1. Ancient Mesopotamia “The Land Between Two Rivers” Layth Rustom 7D

2. Mesopotamia Mesopotamia was one of the greatest Civilizations that flourished on the face of the earth. Mesopotamia was very special because of the fact that it was the world’s first civilization that was known to exist. ‘The Fertile Crescent’ resembled the shape of Mesopotamia on the map and the fact that Mesopotamia was a fertile civilization based on farming. Also, the name Mesopotamia meant the ‘Land between two rivers’. The two magnificent rivers (Tigris and Euphrates) were located in the heart of Mesopotamia (modern day central Iraq). Mesopotamia was founded on farming. The majority of the citizens of the Mesopotamian civilization were farmers. Back before humans had the knowledge of planting crops, they had to move around place to place in a constant hunt for food. It was only then when humans realized they could grow their own crops and settle in one place to live. Mesopotamia was quite a massive civilization, and it wasn’t only in modern day Iraq. Mesopotamia began in central Iraq and stretched to the Levant, to the west (modern day Palestine, Syria, Lebanon) and some of west Persia, to the east (modern day Iran).

3. Religion One thing that made Mesopotamia one of the best civilizations was their unique and special religion. The Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic (meaning that they believed in many gods). The Mesopotamian religion was very special because it was the world’s first religion that was known to exist. One thing that the Mesopotamians believed was that the world was like the shape of a disc, they didn’t know that that the world was shaped like a sphere. One similarity that our religion’s have in common to the Mesopotamian Religion is that we both believe in an afterlife, (Heaven/Hell). Even though, the Mesopotamian view of afterlife was completely different to ours. The Mesopotamians believed that after death they would all be transported to a land under our world where they would live there for eternity.

4. Ziggurats The Mesopotamians offered worship to their gods in their special temples; they were called ‘Ziggurats’. Only the ‘Head Priests’ had the permission to offer all the sacrifices and worship to the gods, sacrifice and worship took place in the Ziggurats. Mesopotamians believed that their Gods lived in their Ziggurats. Many goods were offered to the Mesopotamian gods including humans for sacrifice. Some of the Mesopotamian Ziggurats still stand today but most of them have been destroyed because of the fact that they were made of mud blocks. The Ziggurats that still stand to day are being maintained so that they can live for longer. They can be found in Iraq.

5. Jobs Mesopotamia was a hard working civilization, which was another reason why it was such a strong and successful civilization to live for about 4,000 years. Mesopotamia was a civilization based on farming and the majority of people worked as farmers in Mesopotamia. Farming took place on the coasts of the two major rivers (Tigris and Euphrates). The Rivers had good conditions for farming cause the supply of water helped a lot.

6. Government Another of the great achievements achieved by Mesopotamia was that the civilization created the world’s first type of government system. Mesopotamia had a city-state system where each city-state had a type of ruler similar to a mayor in our time, meaning many people ruled Mesopotamia.

7. Law King Hammurabi was a very great king; he made many changes in the civilizations law. The laws were extremely strict in Mesopotamia, King Hammurabi (1 of the 2 major kings of Mesopotamia) created a code of law with over 500 laws and each and every one of them was strict. This an example of one of Hammurabi’s strict laws: “If anyone steal the property of a temple or a court, he/she shall be put to death, and also the one who receives the stolen thing from him/her shall be put to death” Even though you may think that strict rules aren’t good, they serve a purpose: to keep crime away and make things fair. The Mesopotamian government was one of the most successful parts of Mesopotamia and was another reason which the civilization lived for so long.

8. The Fall Nothing can live forever and sadly and Mesopotamia came to end at around 350B.C. Mesopotamia had a big fall and collapsed, like it was cursed with bad luck. Other civilizations attacked, crops didn’t grow well and everything just went bad all of a sudden. Mesopotamia was a very successful civilization, because of the fact that the Mesopotamians achieved a lot: a currency, a religion and an amazing government system. The Mesopotamians invented a lot of other things other than the skill of farming; one of the very useful and extremely important inventions that the Mesopotamians invented was the wheel. Without the wheel we would have no cars as transport and we would rely on animals (horses and camels) for transport, which are much slower and worse overall. The Mesopotamians created a very special language, their language special because it was world’s first language that could also be written. All these inventions and achievement clearly show that Mesopotamia was a very smart and great civilization. The Mesopotamians invented a lot of the things that we still use today. Mesopotamia was an extremely successful civilization, and that was a reason why the civilization settled for an extremely huge amount of time

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