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Upper Mesopotamia is the name used for the uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq and northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, in the northern Middle East. This region (together with northeastern Iraq) is approximately correspondent with what was Assyria from the 25th century BCE through to the mid-7th century CE.〔Georges Roux - Ancient Iraq〕 After the Arab Islamic conquest of the mid-7th century AD the region has been known by the traditional Arabic name of ''al-Jazira'' ((アラビア語: الجزيرة) "the island"), also transliterated ''Djazirah'', ''Djezirah'', ''Jazirah'', which derives from the earlier Syriac (Assyrian) variant ''Gazerṯo'' (). The region extends south from the mountains of Anatolia, east from the hills on the left bank of the Euphrates river, west from the mountains on the right bank of the Tigris river and includes the Sinjar plain. It extends down the Tigris to Samarra and down the Euphrates to Hit. The Khabur River runs for over 400 km across the plain, from Turkey in the north, feeding into the Euphrates. The major settlements are Mosul, Deir ez-Zor, Ar Raqqah, Al Hasakah, Diyarbakr and Qamishli. The western, Syrian part, is essentially contiguous with the Syrian Al-Hasakah Governorate and is described as "Syria's breadbasket".〔(The next battlefield )〕 The eastern, Iraqi part, includes and extends slightly beyond the Iraqi Ninewa Governorate. In the north it includes the Turkish provinces of Şanlıurfa, Mardin, and parts of Diyarbakır Province. ==Geography== The name ''al-Jazira'' has been used since the 7th century CE by Islamic sources to refer to the northern section of Mesopotamia, which together with the Sawād, made up al-‘arāq (Iraq). The name means "island", and at one time referred to the land between the two rivers, which in Assyrian is ''Bit Nahren''. Historically the name referred to as little as the Sinjar plain coming down from the Sinjar Mountains, and as much as the entire plateau east of the coastal ranges. In pre-Abbasid times the western and eastern boundaries seem to have fluctuated, sometimes including what is now northern Syria to the west and Adiabene in the east. Al-Jazira is characterised as an outwash or alluvial plain, quite distinct from the Syrian Desert and lower-lying central Mesopotamia; however the area includes eroded hills and incised streams. The region has several parts to it. In the northwest is one of the largest salt flats in the world, Sabkhat al-Jabbul. Further south, extending from Mosul to near Basra is a sandy desert not unlike the Empty Quarter. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries the region has been plagued by drought. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Upper Mesopotamia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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