Iraq

Iraq is defined by the Tigris and the Euphrates, the two rivers that created Mesopotamia and that join before flowing into the Persian Gulf, forming the largest wetland system in western Asia. The Mesopotamian marshes are mazes of reedbeds, channels and floating islands where an amphibious culture based on the water buffalo, fishing and reed houses has been practised for thousands of years. To the north, Iraqi Kurdistan rises into the Zagros mountains, with oak woodland, gorges and winter snow, a refuge for the Persian leopard, the bezoar goat and the Syrian brown bear. The rest of the country is steppe and stony desert, with seasonal wadis and salt sabkhas. The marshes and the Gulf coast work as wintering grounds for large concentrations of migratory waterbirds.