Al-Qurnah (Kurnah or Qurna, meaning connection/joint in Arabic) is a town in southern Iraq about 74 km northwest of Basra, that lies within the conglomeration of Nahairat. Qurna is located at the confluence point of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to form the Shatt al-Arab waterway.[2] Local folklore holds Qurnah to have been the original site of biblical paradise, the Garden of Eden, and location of the Tree of Knowledge.
History
View of Al-Qurnah in 1885 (Ridpath)
Local folklore holds Qurnah to have been the site of the Garden of Eden and the location of a city built by general Seleucus Nicator I.[3][4] An ancient tree is celebrated locally and shown to the tourists as the actual Tree of Knowledge of the Bible.[5] The tree died some time ago and replacement trees were planted. The tomb of Ezra is also described to be nearby and found further upstream on the river Tigris.[6][7]
In 1855, Al Qurnah was the site of the Qurnah Disaster, in which local tribes attacked and sank a convoy of a ship and rafts carrying 240 cases of antiquities discovered by Victor Place's mission to Khorsabad, Rawlinson's to Kuyunjik and Fresnel's to Babylon.[8][9] The loss of priceless antiquities was a notable disaster for those researching the antiquities of the region.[8][10] Subsequent efforts to recover antiquities lost in the Qurnah Disaster, including a Japanese expedition in 1971-2, were largely unsuccessful.[11]
River rafts loaded with antiquities floating down River Tigris (V Place, 1867)
1994 map of the Al Qurnah area showing drainage of Marshes
After the First Gulf War (1991), the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein diverted river water away from the local marshes causing them to become completely desiccated.[18] The wetlands have since shrunk to 58% of their pre-drainage area and are projected to drop below 50%.[19] This loss has also been a result of Turkish and Iranian damming of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.[20][21] The UN has reported that the combined volume of these rivers has been reduced by 60%.[22] These developments are said to have made the area more vulnerable to degradation and desertification.[23]
As of the start of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, conditions of the city were already reportedly woeful.[26][27] Cracked pavements and bullet holes in local properties, the looting of the local hospital[28] and the poor condition of the tree of knowledge[29] made the return of tourism to the area challenging.[30][31] The local economic, environmental and social conditions in Al-Qurnah district have since been described as fragile.[32]
Notable people
Nuri Ja'far (1914 – 7 November 1991), psychologist and philosopher of education.[33]
Gallery
Basra area map.
Farm outside Al Qurnah
Shrine in Al Qurnah
Ezra's Tomb in Kurnah
Rafts used for transport on the River Tigris
Depiction of rafts (Keleks) loaded with antiquities that sank near Al Qurnah in 1855 (Victor Place, 1867)
^A.J. Barker, The First Iraq War, 1914–1918, Britain's Mesopotamian CampaignArchived 2021-06-06 at the Wayback Machine,(Enigma, New York, 2009; originally published in 1967 as The Bastard War(US)/The Neglected War(UK)), 36
^Al-Jaburi, Kamel Salman (2003). Mu'jam Al-Udaba' min Al-'Asr Al-Jahili Hatta Sanat 2002 معجم الأدباء من العصر الجاهلي حتى سنة 2002 [Dictionary of writers from the pre-Islamic era until 2002] (in Arabic). Vol. 6 (first ed.). Beirut: Dar Al-Kotob Al-Ilmiyah. p. 393.
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