Show I 1 new nation Nati on out of oldest land supposed site of garden of eden included in territory of Kirg kingdom dorn of arak SLICE TAKEN FROM TURKEY under british mandate and arabian rule the tha section better known as mesopotamia Is expected to regain former glory the impending addition of a new nev member to the family of nations the kingdom of arak to function under a british mandate is mentioned in recent dispatches from london II 11 IV t tills this new country Js Is in ill reality one of the oldest and ewt historic patches pat clies of the earths burbace Is told in the following bulletin front tile the washington headquarters of the national geographic society itak has existed os as a geographical name dome for ages says the bulletin but in recent centuries it hns had little more official sanction than thea manhattan for or the american metropolis or frisco for a thriving pacific port yet it i covers more or less indefinitely it a region known knon UK often famous in every age of man from the dain of 0 tradition to the present the fertile plain of the tigris and euphrates valleys valley w villere here the garden of eden is supposed by many students to have been situated strip arak of it its alias call it bah 1305 ion Jn 1 eveh mesopotamia ind and it Is known tf td aneg aei F school child A slice of turkey the country which it Is 19 proposed to erect into the practically ert ingdon ir of arak was placed und the candate pi of great uru bateu king ej ulab up odthe the turkish empire fol the world war ar and was vlas generally spoken ot of as the mandate for mesopotamia it Is difficult to exaggerate the agricultural ri paradise that might be buu built up in the lower valley of tile the two rivers supplemented by the mineral steral taken froidl the regions farther north it if the country were under buder a strong government goern ment were peopled by alert educated inhabitants arid and it if thu necessary capital and modern machinery were ere ai lable even with tte the factors as they are the british tho will bill continue to hold the mandate and the arabians who mho will ill be lu in immediate charge barge of the government ere are counting on tile the rise of a state tt alch may be compared without disadvantage with ith some of the great governments el ern n ments that have occupied tile the land in the past to gain an idea of what wonderful development can be brought about in mesopotamia one need only look luto into ne lie I it IL L at the beginning of history the plain of the tigris and euphrates v as a garden spot teeming with a well fed and wealthy people it if there was a grandeur that was greece and a glory that was home there was as truly a splendor that was babylon and the splendor of babylon was made possible 60 years ago largely by the wealth that sprang front from the intensive cultivation of the river plain under a gigantic system of irrigation which e ei en the most ambitious modern systems probably lia liale liae le failed in ili many ways A ays to surpass Baby lons lous agricultural utopia was LO cot t a short lived affair but continued for nearly ten times as long as the period which has passed since white hite ile men settled la america the country throve with ith only mieor interruptions interruption und under er babylonians As syrians chal deans greeks and romans komans but always tile the settled civilization of the agrical jurists was threatened by itlie ithe turbulent hill people to the north and east Il nally Dally the Part parthiana hians captured the country and were followed by the per ier flaus under these more barbarous rulers taa IM ireat great irrigation systems syster ar een then mach less efficient than dur ing the golden age of babylon rapidly deteriorated splendid gay wicked bagdad under the Abb Abbass assid ld caliphs with a combination of arabic and persian culture bagdad was vlas founded on oil the tigris in the very center of the river plain the splendid gay wicked bagdad of the lie arabian nights desopo tau tausias prosperity though much less nas mas still relatively great aud and bagdad was wag for awhile the metropolis of the world its inhabitants at one time numbering souls when the turks got possession poss assion of the caliphate find and carried its seat beat to the west bagdad withered nod and under turkish rule the tigris find and euphrates valley entered into its darkest period only a small percentage of the rich valley has for generations produced any capps r tile the young turks turk s came into power in n 1908 reclamation work nork was undertaken in the tigris and euphrates alkin and some borne headway haq wa made since the british occupied bagdad in 1917 this his work mork has hag been carried much further farther it Is planned under the new arab state and the man mandate late to continue the work nork of rejuvenating the count rys ancient irrigation system but there Is d i herculean wk task to be accomplished before elthe the garden of eden blooms again it it was estimated before the world war that the ambitious project of the turks to reclaim kOw acres would post cost tile the total areu area that might be irrigated Is placed at about acres |