Wounded Tigris

The Tigris, the river that cradles Western civilisation, is in danger. If this river can be destroyed, anything can. But it's not quite dead yet.

For thousands of years, the Tigris has acted as a lung exhaling life into Mesopotamia. Its cycles of flooding created seasons of plenty and seasons of scarcity. Water was once everywhere, from the northern Armenian mountains to the southern marshlands. But it is now beginning to falter, becoming clogged and erratic, and the changing climate is bringing environmental instability to the countries that rely on it.

During the pandemic, in 2020, adventurer Leon McCarron travelled from the source of this great river in the Turkish highlands, through northern Syria, into the heart of Iraq, and all the way to the Persian Gulf. Passing through settlements of the old world McCarron talks to the inhabitants of cities like Diyarbakir, Mosul and Baghdad, discovering how their own survival is often entwined with that of the river. Today, almost 30 million people live in the watershed of the Tigris, but the river faces existential threats on multiple fronts.

In Wounded Tigris, McCarron sets out to explore and enlighten readers to the wonders of this ancient Mesopotamian landscape by taking us on a fascinating journey from source to mouth, telling the incredible story of its past, present and future. A future that we have the power to save.