How Did The Physical Environment Affected The Ancient Civilization Of Mesopotamia?

From 6000 BCE to 500 BCE the areas of the Fertile Crescent, Egypt and the Mediterranean held ancient civilizations and the physical environments caused the accumulation of wealth due to agricultural development and the beginning of trading in these civilizations. This led to the development of social and political structures. The physical environment includes bodies of water (rivers and seas), plains, deserts, mountains and natural resources. This paper will argue that the physical environmental factors that affected the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia were the rivers, the Fertile Crescent and the natural resources, Egypt with the Nile River, deserts and natural resources and Greece with the lack of rivers and plains, seas and mountains civilizations. The physical environment of rivers,

Like the Euphrates and the Tigris river in Mesopotamia, the Nile River in Egypt was of importance to the civilization due to the regular flooding. Flooding is what makes the desert land fertile and agriculture possible in Egypt. It was also the basis of the Egyptian seasons and calendar. There were three ‘seasons’ that made up the calendar, flooding of the Nile, growth of the crops and harvesting of the crops. This agriculture cycle created a food surplus in Egypt and during the flood season, there was excess labour available from the Egyptian farmers due to the fields being covered in water. The kings of Egypt used this to their advantage by using their farmers’ labour during the flood season for other uses, like the magnificent architectural buildings of the pyramids and the Sphinx. These architectural structures were built in the deserts of Egypt, including the Sahara and Sinai deserts. The desert landscape acted as a natural barrier against potential invaders of imperialistic empires like the Akkadians in