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The Ottoman Empire's control of Bagdhad is no longer challenged by anything but it's own decadence but once valiant soldiers of the Ottoman Empire and fierce Persian warriors spilled their blood into the sand in battles over Baghdad. - Aman, tour guide of Bagdhad. The sixteenth centuries started with the Ottoman Turks controlling Bagdhad thanks to earlier conquests. In 1619 Bekr a captain of the janissaries, or the elite troops of the empire, declared himself the warlord of Bagdhad. In defence against a nearing Ottoman army, he offered to let the Persians take over the city. Worried Ottoman leaders made peace with the rebels and Bekr kept the city gates closed against the Persian army. His son betrayed him and opened the gates. The Persian army killed the entire rebel family along with the soldiers who supported them on the motto that traiters should not be trusted. The Ottoman troops would need a series of campains lasting until 1626 to retake Baghdad. In 1639 the two opposing empires agreed to a peace which has lasted until now. (pg. 142, Iraq from Summer to Saddam) This marked the first of many eneffecient rulers in the Ottoman empire who led to it's long decline from 1600 to the present date of 1800. In the narrow sense, Mesopotamia is the area between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, north or northwest of the bottleneck at Baghdad, in modern Iraq; it is Al-Jazirah ("The Island") of the Arabs. South of this lies Babylonia, named after the city of Babylon. However, in the broader sense, the name Mesopotamia has come to be used for the area bounded on the northeast by the Zagros Mountains and on the southwest by the edge of the Arabian Plateau and stretching from the Persian Gulf in the southeast to the spurs of the Anti-Taurus Mountains in the northwest. Only from the latitude of Baghdad do the Euphrates and Tigris truly become twin rivers, the Rafidain of the Arabs, which have constantly changed their courses over the millennia. The low-lying plain of the Karun River in Persia has always been closely related to Mesopotamia, but it is NOT considered part of Mesopotamia as it forms its own river system. Mesopotamia, south of Ar-Ramadi (about 70 miles, or 110 kilometres, west of Baghdad) on the Euphrates and the bend of the Tigris below Samarra' (about 70 miles north-northwest of Baghdad), is flat alluvial land. Between Baghdad and the mouth of the Shatt al-'Arab (the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, where it empties into the Persian Gulf) there is a difference in height of only about 100 feet (30 metres). As a result of the slow flow of the water, there are heavy deposits of silt, and the riverbeds are raised. Consequently, the rivers often overflow their banks (and may even change their course) when they are not protected by high dikes. In recent times they have been regulated above Baghdad by the use of escape channels with overflow reservoirs. The extreme south is a region of extensive marshes and reed swamps, Hawrs, which, probably since early times, have served as an area of refuge for oppressed and displaced peoples. The supply of water is not regular; as a result of the high average temperatures and a very low annual rainfall, the ground of the plain of latitude 35 N is hard and dry and unsuitable for plant cultivation for at least eight months in the year. Consequently, agriculture without risk of crop failure, which seems to have begun in the higher rainfall zones and in the hilly borders of Mesopotamia in the 10th millennium BC, began in Mesopotamia itself, the real heart of the civilization, only after artificial irrigation had been invented, bringing water to large stretches of territory through a widely branching network of canals. Since the ground is extremely fertile and, with irrigation and the necessary drainage, will produce in abundance, southern Mesopotamia became a land of plenty that could support a considerable population. The cultural superiority of north Mesopotamia, which may have lasted until about 4000 BC, was finally overtaken by the south when the people there had responded to the challenge of their situation. The present climatic conditions are fairly similar to those of 8,000 years ago. An English survey of ruined settlements in the area 30 miles around ancient Hatra (180 miles northwest of Baghdad) has shown that the southern limits of the zone in which agriculture is possible without artificial irrigation has remained unchanged since the first settlement of Al-Jazirah. The availability of raw materials is a historical factor of great importance, as is the dependence on those materials that had to be imported. In Mesopotamia, agricultural products and those from stock breeding, fisheries, date palm cultivation, and reed industries [in short, grain, vegetables, meat, leather, wool, horn, fish, dates, and reed and plant-fibre products] were available in plenty and could easily be produced in excess of home requirements to be exported. There are bitumen springs at Hit (90 miles northwest of Baghdad) on the Euphrates (the Is of Herodotus). On the other hand, wood, stone, and metal were rare or even entirely absent. The date palm--virtually the national tree of Iraq--yields a wood suitable only for rough beams and not for finer work. Stone is mostly lacking in southern Mesopotamia, although limestone is quarried in the desert about 35 miles to the west and "Mosul marble" is found not far from the Tigris in its middle reaches. Metal can only be obtained in the mountains, and the same is true of precious and semiprecious stones. Consequently, southern Mesopotamia in particular was destined to be a land of trade from the start. Only rarely could "empires" extending over a wider area guarantee themselves imports by plundering or by subjecting neighbouring regions. The raw material that epitomizes Mesopotamian civilization is clay: in the almost exclusively mud-brick architecture and in the number and variety of clay figurines and pottery artifacts, Mesopotamia bears the stamp of clay as does no other civilization, and nowhere in the world but in Mesopotamia and the regions over which its influence was diffused was clay used as the vehicle for writing. Such phrases as cuneiform civilization, cuneiform literature, and cuneiform law can apply only where people had had the idea of using soft clay not only for bricks and jars and for the jar stoppers on which a seal could be impressed as a mark of ownership but also as the vehicle for impressed signs to which established meanings were assigned--an intellectual achievement that amounted to nothing less than the invention of writing.
