Ancient civilizations, including Egypt and Mesopotamia, thrived in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Although both civilization’s lands surrounded the same sea the geography was distinctly different. Geography has more of an influence on regions than most people realize. This difference results in the people of each being exposed to different types of influences, religions, and invasions. Both have contributed greatly to human education through achievements, failures, religions, philosophies, and many other things. It was no accident the ancient civilizations built their cities near rivers or in river valleys. Rivers provided fresh water for irrigating crops and everyday water needs. The need of the river did not stop there, …show more content…
Egypt’s river, the Nile, had fairly regular flooding and receding pattern. This made it easy for the Egyptians to plan when to farm and harvest. It deposited dark fertile silt when it flooded, making agriculture possible. The Nile was so predictable that some people built their houses right on the river because they were so cultured on where the flood lines would be. Also, the Nile was fairly calm, which made it easy to navigate. This made it easy to move troops around easily and to politically unify all of Egypt. The Mesopotamians were not so fortunate. In contrast, it was bordered by two rivers, Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, that were not at all predictable and not nearly as calm. This led to devastating floods that would wipe out entire sections of cities, grain shortages, and famines. There was work that had to be put into making irrigation canals and run-off ditches, on what was mainly a flat landscape, to help prevent these things from happening. Also, the two rivers were not easy to navigate which is why Mesopotamia was usually poorly politically unified. Both countries needed strong central governments to be able to cope with the destructive
Egypt and Mesopotamia; two different civilizations that were similar in some ways, as well as different. They had their difference of their geographical location, as well as their different aspects of life. Even though they had their different life aspects, they had also had several similarities between each other.
These individual states traded with each other. They would most likely trade things specific to that area. They also had a very multifaceted and planned irrigation system. Last but not least they were all tiny domains that were actually well prearranged. On their own they were fairly solid and had a very organized government. Although they were then all united by King Menes. The citizens were fairly obedient and did what they were told to do by their god, the pharaoh. They felt as if bad things would happen if they went against a god. The government became one hundred percent centralized and they controlled every single last one of the resources in the vast region in which we call the Nile River Valley. Just imagine being a part of this structured civilization. Now the Mesopotamia civilizations were a little different, well a lot. Although they had similarities. They did have slight similarities though. Mesopotamia was made of many independent states. They never became united and stayed this way as to what feels like the end of time. In earlier times this probably seemed like a good idea although later they realize that it is now. This separation made the region tremendously susceptible to attacks. The Mesopotamians apparently never heard the saying there is no I in team! Although, despite all of this separation the region worked together in order to do massive projects which included things like
Before the beginning of history, people from across the land gradually developed numerous cultures, each unique in some ways while the same time having features in common. Mesopotamia and Egypt are important to the history of the world because of religious, social, political and economic development. Mesopotamia was the first civilization, which was around 3000 B.C., and all other countries evolved from it. Mesopotamia emerged from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The soil was rich and agriculture was plentiful. The Semitic nomads occupied the land around Akkad. The Sumerians established the city-states. Villages became urban centers. Because of the formation of the city-states everything flourished. However, Mesopotamian agriculture lacked stones; therefore mud brick became their major building block. Their diet consisted of fish from the rivers. The rivers were flooded frequently destroyed the cities. Mesopotamians made their living from crops and pottery.
In the first civilization, both Mesopotamia and Egypt relied on a hunter-gatherer economic system, during that time, every country in the world strived on it. Mesopotamia had rich soil for agriculture, but experiences floods. For the Mesopotamians, these floods would destroy major cities, but for the Egyptians it would keep the soil rich all year long without the damage that the Mesopotamians had experienced. With the rich soil foods were plentiful around the farm lands, which gave both countries the chance to establish largely dense areas, like what we now know as a city-state. The Nile River also served as a defense for the Egyptians they enjoyed centuries of tranquility and peace in which they used to develop peaceful development of their civilization. For the Mesopotamians, this wasn’t the case.
The annual flood and abundant natural resources made the Nile River a life sustaining force of nature that directly contributed to the creation and survival of the Ancient Egyptian civilization. The Nile River (the “Nile”) played an integral part in shaping the lives and communities of Ancient Egypt. It provided food, transportation, and building materials which contributed to the economy and most importantly the continuity of the Ancient Egyptians.
