Mesopotamia

1. Mesopotamia By: Carrie Guarino

2. Kings Mesopotamia had many kings in it’s time. I am going to list a few. • Sargon- Sargon was the king Sargon was the king of Akkad in Mesopotamia in 2340 to 2305 BC. By conquest he established a great empire that included the whole of Mesopotamia and extended over Syria and Elam. • Hammurabi- Hammurabi became the first king of the Babylonian empire. Hammurabi is known for the codes called Hamurabi’s code.

3. Babylon - Babylon was another ancient city of Mesopotamia. It was one of the most important cities of the ancient Middle East, located on the Euphrates River. The hanging gardens of Babylon are one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

4. Places! Sumer was the southern part of ancient Mesopotamia. Sumer was occupied by people known as the Sumerians. They spoke a non-Semetic language. Ur- Ur was a coastal city near the mouth of the Euphrates river. Tyre- Trye was an ancient city of Phoenicia. It was built on an island just off the mainland. Tyre was famous for it’s industries such as textile manufactures and particularly for the purple Tryian dye. Nineveh- Nineveh was an ancient city and the capital of the Assyrian Empire, located on the Tigris River.

5. Empires/People • Chaldeans- Chaldeans were seminomadic people from Arabia who occupied the city of Ur "of the Chaldeans”. The chaldeans were masters of the Fertile Crescent. • Assyrians- Assyria was a civilization centered on the upper Tigris river in Mesopotamia. • Phoenicia- Phoenicia was an ancient civilization centered inthe north of ancient Canaan. The Phoenicians were the first state-level society to make extensive use of the alphabet. • Assyians- We first hear of Assyrians around 2300 BC, when Sargon from Akkad invaded their small kingdom to the north. The Assyrians were well known traders. Assyria was one of the only kingdoms in the west to survive through the dark ages.

6. Codes, poems and writing. • Cuneiform- - a system of writing developed before the last centuries of the first millennium B.C. The scribes usually wrote this on a slab of wet clay. It was written with a stylus in wedge like strokes. This used a large amount of symbols and letters and words. • Hammurabi’s Code- The code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved ancient law code created in 1790 B.C. It was created by the 6th Babylonian King. It is inscribed on a 7 foot four inch tall basalt stele. • Epic of Gilgamesh- The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Ancient Iraq and is one of the earliest known works of literary writing. The story is about who has a friend Enkidu who is half wild and undertakes a dangerous quest with Gilgamesh. Cuneiform Code of Hammurabi Epic Of Gilgamesh

7. Physical Features • Tigris- Tigris is a river of Southwestern Asia. It is 1,150 miles long. It flows swiftly and receives many tributaries. • Euphrates- Euphrates is another river of southwestern Asia. It flows generally south through Turkey into Syria. The Euphrates river is 1,700 miles long. • Fertile Crescent- The Fertile crescent Is a region in the Near East. The Fertile Crescent if a very important part to Mesopotamia. • Persian Gulf- The Persian Gulf, also known as the arm of the Arabian Sea, is 90.000 square miles. It is located between the Arabian peninsula and Iran. It is mostly shallow and has many islands.

8. Everything Else! • Polytheism- Polytheism is the belief in more than one gods or goddesses. They do not always worship all the gods evenly though. • Ziggurat- Ziggurats were raised pyramid temples built in ancient Mesopotamia. There are 32 known Ziggurats.