User:Noorjahanbithi

Ancient Mesopotamia Civilization

INTRODUCTION

Surrounded by mountains in the north and east and desert in the west and bounded in the south by the Persian Gulf, ancient Mesopotamia was shaped by its two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates. These provided water for agriculture and daily life and were the main highways for communication. Major environmental differences divided Mesopotamia into two distinct regions, the northern plains of Assyria and the southern Babylonian alluvium. Further differences split Babylonia into a northern river plain (Akkad) and a more southerly delta plain (Sumer). These geographical contrasts were mirrored by cultural, political, and economic distinctions. Marshes divided Babylonia from Elam, the eastern alluvial plain and adjacent Zagros Mountains, a land whose history frequently intertwined with that of Mesopotamia. At times, cities and states beyond the desert and the mountains were also involved with Mesopotamia, while mountain and desert fringes were home to tribal groups who frequently raided their settled neighbors. The surface geology of the Near East is mainly sedimentary limestone and sandstone, but volcanoes have also created outcrops of basalt and obsidian. Pressure from the Arabian shield in the west forced the adjacent lands to fold, forming the Zagros Mountains and depressing the intervening area, creating a trough in which the rivers deposited alluvium. ×Noorjahanbithi (talk) 16:55, 30 August 2013 (UTC)