Mesopotamia

The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers Gave birth to the early civilization of Mesopotamia in the Middle East

Mesopotamia is located in the middle east between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.  This area was also called the The Fertile Crescent because of its crescent shape.

The Sumerians were the first people to settle in Mesopotamia.  They lived there from about 3500 BC to until about 2000 BC.  They irrigated their land by building canals.  They controlled the yearly flooding by building dikes.  Dikes are walls built to hold back the water.

Since the Sumerians lived in city-states they needed an organized government.  Each city-state had a king and other government officials.

Religion was very important to the Sumerians since they believed the gods controlled everything.  To please their gods they built huge temples called ziggurats.

The Sumerians had a form of writing called cuneiform.  Unlike the Egyptians, they wrote on clay tablets.  This is how they kept their records.

Another civilization in Mesopotamia was Babylon.  A great king of Babylon was Hammurabi.  He is remembered for being the first king to write down the laws and punishment for each law.  There were almost 300 laws.  His laws were called the Code of Hammurabi.