Portal:Iraq/Selected picture/2006

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[edit] Week 13

The Euphrates (the traditional Greek name for the river, Arabic: الفرات; Al-Furat, Old Persian: Ufrat, Syriac: ܦܪܘܬ/ܦܪܬ; Prâth/Frot, Turkish: Fırat, Assyrian Akkadian: Pu-rat-tu, Hebrew: פְּרָת) is the westernmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia (Beth Nahrain in Syriac), the other being the Tigris. The form Euphrates may originate from Old Persian and Avestan (Old-Iranian) huperethuua "good to cross over," from hu- "good" + peretu- "ford," [1] but the Sumerian ruler Gudea called the river buranun in a Sumerian language inscription about 1600 years before Indo-European Old Persian speakers conquered Mesopotamia.