1. MESOPOTAMIA Site of first river valley civilizations
Located between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers
Mesopotamia means “land between the rivers”

2. The Fertile Crescent

3. MESOPOTAMIA GEOGRAPHICAL FACTORS
The floods of the Tigris-Euphrates rivers were unpredictable and as a result the Sumerians believed that their gods were angry gods.
The valley was surrounded by deserts and hills but they were relatively easy to cross and so the peoples of this region were constantly conquered and re-conquered

4. MESOPOTAMIA The first people to settle there were the Sumerians
Developed a system of writing called Cuneiform, which were wedge-shaped characters pressed into a clay tablet
The Sumerians created city-states (a city and its surrounding lands)
Each city-state had its own government
Sumerian city-states were built around a ziggurat

5. Ziggurat

6. MESOPOTAMIA
The Akkadians defeated the city-states of Sumer and gained control of northern and southern Mesopotamia
Created the first empire which lasted about 200 years

7. MESOPOTAMIA
Amorites overtake the Akkadians and establish a capital at Babylon which gives its name to their empire – The Babylonian Empire.
Most important and most famous ruler was king Hammurabi who created the first written legal code.