Over 200 canals and 4,000 smaller channels identified in Iraq The system supplied water to farms before the first millennium B.C. A shift in the Euphrates River led to the canals becoming obsolete ...

A large network of ancient irrigation canals has been discovered in Iraq’s Eridu region, dating back over 3,000 years. The system, with over 200 major canals and 4,000 smaller ones, was used to ...

Beneath the ruins of Eridu, archaeologists have uncovered an extensive ancient irrigation system that once sustained early Mesopotamian agriculture. This network of canals, preserved for millennia, ...

A sprawling, hidden network of ancient irrigation canals has been uncovered near the ancient city of Eridu in southern Mesopotamia. Under the leadership of geoarchaeologist Jaafar Jotheri ...

A sprawling, hidden network of ancient irrigation canals has been uncovered near the ancient city of Eridu in southern Mesopotamia. Under the leadership of geoarchaeologist Jaafar Jotheri, researchers ...

Eridu was therefore left dry and uninhabited, preserving it like no other Mesopotamian region with irrigation systems that ended up buried under new canals. Satellite and drone images, as well as ...

This left the area dry and uninhabited in modern times, preserving the ancient landscape unlike elsewhere in Mesopotamia where older irrigation systems were buried under newer canals. Remnants of ...

Credit: Antiquity (2025). Archaeologists have discovered a massive and well-preserved network of ancient irrigation canals in southern Mesopotamia, providing new insights into how early ...

Researchers found thousands of ancient irrigation canals up to 5.6 miles (9 kilometers) long carved into the landscape near Basra in Iraq, which at the time was the Eridu region of Mesopotamia.