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World Trade Center Attack Memorial - September 11, 2001 Breaking News From GOD: April 17, 2006 11:22 AM
Send mail to Webmaster (at) Twin-Towers.net with questions or comments about
this web site. On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, at 8:45am New York local time, One World Trade Center, the north tower, was hit by a hijacked 767 commercial jet airplane, loaded with fuel for a trans-continental flight. Two World Trade Center, the south tower, was hit by a similar hijacked jet 18 minutes later at 9:03am. (In separate but related attacks, the Pentagon building near Washington D.C. was hit by a hijacked 757 at 9:43am, and at 10:10am, a fourth hijacked jetliner crashed in Pennsylvania.) The south tower, WTC 2, which had been hit second, was the first to suffer a complete structural collapse at 10:05am, 62 minutes after being hit itself, 80 minutes after the first impact. The north tower, WTC 1, then also collapsed at 10:29am, 104 minutes after being hit. WTC 7, a substantial 47 story office building in its own right, built in 1987, was damaged by the collapsing towers, caught fire, and later in the afternoon also totally collapsed.
The list of collapsed buildings (as confirmed by the New York Times through Saturday, 2001.0915) included all seven buildings of the World Trade center complex — including WTC 6, the U.S Customs House to the north; WTC 3, the 22 story Marriot World Trade Center hotel just west of Tower Two; and WTC 4 and 5, the Plaza Buildings to the east (although satellite images suggest much of WTC 5, the north Plaza Building, was still standing). Other nearby buildings were significantly damaged, including the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, and One Liberty Plaza, a 54 floor, 743' tall building across Church Street to the east. About 2800 people died in the attack. The recovery and site clearing process officially concluded on May 30, 2002 with 1796 people still remain unrecovered. 1.8 million tons of debris was removed from the disaster site. Yahoo! Buzz Index Overall Leaders 1. Jennifer Lopez 2. Britney Spears 3. Euro 2004 4. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 5. Usher 6. Paris Hilton 7. Detroit Pistons 8. Jessica Simpson 9. NBA 10. Linkin Park 11. Eminem 12. JoJo 13. Lindsay Lohan 14. Ryan Reynolds 15. Los Angeles Lakers Yahoo! Buzz Index Overall Movers 1. Matt Starr 2. Jeanie Buss 3. Marion Jones 4. Jennifer Lopez 5. Johnny Ramone 6. Bloomsday 7. Ulysses 8. Olympic Torch 9. Collateral 10. Nile River 11. Bill Davidson 12. Phil Jackson 13. Gone With the Wind 14. Iraq 15. Shelly Brown Yahoo! Buzz Index Television Leaders 1. Paris Hilton 2. Dragon Ball Z 3. Nicole Richie 4. Days of Our Lives 5. The Simpsons 6. Oprah Winfrey 7. American Idol 8. The Simple Life 2 9. Big Brother 10. Yu-Gi-Oh! 11. Entertainment Tonight 12. Sponge Bob Square Pants 13. Last Comic Standing 2 14. Friends 15. Sex and the City Yahoo! Buzz Index Music Leaders 1. Britney Spears 2. Usher 3. Jessica Simpson 4. Linkin Park 5. Eminem 6. JoJo 7. Beyonce Knowles 8. Slipknot 9. Christina Aguilera 10. D-12 11. Avril Lavigne 12. Tupac Shakur 13. Evanescence 14. Blink 182 15. 