the Frat by the natives. For a sketch-map of the course of the Euphrates see Assyria. The Murad-chai, a branch of the Euphrates, was crossed by Xenophon, b.c. 410. After this unites with the other chief stream, forming the Euphrates, the river is 120 yards wide. It was used to irrigate the valley around Babylon by means of numerous canals, dykes, and aqueducts, making the plain one of the most fertile spots in the world. It was announced in 1879 that a railroad had been projected along the Euphrates from Damascus to Bagdad. See Babylon and Chaldaea.