In different years many empires had conquer over areas. In the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia of Southwest Asia from centuries through centuries cities and villages had grown to empires. How did they know where in the world would be the best place for them to settle? Looking at facts, the people would want to live near an area where they could possibly find food which was one of the four necessary factors in living elements, whether going back in the past for two to three thousand B.C. or as in the present the factors remain the unchanged. As years passed by cities and empires had been captured and recaptured and finally was compiled into one single kingdom. However, this case wasn’t applied to all.
The Ur, Uruk, Eridu, and Babylon were some of the empires in the Southern ancient Mesopotamia of the Sumerian civilization. These empires were located along the Euphrates River. People made their living by crops farming and feeding animals. The river gave them water to irrigate their lands and diminished their thirstiness. Since the overall area was surrounded by deserts, the people tried to build the water reservoirs just under and above the Euphrates River as compared with the map of the ancient Mesopotamia and the present. In 1932, Faisal bin al-Hussein bin Ali al-Hashemi won the independence from the British and the Kingdom of Iraq occurred. The capital city was Bagdad located on the Tigris River which was the city of the Nineveh of the Akkadian. The information is based on a book of (Jackson J. Spielvogel, Ph.D. (2010, September 17). Western Asia and Egypt: City-States of Ancient, and Mesopotamia Empires in Ancient Mesopotamia. World History Modern Times (pp. 24-27). New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.), and a website from Wikipedia; (Iraq. Retrieved September 17, 2010, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq).
The city Empire of Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and Jerusalem were located along the Eastern land of Mediterranean Sea or Western coast of Syria, Lebanon, and Israel today. The cities were located there mainly because the water source was approximately less than ten kilometers away. Lebanon was found in Byblos which was considered to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Which was sited first appeared to have been settled during the Neolithic period, approximately 5000 BC. This was the period when the Phoenician civilization began to develop according to (Lebanon. Retrieved September 17, 2010 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon). Ebla appears to have been founded around 3000 BC, and gradually built its empire through trade with the cities of Sumer and Akkad which is Syria located just above Lebanon in the present based on (Syria. Retrieved September17, 2010 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria).
Jerusalem, according to Biblical evidence the first Kingdom of Israel was established around the 11th century BCE. Between the time of the First Kingdom of Israel and the Muslim conquests of the 7th century, the land of Israel fell under Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Sassanian, and Byzantine rule. Jewish presence in the region dwindled after the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE. Nevertheless, in 1516, the Land of Israel was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the region until the 20th century. Jerusalem was the only city that remained after thousand of years unlike the other cities and empires which had been captured and compiled by a kingdom. This data has been collected from (Israel, Retrieved September 17, 2010 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel).
All the countries mentioned above were born from small cities and empires in the Fertile Crescent. In addition the area is completely and absolutely fertile as named, the people in this area made their living based on farming. Plus, there are two main rivers that support the land which are the Tigris River that runs through Bagdad in Iraq and Euphrates River which runs along the Tigris River from Iraq and through Syria. To sum up, the only city that remains unchanged for almost four thousand years is the Jerusalem of Israel. The others such as Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon were once Assyria, Akkad, or the Sumer which were reshaped by other kingdoms later.
By: Narit Prayoonrat