50 Cent Yahoo! Buzz Index Music Movers 1. Johnny Ramone 2. Ryan Cabrera 3. 98 Degrees 4. Alanis Morissette 5. Aretha Franklin 6. The Ramones 7. Justin Guarini 8. SWV 9. William Hung 10. Dave Navarro 11. Tim McGraw 12. Tragically Hip 13. Diana DeGarmo 14. Los Lobos 15. Lionel Richie Yahoo! Buzz Index Sports Leaders 1. Euro 2004 2. Detroit Pistons 3. NBA 4. Los Angeles Lakers 5. NASCAR 6. MLB 7. Kobe Bryant 8. NBA Finals 9. U.S. Open 10. David Beckham 11. Chicago Cubs 12. NFL 13. New York Yankees 14. Olympics 15. PGA Yahoo! Buzz Index Sports Movers 1. Jeanie Buss 2. Marion Jones 3. Olympic Torch 4. New York Marathon 5. Triple Crown 6. Chauncey Billups 7. Detroit Pistons 8. Larry Brown 9. Cristiano Ronaldo 10. Darko Milicic 11. Richard Hamilton 12. Jennie Finch 13. Tayshaun Prince 14. Karl Malone 15. Gary Payton Yahoo! Buzz Index Actors and Actresses Leaders 1. Jennifer Lopez 2. Lindsay Lohan 3. Ryan Reynolds 4. Ashlee Simpson 5. Hilary Duff 6. Pamela Anderson 7. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen 8. 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Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 14. Zelda 15. Mega Man Yahoo! Buzz Index Video Games Movers 1. NBA Live 2004 2. SOCOM 2 3. EverQuest 4. Pokemon Crater 5. Starcraft Cheats 6. Silent Hill 4 7. Battlefield 1942 8. Command and Conquer 9. Fire Emblem 10. Mortal Kombat 11. Final Fantasy X-2 12. Sonic 13. Counter-Strike Hacks 14. FFX 15. MVP Baseball 2004 Yahoo! Buzz Index Networks Leaders 1. ESPN 2. Cartoon Network 3. Nickelodeon 4. BBC 5. CNN 6. Disney Channel 7. MTV 8. Weather Channel 9. Food Network 10. CBS 11. QVC 12. Fox News 13. Univision 14. MSNBC 15. PBS Yahoo! Buzz Index Baseball Leaders 1. Chicago Cubs 2. New York Yankees 3. Houston Astros 4. Boston Red Sox 5. Los Angeles Dodgers 6. San Francisco Giants 7. Texas Rangers 8. San Diego Padres 9. St. Louis Cardinals 10. Cincinnati Reds 11. Philadelphia Phillies 12. Atlanta Braves 13. Chicago White Sox 14. Milwaukee Brewers 15. Anaheim Angels Yahoo! Buzz Index Basketball Leaders 1. Detroit Pistons 2. Los Angeles Lakers 3. Dallas Mavericks 4. Chicago Bulls 5. Indiana Pacers 6. Sacramento Kings 7. Minnesota Timberwolves 8. San Antonio Spurs 9. Boston Celtics 10. Houston Rockets 11. New Jersey Nets 12. Orlando Magic 13. Memphis Grizzlies 14. New York Knicks 15. Phoenix Suns Yahoo! Buzz Index Football Leaders 1. Dallas Cowboys 2. Oakland Raiders 3. Green Bay Packers 4. San Francisco 49ers 5. Chicago Bears 6. Washington Redskins 7. Pittsburgh Steelers 8. Philadelphia Eagles 9. Indianapolis Colts 10. Miami Dolphins 11. Cincinnati Bengals 12. Detroit Lions 13. Seattle Seahawks 14. Cleveland Browns 15. New York Giants Yahoo! Buzz Index Hockey Leaders 1. Tampa Bay Lightning 2. Detroit Red Wings 3. Calgary Flames 4. Philadelphia Flyers kate faber Paris Hilton Sex Video TapeWORLD TRADE CENTER TERRORIST ATTACK IN NEW
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