Tigris and Euphrates overfl owed their banks every spring,
fed by melting snow in the Anatolian highlands. Th ese an-
nual fl oods were a mixed blessing. Th ey provided necessary
water for fi elds, but they were unpredictable; some years they
arrived with such force that they swept away entire villages.
Mesopotamians spent much of their eff ort containing the
waters of the rivers, building levees to keep the overfl owing
rivers within their banks. Some years the fl oods were much
lower than in other years, or they arrived later than expect-
ed, causing farmers to lose their crops. Sometimes the riv-
ers changed course, leaving towns high and dry. Farmers had
to control water fl ow in order to water their crops reliably.
People living close to the river banks could use groundwater
or fl oodwater to grow plants, but people farther away had to
dig irrigation canals or build dams to harness water for their
own fi elds.
As the droughts continued in the centuries aft er 3800
b.c.e., it became harder for people to live in the countryside
away from the rivers. People clustered on the river banks in
settlements that gradually turned into cities. Cities provided
the only means of keeping large numbers of people alive in the
arid environment. All food had to be grown in a small area
just beside the river, and water had to be allocated and dis-
pensed carefully to make the most of the small amount that
was available. City offi cials organized farming and irrigation,
stored food to prepare for droughts, and dispensed carefully
rationed portions of grain to residents. By 3100 b.c.e. about
80 percent of Mesopotamians lived in cities. Sumerians and
Babylonians constantly negotiated and fought with one an-
other over scarce water resources.
Th ough these cities provided some protection against cli-
matic fl uctuations, they were extremely vulnerable to catas-
trophes. Th e Sumerian city of Ur died as a result of one such
catastrophe. Ur was a huge city on the Euphrates. In 2200
b.c.e. a major volcanic eruption somewhere in the Northern
Hemisphere sparked a major drought that lasted for 278 years
and aff ected the entire Mediterranean world. Snow stopped
falling in Anatolia, and as a result the Tigris and Euphrates
stopped fl ooding. Th e city found it increasingly diffi cult to
grow enough food for the population. At the same time no-
mads who had lived in the countryside moved into the cities
in an eff ort to feed themselves. Th e combination of overpopu-
lation and lack of food was disastrous for the government; by
2000 b.c.e. it had collapsed, and most of Ur’s population was
dead or dispersed into the countryside in a quest for water
and food. By 1900 b.c.e. the rains had returned, and farming
once again became possible. Nevertheless, water shortages
remained a perennial problem, as they do to this day.
LEVANT
Th e Levant is a common name for the part of the Near East
that includes Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, and Syria; it
is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Taurus Mountains,
the Arabian Desert, and Mesopotamia. Most of the region is
hilly, except for the Mediterranean coastal plain. Th e climate
is Mediterranean, with long, hot, dry summers and cool,
rainy winters. Winters are usually not very cold, but snow
can fall in the mountains. Many types of plants and animals
lived there in ancient times, including sheep, goats, migra-
tory birds, date palms, and olive trees. Lebanon was famous
for its cedar trees, the wood of which was coveted throughout
the Mediterranean region.
Th e Levant has a warm climate and fertile soil, but it
has always been plagued by lack of water. Much of the area is
desert. Th e Jordan River is the largest river in Israel; humans
have always lived near it to take advantage of its water, and
they have oft en fought over it. Th e largest body of freshwater
in the area is the Sea of Galilee, a freshwater lake that lies sev-
eral hundred feet below sea level in modern Israel. Many fi sh
lived in this lake, and many of the humans who lived around
it worked as fi shermen.
One of the area’s largest bodies of water is the hypersa-
line (extremely salty) Dead Sea. Th e Dead Sea is almost nine
times as salty as the ocean. It was salty in ancient times as well
and was one of the world’s fi rst tourist attractions. Th e bibli-
cal king David took vacations there, as did King Herod the
Great. Th e Dead Sea’s waters were of no use for agriculture,
but local people did extract minerals from the waters to sell as
fertilizer or as ingredients in making Egyptian mummies.
Th e Levant was located in the center of the ancient world
and was prone to being occupied and fought over as a result.
Its Mediterranean coastline made it desirable to traders who
carried goods between Greece, Rome, Egypt, Mesopotamia,
and the Persian Empire. It was surrounded by large powers,
including Greece, Rome, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Per-
sian Empire, and most of them marched through it or occu-
pied it at one time or another. Anyone walking to or from
Egypt passed through the Levant; these passersby included
numerous armies. A road along the shore, which the Ro-
mans called the Via Maris (sea road, or way of the sea), linked
Egypt with the northern empires; it was built long before the
Romans arrived to name it, probably during the Bronze Age.PERSIA
Persia occupied the area that is now called Iran. It was to
the west of Mesopotamia and separated from it by the Za-
gros Mountains. Th e Zagros Mountains run along the Gulf
of Oman and the Persian Gulf up to Armenia and Pakistan,
a fertile but mountainous area. Central Persia consisted of a
large, fl at plateau surrounded by mountains. It was inacces-
sible and saline, covered with salt marshes and salt fl ats, and
very few people ventured there in ancient times. Northern
Persia is also lined with mountains, the Elburz and Talish
mountain ranges, which extend eastward to modern Afghan-
istan. Th e area near the Caspian coastline is fl atter. Iran’s
modern eastern border is another series of mountains that
form a boundary between Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan;
in the heyday of the Persian Empire, however, Persia included
this mountain range in its territory, and Persian territory ex-
tended all the way to the Indus River.climate and geography: The Middle East 245