 the tigris and euphrates, with their tributaries, form a major river system in western asia. from sources in the taurus mountains of eastern turkey they flow by/through syria through iraq into the persian gulf. the system is part of the palearctic tigris-euphrates ecoregion, which includes iraq and parts of turkey, syria, iran, saudi arabia, kuwait and jordan. from their sources and upper courses in the mountains of eastern anatolia, the rivers descend through valleys and gorges to the uplands of syria and northern iraq and then to the alluvial plain of central iraq. the rivers flow in a south-easterly direction through the central plain and combine at al-qurnah to form the shatt al-arab and discharge into the persian gulf. ==geography== the ecoregion is characterized by two large rivers, the tigris and euphrates. the rivers have several small tributaries which feed into the system from shallow freshwater lakes, swamps, and marshes, all surrounded by desert. the hydrology of these vast marshes is extremely important to the ecology of the entire upper persian gulf. historically, the area is known as mesopotamia. as part of the larger fertile crescent, it saw the earliest emergence of literate urban civilization in the uruk period, for which reason it
Ecoregions_of_Asia Environment_of_Iran Environment_of_Iraq Fertile_Crescent Flooded_grasslands_and_savannas Palearctic_ecoregions Shatt_al-Arab_basin Swamps Wetlands_of_Iraq