There are sycamores, elms, maples, poplars on a fertile flood plain along the river.

CNN: When autumn leaves fall

The worst-affected areas are the fertile Hauran plain, south of Damascus, and the wheat-belt east of the Euphrates river.

ECONOMIST: Syria

Most people of both European and Asian descent can trace their parentage to that once-fertile and now dusty plain.

FORBES: No Wonder We're Losing Jobs: Science In Our Culture Is Under Assault

That cold current is the reason why Peru's coastal plain is a desert (whose soil can be made fertile when irrigated by the waters of rivers rushing down from the Andes).

ECONOMIST: The unkind child