Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia (Ancient Greek: Μεσοποταμία - "land between rivers") is a historical region in the Middle East. It included most of today’s Iraq, and parts of modern-day Iran, Syria and Turkey. The 'two rivers' of the name referred to the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers.

The land was called Al-Jazirah ("the island") by the Arabs, and Egyptologist J.H. Breasted later included it in the Fertile Crescent. The region is bounded in the northeast by the Zagros Mountains and in the southeast by the Arabian Plateau.

The area is often called the cradle of civilization. The ancient writing called cuneiform was first used around 3000 BC by the Sumerians. Historically important cities in Mesopotamia included Uruk, Ur, Nippur, Nineveh, and Babylon.

Major territorial states were the Akkadian kingdom, the Third Dynasty of Ur, and the Assyrian Empire. Some of the important historical Mesopotamian leaders were Ur-Nammu (king of Ur), Sargon of Akkad (the founder of the Akkadian kingdom), Hammurabi (who established the Old Babylonian state), and Tiglath-Pileser I (who started the Assyrian Empire).

Many advances in technology were made by the ancient Sumerians, such as irrigation,^[1] trade by river, and flood control. Sumerians had agriculture and domesticated animals, or livestock, from the earliest records. Babylon is likely the first city built by settled people. Mesopotamia was also the place where the wheel was first used. First it was a potter's wheel that was used to make clay pots, then Sumerians adapted it for transport.

1. ↑ The use of small canals in order to move water through fields.