Irrigation

Peyton H.

What is Irrigation:

The canals and the workers taking water from them.

Irrigation is putting water on crops to help them grow. In Mesopotamia irrigation was a key to life. In the fertile crescent it doesn't rain lot so growing crops wasn't easy. So the Sumerians had to get creative. They built canals to help transport water from Euphrates and Tigris Rivers to farmland. The Sumerians would have workers then take the water and put it on the land. They would grow wheat, figs, peas, and olives. Mesopotamia is known as the birthplace of agriculture and irrigation made even more advances in agriculture.

Irrigation was made by building canals. These canals would take water from either the Tigris or Euphrates Rivers. It does not rain much in the Mesopotamia area so getting water from the rivers. These canals were not just used for farmland people would also use them to transport goods and people. They used them for military purposes as well. These canals were more then just canals they were a key to life for the Sumerians.

How Irrigation was made:

The canals and people in boats.

The importance of irrigation and its impacts:

The canals and people farming by using the water from the canals.

Irrigation had more of an impact then just providing water to land. For example irrigation led to more food being grown which led to the population growing. Since the population was increasing they had to expand and make new cities including Ur, Uruk, and Babylon. Irrigation caused canals to be built which the canals had multiple purposes. Those include transporting goods, people, and armies. The one negative impact irrigation is Mesopotamia is that people can no longer farm like they used to be able to because of the intense farming back then. This is due to salinization. Salinization is when the land gets salty which makes it harder to grow crops. This happens evrywhere but since the Sumerians farmed so much it has a greater impactn in the Mesopotamia area.

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