Flares from oil wells near the city of Basrah in southern Iraq are pictured on February 11, 2022, on the banks of the Shatt al-Arab, the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, that empties into the Gulf. - The Tigris is one of Iraq's two big rivers that gave birth to the ancient empires of Sumer and Babylonia and are said to have watered the biblical Garden of Eden. Today, it is dying.Human activity and climate change have choked the once mighty stream that, with its twin the Euphrates, brought to life the civilisations of Mesopotamia thousands of years ago. (Photo by Ayman HENNA / AFP)