Palace of Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon
Courtesy Corel Professional Photos
Summary
Stretching from the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in present day Israel to the Persian Gulf, the Fertile Crescent was the birthplace of many early civilizations. The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers provided ideal conditions for human settlement, with the first civilizations rising in Mesopotamia, or the land between the rivers.
Internet Activities
Click on Internet Activities at the left for help in completing the Take It to the Net activity on page 59 of your textbook. In this activity, you will learn about and how to make cuneiform symbols.
Section 1: Land Between Two Rivers
Mesopotamia lay between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. These two rivers and the rich, fertile soil drew people to the region. The early people of Mesopotamia became farmers and then builders of cities. The most successful and advanced cities were the city-states of Sumer.
Section 2: Babylonia and Assyria
After the fall of Sumer, the biggest and most important civilizations were the empires of Babylonia and Assyria. These civilizations built grand cities where culture and learning were highly valued.
Section 3: The Legacy of Mesopotamia
The Mesopotamians were probably the first to develop two of the key components of almost all civilizations—a system of writing and a set of written laws.
Section 4: Mediterranean Civilizations
Phoenicia developed into a great sea power with trade routes throughout the Mediterranean region. These trade routes brought great wealth and knowledge to the Phoenicians. They developed a system of writing with an alphabet of 22 letters. This alphabet formed the basis of the alphabets that many nations use today.
Section 5: Judaism
To the Israelites, history and religion were closely joined and were recorded in the Torah. The Israelites' beliefs developed into the religion we know today as Judaism. Judaism, still one of the world's major religions, had an important early influence on two later religions, Christianity and Islam.