Upper Mesopotamia Upper Mesopotamia Upper Mesopotamia is the name used for the uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, in the northern Middle East. After the Arab Islamic conquest of the mid-7th century AD the region has been known by the traditional Arabic name of al-Jazira ( "the island"), also transliterated "Djazirah", "Djezirah", "Jazirah" & the Syriac (Aramaic) variant "Gāzartā" or "Gozarto" (). The Euphrates and Tigris rivers transform Mesopotamia into almost an island, as they are joined together at the Shatt al-Arab in the Basra Governorate of Iraq, and their sources in eastern Turkey are
Mesopotamia (EP) "Mesopotamia", producing the former during the day and the latter at night, with little sleep in between. Originally, "Mesopotamia" was conceived as a full album. Due to extensive pressure on the band to release new material, the sessions were hurriedly brought to an end and the bulk of the material was released as an EP. This is also speculated to be because David Byrne had different ideas for the mixing of the album than the band had anticipated. Of the four abandoned tracks, three were re-recorded for the following album, "Whammy!". There are four known outtakes: "Mesopotamia" was a major