History glossary
Mesopotamia
an ancient region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where some of the first cities, writing systems, and empires developed.
- Category
- Region
- Region
- Ancient Near East
- Date range
- c. 6500-539 BCE
What it means
Mesopotamia was not one single country. It was a broad region, mostly in modern Iraq and parts of Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Kuwait, where river farming helped early towns grow into city-states and empires. Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, and Babylonia all belonged to this wider Mesopotamian world.
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