Signs of The Hour: Euphrates River Drying Up

God's Messenger (may God bless him and grant him peace) said:

"The Hour will not come to pass before the river Euphrates dries up to unveil the mountain

of gold, for which people will fight. Ninety-nine out of one hundred will die [in the fighting],

and every man among them will say: 'Perhaps I may be the only one to remain alive.' "

Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim

The Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) said:

"The Euphrates reveals the treasures within itself. Whoever sees it should not take anything

from it."

Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Al-Burhan fi `Alamat al-Mahdi Akhir az-Zaman, p. 28

Soon the river Euphrates will disclose the treasure [the mountain] of gold. So, whoever will

be present at that time should not take anything of it.

Sahih Bukhari

It [the Euphrates] will uncover a mountain of gold [under it].

Sunan Abu Dawud

'Abdullah b. Harith b. Naufal reported:

I was standing along with Ubayy b. Kab and he said: The opinions of the people differ in

regard to the achievement of worldly ends. I said: Yes, of course. Thereupon he said: I heard

Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The Euphrates would soon uncover a

mountain of gold and when the people would hear of it they would flock towards it but the

people who would possess that (treasure) (would say): If we allow these persons to take out

of it they would take away the whole of it. So they would fight and ninety-nine out of one

hundred would be killed. Abu Kamil in his narration said: I and Abu Ka'b stood under the

shade of the battlement of Hassan.

(Muslim, 6922)

Video

Iraqis Panning for Gold: http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=LAF6uqaJw3o

The Euphrates River

The Euphrates is the longest and historically one of the most important rivers of Southwest Asia. Together

with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia. The river – originating in the Taurus

Mountains – flows from Turkey through Syria and Iraq to join the Tigris in the Shatt al-Arab, which flows

into the Persian Gulf.

The Euphrates provided the water that led to the first flowering of civilization in Sumer, dating from about

the 4th millennium BC. Many important ancient cities were located on or near the riverside, including

Mari, Sippar, Nippur, Shuruppak, Uruk, Ur and Eridu. The river valley formed the heartlands of the later

empires of Babylonia and Assyria. For several centuries, the river formed the eastern limit of effective

Egyptian and Roman control and western regions of the Persian Empire.

Many prophecy writers have long speculated about the rebuilding of ancient Babylon, and as America

moved into the Euphrates River Valley to eliminate Saddam Hussein, it fueled even more speculation

about the rise of Babylon. Whatever the future holds for Iraq, it should be noted that it is no mere

coincidence that the climactic events of the Last Days would cycle their way back to the region where the

civilization of the world began.

The Euphrates River Valley is widely regarded as the cradle of civilization. Here in this river valley stood

the earliest city-states constructed by mankind. (4000BC) The Tigris-Euphrates drainage basin loops

around the Middle East forming a crescent shaped green-space that has become known as the Fertile

Crescent. Ironically, this crescent likely encircles the ancient land of Eden.

As archaeologists have dug into the ruins of the cities of Babylonia they have unearthed thousands of clay

tablets in the cuneiform script. Great libraries have been unearthed and from these writings have come a

tremendous wealth of knowledge. We know that a very brilliant race, the Sumerians, lived there in earliest

times. A part of Babylonia was called Sumer after their name, and this word "Sumer" when taken over

into the Hebrew, and then transliterated into English appears as, "Shinar."

The Sumerians appear to be related to the Chinese, Mongolians, and Basques by their language. Before

3,000BC the Sumerians called the Euphrates by the name, "Puranum" meaning, "great water;" and

sometimes they called it "Pura," that is, "water." The Semitic people, including the Hebrews, called it

"Purat." The Persians altered the "p" to "ph" or "f", and added an initial vowel, making it, "Ufratu." To the

Greeks this became, "Euphrates" and the Greek name has been retained as the commonly held name for

the river. The Arabs today however, still call it "Furat." For over 5,000 years this important river has kept

actually to one name, varying only in pronunciation from language to language.

http://schools-wikipedia.org/wp/e/Euphrates.htm

Drought reveals archaeological treasures in Iraq

March 23, 2009

As the Euphrates River dries up in Iraq’s western Anbar province, ancient buildings are emerging from

the river bed, which archaeologists can now access for the first time.

According to a report by NPR (National Public Radio), the receding waters of the Euphrates River have

revealed ancient archaeological sites, some of which were unknown until now.

That’s because former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had flooded these sites in the mid-1980s.

For Ratib Ali al-Kubaisi, the director of Anbar provinces Antiquities Department, the drought has opened

up a whole new land of opportunity.

He explained that civilization began in Anbar, next to the Euphrates River.

Everyone thought that Anbar was only desert with no historical importance. But, we discovered that this

area is one of the most important archaeological areas in all of Iraq. This part of Iraq was the first to be

settled, he said.

In the mid-1980s, Saddam Husseins government dammed the Euphrates in the area, flooding a 120-mile-

long stretch of land near Iraq’s border with Syria.

What once was an enormous reservoir that stretched as far as the eye could see has shrunk an astonishing

90 percent since summer, according to officials.

Ratib said that at least 75 archeological sites had been partially excavated before the area was flooded.

They ran the gamut of civilizations from 3,000 B.C. to the Sumerian and Roman periods.

Ancient Jewish settlements were also submerged in the area.

But because of the receding waters, Ratib has been able to access some sites for the first time, including,

for instance, a cliff with a series of pre-Christian tombs carved into its face.

Though the water has heavily damaged them, Ratib said that they still have value.

