Hi, its Clare here. Emily, Elise and I have just gotten back from a boating trip down the Euphrates river have made our way partly back the Tigris River. We have learned a lot on trip on the rivers and have made some interesting stops a long the way.
We started our trip by flying in to the city of Dayr az Zwar, a farming town on the Euphrates River. We got ready to go early in the morning and went down to the dock to start our tour. We were riding in a small shallow draft boat since it was the only way to navigate the rivers.
After about a day of riding down the river we were at the Syria, Iraq boarder where we would spend the night in one of the boating rentals camps. We had found that there are many animals living on the river. We had seen many frogs, snakes, birds, lizards and even a few gazelles. After a sleepless night on the marshes of the Euphrates we got back in our boat and headed down the river a little more until we came to the ancient city of Babylon. When we got out to see what was left of the empire all we saw was a mound of broken mud bricks, oh well, a little disappointing but still interesting. We learned that the town first flourished in the beginning of the thrid millennium BC. Also that the hanging gardens of Babylon was one of the ancient seven wonders of the world. We then got back on our boat to head back down the river and after another long day of boating we came to the Shatt-al-Arab to end our journey down the Euphrates river and start our trip up the tigris.
We spent the night with some villagers along the Shatt-al-Arab, restocked our food and supplies and started to go back up the tigris river. We were only allowed to go a forth of the way up the tigris river due to the war in Iraq. It probably wasn't good that we were in Iraq at all. Even though we didn't go very far I did notice that it was very hot and dry due to the arid climate and there was many sand storms. Elise had pointed out that the water quality in the river was very bad and still many of the people along the river drink that water.
After we had returned our boat we took a plane out of Iraq to get a good nights sleep and start our next adventure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon.
We started our trip by flying in to the city of Dayr az Zwar, a farming town on the Euphrates River. We got ready to go early in the morning and went down to the dock to start our tour. We were riding in a small shallow draft boat since it was the only way to navigate the rivers.
After about a day of riding down the river we were at the Syria, Iraq boarder where we would spend the night in one of the boating rentals camps. We had found that there are many animals living on the river. We had seen many frogs, snakes, birds, lizards and even a few gazelles. After a sleepless night on the marshes of the Euphrates we got back in our boat and headed down the river a little more until we came to the ancient city of Babylon. When we got out to see what was left of the empire all we saw was a mound of broken mud bricks, oh well, a little disappointing but still interesting. We learned that the town first flourished in the beginning of the thrid millennium BC. Also that the hanging gardens of Babylon was one of the ancient seven wonders of the world. We then got back on our boat to head back down the river and after another long day of boating we came to the Shatt-al-Arab to end our journey down the Euphrates river and start our trip up the tigris.
We spent the night with some villagers along the Shatt-al-Arab, restocked our food and supplies and started to go back up the tigris river. We were only allowed to go a forth of the way up the tigris river due to the war in Iraq. It probably wasn't good that we were in Iraq at all. Even though we didn't go very far I did notice that it was very hot and dry due to the arid climate and there was many sand storms. Elise had pointed out that the water quality in the river was very bad and still many of the people along the river drink that water.
After we had returned our boat we took a plane out of Iraq to get a good nights sleep and start our next adventure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon.
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