Home > Fertile Crescent
The Fertile Crescent is a region in the Middle East incorporating present-day Israel, West Bank, and Lebanon and parts of Jordan, Syria, Iraq and south-eastern Turkey. The term "Fertile Crescent" was coined by University of Chicago archeologist James Henry Breasted.Watered by the Jordan, Euphrates and Tigris rivers and covering some 400-500,000 sq. km. with a population of 40-50 million, the region extends from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea around the north of the Syrian Desert and through the Jazirah and MesopotamiaThis is an article about the ancient middle eastern region. For the region in modern times, see Iraq, Syria. See also Mesopotamia, Ohio. Mesopotamia ( Greek: , translated from Old Persian Miyanrudan "the Land between the Rivers" or the Aramaic name Beth-N to the Persian GulfThe Persian Gulf ( Persian: , Arabic: ) is an extension of the Gulf of Oman in between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. This inland sea of some 233,000 km˛ is connected to the Gulf of Oman in the east by the Strait of Hormuz, and its western end is marked.
The western zone around the Jordan and upper Euphrates rivers gave rise to the first known agricultural settlements 11,000 years ago. The earliest known settlements are at Iraq ed-Dubb (Jordan) and Tell Aswad (Syria), followed shortly later by JerichoFor other meanings of the word Jericho see: Jericho (disambiguation Jericho ( Arabic Ari Hebrew alphabet Standard Hebrew Yrio Tiberian Hebrew Yri Yri is a town in the West Bank, near the west bank of the Jordan River. Biblical background Jericho is mentio. The earliest citiesA city is an urban area, differentiated from a town, village, or hamlet by size, population density, importance, or legal status. City can also be a synonym for " downtown. Introduction A city usually consists of residential, industrial and business areas, stateThis article discusses states as sovereign political entities. For other meanings, see state (disambiguation). In international law and international relations, a state is a political entity possessing sovereignty, i. not being subject to any higher polits, and writingWriting is the process of inscribing characters on a medium, with the intention of forming words and other larger language constructs. The instrument or instruments used for recording, and the medium on which the recording is done can be almost infinite, arose later in Mesopotamia ("between the rivers", referring to the land between the lower Euphrates and Tigris) in the east. This has earned the region the nickname "The Cradle of CivilizationFor alternative meanings see Civilization (disambiguation Teotihuacan, Mexico. Building projects of this size require the social organization found in civilizations. A civilization or civilisation has a variety of meanings related to human society. The te."
The region's natural fertility has been greatly extended by irrigation works, upon which much of its agricultural production continues to depend. The last two millennia have seen repeated cycles of decline and recovery as past works have fallen into disrepair through the replacement of states, to be replaced under their successors. Another ongoing problem has been salination - the seepage of salt water into irrigated farmland.
As crucial as rivers were to the rise of civilization in the Fertile Crescent, they were not the only factor in the area's precocity. The Fertile Crescent possessed four of the five most important species of domesticated animals - cows, goats, sheep, and pigs - and the fifth species, the horse, lived nearby. The Fertile Crescent had a climate which encouraged the evolution of many annual plants, which produce more edible seeds than perennials, and the Fertile Crescent's dramatic variety of elevation gave rise to many species of plants for early man to experiment with.
River waters remain a potential source of friction in the region. The Jordan lies on the borders of Israel, the kingdom of Jordan and the area administered by the Palestinian Authority. Turkey and Syria each control about a quarter of the length of the Euphrates, on whose lower reaches Iraq is still more heavily dependent.
