* Contract dated “the year the Tigris, river of the gods,
     was canalized down to the sea”; i.e. as far as the point to
     which the sea then penetrated in the environs of Kornah.

This canal of Khammurabi ran from a little south of Babylon, joining those of Siniddinam and Rimsin, and probably cutting the alluvial plain in its entire length.* It drained the stagnant marshes on either side along its course, and by its fertilising effects, the dwellers on its banks were enabled to reap full harvests from the lands which previously had been useless for purposes of cultivation.  A ditch of minor importance pierced the isthmus which separates the Tigris and the Euphrates in the neighbourhood of Sippar.** Khammurabi did not rest contented with these; a system of secondary canals doubtless completed the whole scheme of irrigation which he had planned after the achievement of his conquest, and his successors had merely to keep up his work in order to ensure an unrivalled prosperity to the empire.

* Delattre is of opinion that the canal dug by Khammurabi is the Arakhtu of later epochs which began at Babylon and extended as far as the Larsa canal.  It must therefore be approximately identified with the Shatt-en-Nil of the present day, which joins Shatt-el-Kaher, the canal of Siniddinam.

** The canal which Khammurabi caused to be dug or dredged may be the Nar-Malka, or “royal canal,” which ran from the Tigris to the Euphrates, passing Sippar on the way.  The digging of this canal is mentioned in a contract.

Their efforts in this direction were not unsuccessful.  Samsuiluna, the son of Khammurabi, added to the existing system two or three fresh canals, one at least of which still bore his name nearly fifteen centuries later; it is mentioned in the documents of the second Assyrian empire in the time of Assurbanipal, and it is possible that traces of it may still be found at the present day.  Abieshukh,* Ammisatana,** Ammizadugga,*** and Samsusatana,**** all either continued to elaborate the network planned by their ancestors, or applied themselves to the better distribution of the overflow in those districts where cultivation was still open to improvement.

     * Abishukh (the Hebrew Abishua) is the form of the name
     which we find in contemporary contracts.  The official lists
     contain the variant Ebishu, Ebishum.

** Ammiditana is only a possible reading:  others prefer Ammisatana.  The Nar-Ammisatana is mentioned in a Sippar contract.  Another contract is dated “the year in which Ammisatana, the king, repaired the canal of Samsuiluna.”

*** This was, at first, read Ammididugga.  Ammizadugga is mentioned in the date of a contract as having executed certain works—­of what nature it is not easy to say—­on the banks of the Tigris; another contract is dated “the year in which Ammizadugga, the king,