Along the river, rice and wheat fields have turned to baked dirt. Canals have dwindled to shallow streams, and fishing boats sit on dry land.

Yakuts said that somewhere in the south was Dauria, where a broad river watered fields of wheat in the summer sun.

Ar raqqah syria the farmlands spreading north and east of this euphrates river town were once the breadbasket of the region a vast expanse of golden wheat and sheep.