The Balikh River has its origins in Turkey, and ends up in Syria, on the very western part of Euphrates. It branches off the western curve of the Euphrates and flows directly south and meets up with the eastern curve at the Syrian city of Raqqa. As a rule the river does not run dry at any time of the year. Which is why the Balikh River is an important water source for the steppes of the Balikh Valley region. In antiquity, the area was densely populated.
The archaeologist Max Mallowan and his wife Agatha Christie made researches in the area in the 1930s, but soon gave up. Later on, in 1986 another archaeologist, Peter Akkerman began his excavations at Tell Sabi Abyad in the Balikh Valley, with much more success.
It is formed by the union of two branches, the Kara (the western Euphrates), which rises in the highlands of eastern Turkey north of Erzerum and the Murat (the eastern Euphrates), which issues from an area southwest of Mount Ararat, north of Lake Van.
The river used to divide into many channels at Basra, forming an extensive marshland, but the marshes were largely drained by the Saddam Hussein government in the 1990s as a means of driving out the rebellious Marsh Arabs.
The river valley formed the heartlands of the later empires of Babylonia and Assyria.
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