Geography played a huge role in the lives of both the ancient Egyptians and the Mesopotamians. It affected much more than crop cycles or the weather; it affected everything about the way each group lived, including the way each viewed their own separate gods.
Egypt and Mesopotamia aren’t very far apart by our standards today, but those 900 miles back then made a lot of difference. The main things both civilizations had in common were things like being dry deserts that lay close to rivers with fertile soil for crops to grow. These similarities are what allowed both groups to flourish and expand into a long-staying civilization of people.
That’s about where the similarities end, and the differences start making a huge impact on both societies. In
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Because of their regular weather patterns, good harvests, and relative isolation, ancient Egyptians believed that their gods were benevolent and understanding. For example, their goddess, Isis was seen as the mother of all pharaohs and she cared for all creatures as a mother would. This, again, was not the case in Mesopotamia. They had poor harvests due to the unpredictable weather and flooding, in addition to countless attacks from foreign societies. All of these factors contributed to how they felt about their gods; they viewed them as angry and were often scared of them. Anu, for example, is the sky god. He is also in control of the Bull of Heaven, which can be sent to earth to punish wrongdoers. Clearly, the religions are very different in both practice and the methodology behind them.
While both Egypt and Mesopotamia were both ancient desert societies, their differences were great, and expanded far past their location on a map. Agriculture, relationships with outsiders, and especially their religious customs, were all deeply affected by the land that these civilizations were founded