Product Code Database
Al-Qurnah ( Kurnah or Qurna, meaning connection/joint in Arabic) is a town in southern Iraq about 74 km northwest of Basra, that lies within the conglomeration of Nahairat. Qurna is located at the confluence point of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to form the Shatt al-Arab waterway. Local folklore holds Qurnah to have been the original site of biblical paradise, the Garden of Eden, and location of the Tree of Knowledge.
In 1855, Al Qurnah was the site of the Qurnah Disaster, in which local tribes attacked and sank a convoy of a ship and rafts carrying 240 cases of antiquities discovered by Victor Place's mission to Dur-Sharrukin, Rawlinson's to Nineveh and Fulgence Fresnel's to Babylon.Larsen, M.T., The Conquest of Assyria: Excavations in an Antique Land, Routledge, 2014, pp 344-9 The loss of priceless antiquities was a notable disaster for those researching the antiquities of the region. Subsequent efforts to recover antiquities lost in the Qurnah Disaster, including a Japanese expedition in 1971-2, were largely unsuccessful.Namio Egami, "The Report of The Japan Mission For The Survey of Under-Water Antiquities At Qurnah: The First Season,"
.
The town experienced the Battle of Qurna during the Mesopotamian Campaign of World War I, when the British defeated Ottoman troops who had retreated from Basra in 1914. The Battle of Qurna secured the British front line in Southern Mesopotamia, thereby protecting Basra and the oil refineries at Abadan in Persia (now Iran).A.J. Barker, The First Iraq War, 1914–1918, Britain's Mesopotamian Campaign ,(Enigma, New York, 2009; originally published in 1967 as The Bastard War(US)/The Neglected War(UK)), 36
In 1977, Thor Heyerdahl sailed a reed boat from al Qurnah to show that migration between Mesopotamia with the Indus Valley civilization was possible. The voyage proved complicated because of the wars in the region and the vessel was eventually lost off Djibouti.
After the Gulf War (1991), the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein diverted river water away from the local marshes causing them to become completely desiccated. The Iraqi Government Assault on the Marsh Arabs - A Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper January 2003(PDF) (Report). Human Rights Watch. January 2003. Retrieved June 20, 2018. The wetlands have since shrunk to 58% of their pre-Drainage basin and are projected to drop below 50%.Al-Hilli, Majeed & Warner, Barry & Asada, Taro & Douabul, Ali. (2009). An assessment of vegetation and environmental controls in the 1970s of the Mesopotamian wetlands of southern Iraq. Wetlands Ecology and Management. 17. 207-223. 10.1007/s11273-008-9099-1. This loss has also been a result of Turkish and Iranian damming of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The United Nations has reported that the combined volume of these rivers has been reduced by 60%. These developments are said to have made the area more vulnerable to degradation and desertification.Hamza, Kanar, "Desertification and political onstability in the Tigris and Euphrates River Basins" (2010). Masters Theses. 423.
/a>
Majnoon Island near Al-Qurnah is a center for oil production of the giant Majnoon Oilfield. The area was built out of sand dunes and mud to create pathways for oil pipelines. The island was held by Iranian army during the Iran-Iraq war before Iraqi Chemical weapon were deployed.
As of the start of the 2003 Iraq War, conditions of the city were already reportedly woeful. Cracked pavements and bullet holes in local properties, the looting of the local hospital and the poor condition of the tree of knowledge made the return of tourism to the area challenging. e.thePeople : Article : The Legendary Garden of Eden Now a Wasteland The local economic, environmental and social conditions in Al-Qurnah district have since been described as fragile.
==Gallery==
|
|
