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The Euphrates

The western river of Mesopotamia, flowing through Babylon, 539-521 BCE

The Euphrates is the western of the two great rivers of Mesopotamia. It flowed through the middle of Babylon, and its waters fed the canals of the richest farmland in Asia. Herodotus says Cyrus took Babylon in 539 by diverting it, and Darius beat Nidintu-Bel beside it at Zazana in 522.

In the game: The Euphrates is named in the Bagastana level's texts, at the battle of Zazana, and in Babylon's trade partner notes.

The river through the city

Ancient account

Herodotus says the Euphrates, broad, deep and swift, runs through the middle of Babylon from Armenia to the Erythraean Sea. He says Queen Nitocris made it wind above the city and built a bridge of stone piers in it.

Herodotus 1.180, 1.185-186

Cyrus and the river

Disputed

Herodotus says Cyrus drew off the Euphrates into a lake and sent his men into Babylon along the river bed while the people feasted. The Nabonidus Chronicle says only that Babylon was taken without a battle, and the Cyrus Cylinder that Marduk let Cyrus enter in peace.

Herodotus 1.189-191; Nabonidus Chronicle; Cyrus Cylinder

Zazana

In the record

Darius says that after crossing the Tigris he marched on Babylon, and at Zazana on the Euphrates Nidintu-Bel met him again. Darius won, and drove the enemy into the water, where the river carried them away. Then he took Babylon.

Behistun inscription §19-20

Canals and fields

Ancient account

Herodotus says Babylonia was cut by canals, the greatest navigable to the Tigris, and that its grain returned two hundredfold, even three hundredfold. Thousands of tablets from the Persian period record the canals, their fields and the families who leased them.

Herodotus 1.193; the Murashu archive