05/07/2026

theSunday Special VII ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2026

U RUK , the world's first metropolis and the birthplace of written language, was nourished by the Euphrates River, as was Babylon, ancient Mesopotamia's grandest city. The fertile plain between the Euphrates and its companion waterway, the Tigris River, was one of humankind's cradles of civilisation. Researchers now have deciphered how the Euphrates first formed, looking much further back in time than the era of these great urban centres that arose mere millennia ago. Guided by seismic images of buried sediments and other data, they said the Euphrates appears to have been born between 3.6 million and 1.6 million years ago as two earlier river systems merged due to tectonic activity in the Taurus Mountains in the southern part of modern-day Turkiye. The Euphrates, the longest river in southwest Asia, extends about 2,800km, originating in Turkiye and flowing through Syria and Iraq before feeding into the Persian Gulf. Present-day cities on the banks of the Euphrates include Birecik in Turkiye, Raqqa in Syria and Ramadi, Fallujah and Nasiriyah in Iraq. Ancient cities on the Euphrates also included Ur and Mari. While the Euphrates has long shaped the region's geology, the timing of its origin and the evolution of its present course had remained enigmatic. The researchers said decoding the river's backstory was important to understand the milestones in human culture in agriculture, writing, urban development and other areas that occurred on its floodplains. Geologists using subsurface seismic data, while trying to identify possible gas reserves under the Mediterranean, spotted buried channel-like features dating to a time more than five million years ago when large parts of the sea had dried up, an event called the Messinian salinity crisis. They determined that two separate rivers – predecessors to the modern-day Karasu and Murat rivers in Turkiye – flowed across a region spanning Turkiye and Syria and fed into the Mediterranean basin. The scientists believe tectonic activity in this earthquake-prone region caused the Murat predecessor to divert toward the

Scientists decipher ancient origins of Euphrates River Waterway flowing through Fertile Crescent acted as lifeline for civilisations

across eastern Anatolia. “Today, the waters along the Euphrates and the Tigris join near Basra to form a huge delta at the head of the Persian Gulf. They have filled in a large area of Mesopotamian plain upon which early agriculture developed, including early city-states and the development of cuneiform writing so vital to early human development,” Lang said. The flow of even the mightiest rivers can be changed by dramatic geological events. “The biggest river on the planet – the Amazon – used to flow west towards modern-day Colombia and Peru towards its paleo-Pacific deltaic coast before the rise of the Andes. “As the Andes grew with huge uplifts, all the former distributaries reversed direction over millions of years, and now the Amazon flows into the Atlantic,” Lang told Reuters. Access to the Euphrates is often connected to the rise of history’s earliest empires, such as Babylon. – WIKIPEDIAPIC

The sun sets over the Euphrates river in Raqqa, eastern Syria. – REUTERSPIC

helped with the study published in the journal Nature Geoscience , along with Chevron geologist Andrew Madof. The scientists, through modelling of the underground features, determined these two ancient rivers had flow rates exceeding the modern-day Nile and Tigris Euphrates. Working backward, the scientists traced the two ancient rivers to onshore Turkiye. By examining geological data from sediments in valleys and coal deposits now uplifted into the Taurus Mountains, they determined the present-day Karasu and Murat rivers were likely the original sources of those buried channels. “But somehow they had got cut off from their western lower valley reaches and had joined together to form what is now the modern-day Euphrates River. That “somehow” was, of course, tectonic activity

Gulf, with the Karasu predecessor later joining it. This, they said, formed a powerful single river system that became the Euphrates. A key tool used by the scientists was seismic imaging, a technique that creates detailed two and three-dimensional maps of Earth's subsurface by recording how sound waves travel through and bounce off underground rock layers. It was through seismic imaging that they detected the features that were ancient river channels hidden beneath the seabed. “This technology is the equivalent of using ultrasound to image fine details of a developing baby or an arthritic knee. “But in this case, we use it to image buried gravel, sand, mud, limestone and salt that have been compacted and turned into rock,” said University of Western Australia geoscientist Simon Lang, who

Homer’s legacy lasted millennia, inspiring even Romans to claim historical link to Troy

That was, at least, until the world’s worst, luckiest archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann claimed he found Troy in 1890.

The site he dug at was indeed the site most modern day researchers think Troy was located, but Schliemann was haphazard in his excavation.

From page VI

Without taking any notes, he simply dug a trench, gave whatever ancient jewellery he found to his wife and then marched off to call himself a great discoverer. Professional researchers eventually visited the site and discovered a total of nine cities had actually been built there, with the oldest dating back to 3,000 BC. The sixth layer, or Troy VI, is generally believed by historians to be the Troy Homer was writing about, dating from 1700 to 1250 BC. Its destruction would have thus coincided with the Bronze Age collapse, a period of upheaval that saw many Mediterranean kingdoms destroyed, with the notable exception of Egypt. Of course, this subject has many theories and not many firm facts, so any statement about it must be taken with a

A 17th century painting depicts Achilles (left) in combat with Hector, Paris’s elder brother. – PICS FROM WIKIPEDIA

A 16th century painting depicts Aeneas, whom the Romans regarded as their forefather, fleeing Troy during its fall.

own spin on the subject, just like Homer over 2,000 years ago. So, when you are seated in the cinema for Nolan’s The Odyssey , spare a thought on how the world you live in might be remembered millennia down the line. How will you?

themselves descendants of Aeneas, a Trojan refugee community. In the English language, phrases such as “Achilles’s heel” and “Trojan horse” remain part of the lexicon. And of course, we still have writers, artists and filmmakers still putting their

pinch of salt. Regardless of how true or false the story of Troy is, its cultural impact is still unmistakable. Even the Romans, ancient to us now, were inspired and eager to link themselves to the Trojan War, by claiming