Iturungal canal

The Iturungal canal (id₂-en-urin-gal, id₂-en-urin-gal-ka) was a major waterway in Sumer used for commercial and religious functions. It is unclear when it was built but it existed by the middle 3rd millennium BC and remained in use for several millennia. Mesopotamia was crisscrossed by numerous canals. Some were short distance links between cities and between main canals and cities. Canals were also modified, repaired, and sometime extended with the passage of time. As new cities rose and others were abandoned new canals were built and others fell out of use. The Iturungal canal was a long haul canal which transected Mesopotamia roughly north to south. The Id-Ka-sahar canal served similar duty further north. Much is uncertain about the Iturungal partly because of current gaps in archaeology but also because it too changed over time, changes especially driven by the shifting Euphrates River (and in some cases the Tigris river). Some of its course and some of the cites it flowed past are now more certain. The canal had many different spelling over its history including Id-en-urin-gal, Id-en-urin-gal, Id-EREN-nun-na, Id-en-urin-gal, En-er en-gal, I-tu-ru-un-gal, I-su-ru (en)-gal, I-dar-en-gal, and Id-dur-an-gal. The course of the Euphrates changed over time, especially around 800 BC when it was briefly called Arahtu, and its main course is called Purattu. Both branches may have,

Canal data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).