ABSTRACT
Watered by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, modern Iraq is the site of the ancient kingdoms of the Fertile Crescent, including the fabled cities of Babylon with its hanging gardens, and Ur, the reputed birthplace of Abraham. The modern state of Iraq lies on the ruins of thousands of years of civilization, once home to Nineveh, Babylon, and Ur, as well as many other cities now buried and, in some cases, still lost. The Turkish Ottoman Empire ruled the region of Iraq from the sixteenth century until the end of World War I as three provinces: Mosul in the north, Baghdad in the center, and Basra in the south. Great Britain developed a growing interest in modern Iraq after Turkey offered Britain's rival Germany a chance to build a railroad from Konya in southern Turkey to Basra in 1902. Tribal fighting, suppressed somewhat by the Ottomans, broke out anew, paralyzing much of western Iraq.
