Environmental factors helped agriculture, architecture and eventually a social order emerge for the first time in ancient Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia's name comes from the ancient Greek word for "the land between the rivers." That's a reference to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the twin sources of water for a region that lies mostly within the borders of modern-day Iraq, but also included parts of Syria, Turkey and Iran. The presence of those rivers had a lot to do with why Mesopotamia developed complex societies and innovations such as writing, elaborate architecture and government bureaucracies.

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Classroom Considerations

• Knovation Readability Score: 5 (1 low difficulty, 5 high difficulty)