The Nile helped get Egyptians from place to place fast and efficiently. For example, in the image there are many boats floating down the Nile River. (Doc. C) This shows that the Nile helped get things and people down the river as demonstrated in the image. This also shows that the Egyptians would travel in packs to get messages more efficient from place to place by boat. The Nile River also helped develop basic building and logical skills to make sure the boats got down the river fast and efficient. For example, in Doc. C, the image shows bigger boats pulling smaller boats in large packs. This proves that the Nile helped shape basic building skills because without the Nile, they wouldn’t know how to efficiently pull boats down the river in big packs to get resources to other communities. This also proves that without the Nile the Egyptians wouldn’t be as logical because without it they wouldn’t have figured out how to pull the boats down the Nile the fastest way possible. Overall the Nile helped develop a transportation system as well as building skills from the Nile
One reason why I think Egypt was more unified, was the gift of the Nile. In my personal opinion people are products of their environment. The Nile, was one element that made living for a large population possible. The laid back atmosphere led the people to come together to create simple, but efficient ways of fertilizing the ground; furthermore, the fertile rich area allowed prosperity in crops and gave everyone piece of mind that they were not going to starve. (text, 73) On the other hand, Mesopotamia’s two rivers the Tigris and Euphrates, required people to create ways of irrigation to make the land more fertile for crops. (text, 59) The overall view of Mesopotamia’s greed arose from the possibility of loosing crops due to the floods. (text, 59) In other words, the land did not provide a great guara...
Egypt was founded by the Nile River and Mesopotamia was founded by the Tigris and Euphrates River. Although both civilizations depended on rivers as important resources, their experience with them were very different. Egypt was lucky and had a better experience with the Nile. It was predictable and created a more optimistic Egypt. Unfortunately, Mesopotamia had a more difficult time with their rivers. They were unpredictable and could ruin soil and devastate crops. Geographically Egypt had a much better location than Mesopotamia. On page
The Ancient Egypt and Ancient Mesopotamia grew up to be successful civilizations. The surroundings of where they are located assisted them in survival. Although their lifestyles were different, both civilizations became successful in their own ways. Finally, their similar belief was a very helpful guidance when their rulers governed. Without these factors, the two civilizations might not have been
Egypt and Mesopotamia were two of the world’s earliest city-based civilizations, creating the basis for Middle Eastern and Western history. Both Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations existed on the banks of major rivers. While Egyptian civilization thrived along the Nile, Mesopotamia settled between the Tigris and the Euphrates. Although they shared this characteristic, it was also the cause of many of their differences in political systems, religions, and social stability.
Although the kings of both lands were closely tied to religious institutions they had very different responsibilities to their people because of the culture of their location. The major point that differentiates Mesopotamia and Egypt is their location. The fact that Egypt was located in the most productive area of ancient times caused Egyptian pharaohs to focus more on their internal concerns, rather than gain new territories. The idea of Ma’at played a big role in the way of the pharaohs ruling over Egypt. Instead of expanding, they were more worried about having harmony and peace within the people, and keeping the balance of ma’at.
Approximately 5500 years ago four of the worlds' most prestigious ancient river civilizations had emerged. Our world has been left in astonishment and awe wondering how these civilizations were developed. Egypt and Mesopotamia were the first ancient river civilizations to create cities and their own ways of living. Society, geography, and religion played an enormous role in the development of the ancient cities. Although there is evidence of early Sumerian contact with the Egyptians, Egypt's civilization was largely self-generated and its history and cultural patterns differed from Mesopotamia.
The Nile River is arguably one of the most important water sources in the world and has an extremely rich history dating back thousands of years. Without the Nile, the ancient Egyptian civilization would have never existed. Egypt is basically a whole lot of sand and not much else, except they have the Nile River flowing through it, on it’s way to the Mediterranean sea. The ancient Egyptians lived along the Nile River and it provided them with abundant water, food (fish) and the opportunity to develop agriculture along it’s banks. The Nile River was also used for transportation and trade with other regions because land travel was more difficult than floating on the river. The Ancient Egyptians were at the mercy of the seasonal flooding and droughts but learned to work within the natural system of the River and weather cycles (Carnegie Museum of Natural History). Modern people, however were more interested in conquering nature, rather than living in harmony with it.
Natural river irrigation shaped the early landscape of ancient Egypt. Drainage was not required for the Valley to become liveable. With the natural flooding and draining of the floodplain, the annual flood allowed a single crop-season over two-thirds of the alluvial ground. Once the main canals, many of them natural, were in place, they just had to be scoured yearly to prevent their clogging up. The levees had to be raised, and smaller ditches had to be re-excavated.
Providing extremely fertile soil is one, if not the most important, roles the Nile River played in the life of the ancient Egyptians. By providing fertile soil, the Nile made it easy for cities and civilizations to grow alongside the banks of the river. This fertile soil comes from the annual flooding of the Nile. This replenishes the top soil with silt deposits that hold much needed nutrients for crops to grow. Ancient Egyptians developed highly complex irrigation methods to maximize the effect of the Nile waters. When the Nile overflows in mid summer, Egyptians divert the waters through the use of canals and dams. As the water seeped into the farm land, rich deposits of silt ensured a good harvest for the year. This allows the civilizations of Egyptians to grow enough food to feed the community. Without the annual flooding of the Nile, Egyptians would have a very difficult time growing necessary amount food to sustain life. Most of the land in the Egyptian nation is dry desert. Very little rain falls year round here. The river provides the needed water to grow the crops as well as provide drinking water for the people. Th...