Ancient Mesopotamia, the land between two rivers is an interesting article that shows us how

1. ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA
GEO HISTORY
Mr. Luis Alberto Cruz Rafles
4th grade

2. Ancient Mesopotamia
This map reveals the location of
the Fertile Crescent in the ancient
Biblical world. Sometime around
2500 B.C. a great migration
developed upon what is known as
the "Fertile Crescent," which was
like a great arc of cultivable
The Fertile Crescent:land that extended from the
You may
Persian gulf, up and around
read on the web that ancient and back down to
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is nicknamed "The
Israel and Egypt.
Fertile Crescent". It is true that
ancient Mesopotamia is located
inside the geographic region
referred to as The Fertile
Crescent.

3. By 1000 B.C. the
known world
reached as far
west as
Europe. The
major east-
west trade
routes were
established
along the
Fertile
Crescent.
Abraham, the
first Hebrew
actually
followed this
route from
ancient Ur in
Mesopotamia,
up and around
the Fertile
Crescent to
Haran and
down to the
land of Canaan.

4. Today, The Fertile Crescent includes the countries of Iraq,
Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Jordan, Palestine, Kuwait, the Sinai
Peninsula, and Northern Mesopotamia. It is a big place.
The Land Between
Two
Rivers: Ancient
Mesopotamia was
located in a piece
of The Fertile
Crescent, in what
is now southern
The wordcovered
Iraq. It
Mesopotamia 300
an area about
miles long and
actually means (in
Greek) “the miles
about 150 land
wide.
between the
rivers.” The two
rivers referred to
Why would anyone wish to build a civilization in the the ancient
by middle
of the desert in what is now lower Iraq? BecauseGreeks a
it was are the
great place to live! Tigris and the
Euphrates Rivers.

5. In Northern Mesopotamia, the land is fertile.
There is seasonal rain. The rivers and streams
are fed from the hills and mountains of the
region.
• In Southern Mesopotamia, the land is mostly
flat and barren. Temperatures can rise over 110
degrees Fahrenheit. There is very little
rainfall. Storms do blow in from the Persian
Gulf, which cools things off. The area does have
slight seasons. It can get quite cool at certain
times of the year.
• Many thousands of years ago, early settlers
wandered into the land between two
rivers. Natural vegetation and wildlife kept
the people well fed. The rivers provided fresh
drinking water, and a place to bathe. These
early people settled down, invented a system

6. • The people who settled down and
began to develop a civilization, in
the land between two rivers, are
known as the Sumerians.
• The Sumerian civilization probably
began around 5000 BCE. In the
beginning, they were
an agricultural community.They
grew crops and stored food for
times of need.

7. • It was the end of the Stone Age, and
the beginning of the Bronze Age or
the Age of Metallurgy and Writing!
• The ancient Sumerians believed in
education. Record keeping was very
important to them. They wanted
their sons to learn how to read
and write.
• Their written language began as
pictographs, pictures of things that

8. Cuneiform
Soon, the clever ancient
Sumerians started to use wedge-
shaped symbols for objects and
ideas instead of pictures.
Today, we call this written
language of wedge-shaped

9. There were four main classes of people in
ancient Sumer - the priests, the upper
class, the lower class, and the slaves.

10. The Upper class

11. The lower class and slaves

12. Tigris and Euphrates

13. • The Tigris is about 1,850 km long,
rising in the Taurus Mountains of
eastern Turkey about 25 km
southeast of the city of Elazigand
circa 30 km from the headwaters
of the Euphrates River. The river
then flows for 400 km through
Turkish territory, before becoming
the border between Syria and Iraq.
This stretch of 44 km is the only

15. The 2 rivers of Mesopotamia are the Tigris and
the Euphrates (Dijla and Furat, in Arabic). The Euphrates is the one
on the left (west) in maps and the Tigris is the one closer to Iran.
Today, the Tigris and Euphrates join up to flow into the Persian
Gulf.