Compare And Contrast Mesopotamia And Egypt Civilizations

As we look back on history some of the earliest known civilizations were that of the Mesopotamians and the Egyptians. These early people’s lived near rivers because rivers provided the main source for life. The Mesopotamians lived along the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers, which is known to be the Fertile Crescent, running through modern day Iraq and parts of Syria, and the Egyptians lived along the Nile River surrounded by desert on both sides. Geography was the center of everything for these two civilizations, it determined how well they lived and what they were able to thrive in. These two areas both had great water sources, but the weather patterns and flooding patterns were very different and it led the Mesopotamians to live a very pessimistic and hard life and the Egyptians a very optimistic and easy life. Egyptians sustained a much better life then the

The Nile River flooded regularly and it left black alluvial soil that was very fertile. It linked Upper and Lower Egypt, Lower Egypt was very wealthy because of the soil and Upper Egypt was not very wealthy because of the harsh weather. “Lower Egypt, because of its proximity to both Mediterranean and near eastern cultures, became more cosmopolitan than the provincial, isolated lands of Upper Egypt” (Matthews 15). The Nile River determined every aspect of the Egyptian civilization, similar to the Mesopotamians they had to adapt to the river to better themselves. Egypt was very isolated because it had desert on both sides, the Sahara desert was very hard for people to make it across because there was no water source, which in return allowed the Egyptian people to focus less on people invading and more on their civilization. Egyptian people learned how to work with the river, the rich soil from flooding allowed them to grow wheat, beans, barley, and cotton. They eventually learned how to use animals for what they needed which helped speed up the