PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
November 2014
1017
“B
y 6000
B.C.
, Mesopotamia had been
settled, chiefly by migrants from the
Turkish and Iranian highlands. Sumer
is the ancient name for southern Mesopotamia.
Historians are divided on when the Sumerians
arrived in the area, but they agree that the
population of Sumer was a mixture of linguistic
and ethnic groups that included the earlier
inhabitants of the region. Sumerian culture mixed
foreign and local elements. The Sumerians were
highly innovative people who responded creatively
to the challenges of the changeable Tigris and
Euphrates rivers. Many of the great Sumerian
legacies, such as writing, irrigation, the wheel,
astronomy, and literature, can be seen as adaptive
responses to the great rivers. The precariousness
of existence in southern Mesopotamia also led to
a highly developed sense of religion. Cult centers
such as Eridu, dating back to 5000
B.C.
, served
as important centers of pilgrimage and devotion
even before the rise of Sumer. Many of the most
important Mesopotamian cities emerged in areas
surrounding the pre-Sumerian cult centers, thus
reinforcing the close relationship between religion
and government”
(Country Studies, Library of
Congress 2014)
.
“In
AD
637 the Arab armies of Islam swept north from the
Arabian Peninsula and occupied Iraq. Their most important
centers became Al-Kufa, Baghdad and Mosul. In 749 the first
Abbasid caliph was proclaimed at Al-Kufa and the Abbasids
would go on to make Iraq their own. The founding of Baghdad
by Al-Mansur saw the city become, by some accounts, the
greatest city in the world. In 1258 Hulagu - a grandson of the
feared Mongol ruler Genghis Khan - laid waste to Baghdad,
and killed the last Abbasid caliph. Political power in the
Muslim world shifted elsewhere. By 1638 Iraq had come under
Ottoman rule. After aperiod of relative autonomy, theOttomans
centralized their rule in the 19
th
century, where after Iraqi
resentment against foreign occupation crystalized even as the
Ottomans undertook a massive program of modernization. The
Ottomans held on until 1920, when the arrival of the British
saw Iraq come under the power of yet another occupying force,
which was at first welcomed then resented by Iraqis. Iraq
Republic of
became independent in 1932 and the period that followed was
distinguished by a succession of coups, counter-coups and by
the discovery of massive reserves of oil. On 14 July 1958 the
monarchy was overthrown in a military coup and Iraq became
a republic.
“In 1979 Saddam Hussein replaced Al-Bakr as president,
the revolution in Iran took place and relations between the
two countries sank to an all-time low. Saddam, increasingly
concerned about the threat of a Shiite revolution in his own
country, declared that Iraq wanted a return to exclusive
control over the Shatt al-Arab River. Full-scale war broke
out on 22 September 1980, with Iraqi forces entering Iran
along a 500 km front. The eight years of war that followed
were characterized by human-wave infantry advances and
the deliberate targeting of urban residential areas by enemy
artillery, all for little territorial gain. A million lives were lost
and the economic cost to Iraq alone is estimated at more than
US$100 billion”
(Lonely Planet, 2014)
.
Thanks to John W. Hager, “The British divided up the trig
list production in the Middle East early in WW II. I don’t know
the exact boundaries but I believe that Turkey, Iraq, Iran, the
Arabian Peninsula and areas east went to the Survey of India
(S.I). The rest went to Middle East Land Forces (M.E.L.F.).
“The principal datum for Iraq was Nahrwan (code NAH)
observed at Nahrwan S. E. Base in 1929 or 1930. Φ
o
=
