Mesopotamia was the first place where government was created. They also invented the Pythagorean Theorem. Mesopotamia is Greek for the land of two rivers. They would build long docks across the rivers so they could trade. Euphrates was the calmest of the two rivers, the other one being Tigris. There were many grazing animals along the river banks. The rivers could change courses without notice and the farmers would have to adapt. There were floods which caused people to have to abandon the cities. Mesopotamians believed in many gods. They buried people with personal items. They believed the gods decided what crops would grow well that year and how the people would farm. They had the first religion to ever be recorded. They believed the world was a flat disc and that water covered the earth. They had monthly festivals based of different things like the phases of the moon. Mesopotamia was located in the Fertile Crescent. People lived there because of the water, warm climate and fertile soil. There are few trees, very little rainfall and they traded their surplus for stone, wood and metal. The world's first cities began around 4000-3500 BC in Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia started with the emergence of ancient urban societies. Cities are Babylonia, Ashur, Nippur and Nineveh.
The Nile River is located in Africa and it flows through Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zaire, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. The Nile River is important because it provided resources. The Nile was looked at as a highway of transportation. The people who lived along the Nile were called Egyptians and they lived along both sides of the Nile Valley and in the delta region. There were three classes of society. Their religion was based on nature and their gods were Sun God and God of the Nile. The Egyptians believed in life after death. They preserved people (mummies) so their bodies would not decay. Three civilizations were formed (Nubia, Kemet and Kush).
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