Geography of Iraq

Geography of Iraq
Iraq, the country of twin rivers (the Tigris and the Euphrates), the cradle of civilizations and the country of the tales of 1001 nights, is situated in the South-West of Asia, to the North-East of the Arabian Peninsula, and from the Eastern half of the Fertile Cresent.
Iraq covers an area about 200,000 square miles about half as big as the British Isles. The population of is about seven millions according to census of 1957.
Iraq is bounded on the North by Turkey, on the East by Iran, on the South-West by Saudi Arabia and Jordan and on North-West by Syria.
As far as the meaning of the territorial nomenclature is concerned the word Iraq is uncertain. According to the Arab geographers, Iraq means low-lying ground or coastland. According to Al-Masudi, it was called Iraq because it comprises the estuarine land of both the Tigris and the Euphrates. According to Al-Kalil, Iraq literally means "the sea-shore" and Iraq was so called because it lies on the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates and extends as far the sea.
Al-Masudi "Muruj al-Dhahab" vol. 3 p 140, Yakut, "Mujam al-Buldan" vol. 2 pp. 82-9. Al-Karmali gave the meaning of Iraq as the low land or land liable to inundiation.
Le Srautge translated the word Iraq as the "cliff" or "shore." None of the geographers gave Iraq to mean "cliff." He might have mistranslated the word "lower" as cliff.