A large part of Iraqi territory consists of a vast desert plateau, part of Syriac and Nafud deserts, which extends west and south of the Euphrates. The central area and more densely inhabited land is the Iraqi Mesopotamia, the fertile region between the Tigris and the Euphrates. The two rivers originate in the Armenian Plateau in Turkey and cross the country from north-west to south-east, up to the confluence, in the south, forming the Shatt-al-Arab, which flows into the Persian Gulf. The Euphrates (2,780 km long, 765,000 sq km of the basin) is the longest of the two rivers, but its average discharge is less than that of the Tigris (1,900 km long, 375,000 sq km of the basin). The north-eastern section of Iraq, Kurdistan, along the borders with Iran and Turkey is characterized by the presence of the chain of Zagros Mountains, which hosts the highest mountain in the country, Cheekha Dar (3,611 metres). The Iraqi economy has been on its knees by the recent events of war. The country is rich in oil and natural gas, important is also agriculture (barley, wheat, rice, dates, fruit, tobacco, cotton, sesame). Among the industry sectors that are more developed are textile, chemical, petrochemical and processing of agricultural products.