Two civilizations in the middle east that were successful included Egypt and mesopotamia. They were both ancient civilizations. Egypt was successful because of the nile river,they also built pyramids that most civilization didn’t built.On the other hand mesopotamia focused more on inventing things like the plow,cuneiform and hammurabi's code. The Nile helped egypt grow as a civilization because it gave them water for the farms and for drinking. It also gave them soil,papyrus,transportation and a trading route.So without the nile there would be no life. Mesopotamia had two rivers the tigris and euphrates. The floods gave them good soil.Both civilizations had one or two rivers and both were very successful in making a civilization.