I wish we could excavate these sites again. If we had the money and the resources, we could complete the

work we began all those years ago, he said.

But, it’s not only previously discovered archaeological sites that the drought has made accessible.

Ratib and a colleague have also uncovered what looks like an old stone wall, shards of pottery

everywhere, which he believes it is a Roman-era irrigation ditch.

I’ve never seen this site before. When we excavated this area decades ago, this was all buried underneath

the soil, but the receding waters uncovered it, he said.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/drought-reveals-archaeological-treasures-in-iraq_100170057.html

Fertile Crescent 'will disappear this century' by Fred Pearce - 27 July 2009

The Fertile Crescent is left dry as Turkish

dams reduce the Tigris and Euphrates

rivers to a trickle.

Is it the final curtain for the Fertile

Crescent? This summer, as Turkish dams

reduce the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to a

trickle, farmers abandon their desiccated

fields across Iraq and Syria, and efforts to

revive the Mesopotamian marshes appear

to be abandoned, climate modelers are

warning that the current drought is likely to

become permanent. The Mesopotamian

cradle of civilization seems to be returning

to desert.

Last week, Iraqi ministers called for urgent

talks with upstream neighbors Turkey and Syria, after the combination of a second year of drought and

dams in those countries cut flow on the Euphrates as it enters Iraq to below 250 cubic meters a second.

That is less than a quarter the flow needed to maintain Iraqi agriculture.

Drought has helped precipitate the crisis. The most detailed assessment of the Fertile Crescent's future

under climate change suggests flow on the Euphrates could fall by 73 per cent. "The ancient Fertile

Crescent will disappear in this century," forecasts Akio Kitoh of Japan's Meteorological Research Institute

in Tsukuba, Japan. "The process has already begun."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17517-fertile-crescent-will-disappear-this-century.html

Syria is drying up....Euphrates River... August 9th, 2009

Syria is experiencing

an economic

holocaust. There is no

other way to describe

what the Syrian regime

is so much trying to

hide.

The country is drying

up, and no less than

250,000 farmers were

forced in the past three

years to abandon their

land and migrate to the

large cities. They live

in tents there,

completely neglected

by the regime. These

figures appeared in a

special study undertaken by the United Nations and published on the al-Arabiya website.

The immense Euphrates River, Syria’s main source of water, is drying up.

The Turks are stopping its water in their territory, so that Syria and Iraq are receiving a declining portion

of the water. Within about 10 years, the river is expected to dry up completely outside Turkish territory.

Today already, it reaches Syria with contaminated water and therefore its fish, an important source of

livelihood, is becoming extinct.

As result of the drought that had been plaguing Syria for several years now, another important Syrian

water source, the Aasi (Orontes) River, is drying up as well. Its water is becoming saltier and increasingly

contaminated, and its fish are dying off. And without fish, there is no livelihood. Entire villages fed by its

waters for hundreds of years are simply being deserted.

Ground water in the country had reached such nadir that it is no longer possible to use the roughly

420,000 illegal wells dug by residents over the years. If there is no water, there is no agriculture; people

proceed to leave the village and move to the city. As there is no work there either, the distress is terrible

and political pressures builds up.

Many of the farmers leaving their villages are Kurd, which makes the problem an ethnic one. The Kurdish

refugees accuse the regime of doing nothing for them. For several years now they have been living in

thousands of tents near the big cities without being addressed.

Euphrates to dry up by Christmas 2023 September - 4 – 2009

In 2007, Redsky published an article

based on an Environment Protection

Agency (E.P.A.) report which had

predicted the Euphrates could dry up

by 2025. Redsky stated that 2023

was more likely and in keeping with

Global Meltdown Domino Effect

Timescales.

Here is an update:

The Euphrates River is drying up.

Strangled by water policies of Iraq’s

neighbours, Turkey and Syria, a

two-year drought and years of misuse by Iraq and its farmers, the river is significantly smaller than it was

just a few years ago. Officials worry it could soon be half what it is now.

The shrinking of the Euphrates, a river so crucial to the birth of civilization that the Book of Revelation

prophesied its drying up as a sign of the end times, has devastated farms along its banks, has left

fishermen impoverished and has depleted riverside towns as farmers flee to the cities, looking for work.

It is a crisis that threatens the roots of Iraq’s identity, not only as the land between two rivers, but as a

nation that was once the largest exporter of dates in the world, that once supplied German beer with barley

and that takes patriotic pride in its expensive Anbar rice.

Now Iraq is importing more and more grain. Farmers along the Euphrates say, with anger and despair,

they may have to abandon Anbar rice for cheaper varieties. Droughts are not rare in Iraq. But drought is

only part of what is choking the Euphrates and its larger, healthier twin, the Tigris.

The most frequently cited culprits are the Turkish and Syrian governments. Iraq has plenty of water, but it

is a downstream country. There are at least seven dams on the Euphrates in Turkey and Syria, according

to Iraqi water officials, and with no treaties or agreements, the Iraqi government is reduced to begging its

neighbours for water. But many U.S., Turkish and even Iraqi officials say the real problem is Iraq’s own

water management.

Leaky canals and wasteful irrigation squander the water; poor drainage leaves fields so salty from

evaporated water that women and children dredge huge white mounds from sitting pools of run-off.

Along the river, there is no shortage of resentment at the Turks and Syrians. But there is also resentment

at the Americans, Kurds, Iranians and the Iraqi government, all of whom are blamed. Scarcity makes foes

of everyone.

http://redskynews.com/?p=1007