2334 – 2279 BCE Sargon of Akkad creates the first empire (range of dates)

3000 BCE 12 Great Sumerian city-states existed by this year

1792 – 1750 BCE Hammurabi of Babylon ruled during these years (range of dates)

1813 – 1781 BCE Shamshi-Adad of Assyria ruled during these years (range of dates)

2600 BCE Ziggurat at Ur is constructed

605 – 562 BCE Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon during these years (range of dates)

8500 BCE Groups of hunters-gatherers settled along the Tigris and Euphratres rivers and started farming

550 BCE Cyrus the Great comes to power in Persia

587 BCE Nebuchadnezzar puts down the Jewish rebellions and burns the city of Jerusalem

600 BCE Hanging Gardens of Babylon are constructed

3500 BCE Sumerians in southern Mesopotamia invent the wheel and the sailboat to help them transport goods

2500 BCE Writers simplify pictographs into wedge-shaped cuneiform