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Geography of Ancient Mesopotamia

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Answer the following questions that correlate to the video. Ancient Mesopotamia Geography 1. What provided resources to the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia? 2. Describe the Northern region 3. Describe the eastern region 4. What resources were found in the Zagros Mountains? 5. Why was the Taurus Mountains important? 6. Describe the West and Southern region 7. What is Mesopotamia between? 8. Why did settlers choose this area to create city-states? 9. Describe the differences between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. 10. Name one of the earliest civilizations. 11. From the metal production map, what can be said about Ancient Mesopotamia?

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geography is very very important to understanding ancient Mesopotamia specifically was the rivers and mountains that provided water and resources to the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia this allowed the people in the area of mess up Tamia to plant crops in to start some of the first large-scale agricultural centers in Antiquity. Let's take a look at this map so we can discuss the overall geography of Mesopotamia geography Mesopotamia has varied regions to the east and north of Mesopotamia are a series of Hills that eventually turn into very large mountain ranges the most important range are the Zagros Mountains Zagros massive range the bottles up in Northern of Mesopotamia the range moves from the east to west today modern day I ran through Northern Iraq and extends all the way into modern-day turkey some of the earliest evidence of agricultural production has been discovered in the Zagros Mountains this dates back as far as 9000 BC these early farmers used seasonal rainfall to water their crops so keep in mind this was not in irrigated agriculture that we see later in southern Mesopotamia that didn't happen until around 5000 BC ancient inhabitants in this area also use the Zagros Mountains for Timber and stone another look at the Zagros Mountain Range marked in green you also notice another important change right above the Zagros the Taurus Mountains Taurus Mountains are a water source for both of you freydis and Tigris Rivers to the west and south of Mesopotamia lies the Arabian Desert has a subtropical climate covers most of the Arabian peninsula the Arabian Desert was a very desolate area the people that inhabited the desert were nomadic tribes now it's important to note there were desert-like Regent inside Mesopotamia itself but it's not nearly as formidable as the Arabian or Sahara Desert classified as hot deserts and on that note the final area we will discuss it the land between the two rivers which encompasses what we think of as ancient Mesopotamia the most important part of Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the and Tigris Rivers both rivers are fed by tributaries that mainly originate from The Armenian highlands now in ancient times Armenia was a much larger place than it is today now in terms of the rivers both of these Rivers unite and empty into the Persian Gulf rolling plains are very common in the areas between the two rivers as I mentioned the northern part is much Hillier which eventually turns into mountains southern Mesopotamia consist of lowland Marsh along with fruit aisle planes in mild deserts of course it is a two rivers that made ancient Mesopotamia into What It ultimately became the cradle of civilization it was a long these two rivers where the first cities developed the earliest settlers use the rivers to irrigate the surrounding lands with water irrigation was needed because there was not enough rainfall to support a seasonal Harvest they also use the rivers to travel it was far easier to travel by river since many of the surrounding lands were quite formidable the river is also allowed for trade between large cities in ancient Mesopotamia Tigris move much faster than the Euphrates River the Tigris has deeper channels to as far more difficult for the Ancients to set up irrigation canals in fact the Sumerian name of the Tigris flights literally to the Swift River in contrast that you phrase isn't much slower River so it was easier initially to set up irrigation canals and as I mentioned in order to grow crops and set up an agricultural system the early cities were forced out of necessity the setup irrigation it was a long these two rivers were strong population growth occur especially in the South many of the cities in Mesopotamia were located near the Euphrates and Tigris River in competition between the individual city-states Fierce 2 of the earliest civilizations the Sumerians and the akkadians competed for control of the rivers and surrounding Plains control the rivers and you can control the trade control the surrounding Plains and you can also control the farmland that is why the rivers in planes were the cause of most of the disputes during ancient times most of the metals were outside of Mesopotamia so most of the cities in Mesopotamia were forced to import their especially from the region in the Taurus Mountains okay we'll get to the timeline portion of the series in the next video

Uploaded by Amy Kaplan.

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Geography of Ancient Mesopotamia

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