Historical region
Middle East (West Asia)
The Fertile Crescent gave humanity agriculture, the wheel, cuneiform, empire and three of its great religions.
Overview
Between the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, Sumerian scribes counted grain, Babylonian priests mapped the sky, Persian kings ruled the world's first superstate, and Islamic caliphates preserved and expanded classical knowledge.
Historical timeline
- c. 10,000 BCENeolithic Revolution begins
- 3200 – 539 BCESumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylon
- 550 BCE – 651 CEAchaemenid, Parthian and Sasanian Persia
- 632 – 1258Rashidun, Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates
- 1299 – 1922Ottoman Empire
Civilizations
The Achaemenid, Parthian and Sasanian Persias were among the ancient world's greatest states.
The land between the rivers where writing, cities and law were born.
Six centuries of Islamic empire across three continents.
The Levantine seafarers who spread the alphabet across the Mediterranean.
The Anatolian great power that fought Egypt at Kadesh.
The Iron Age superpower that pioneered military organization and imperial administration.
Hammurabi's law and Nebuchadnezzar's hanging gardens.
The world's earliest urban civilization.
The Iron Age kingdoms whose scriptures became the Hebrew Bible.
Countries in this region
Heir to the Achaemenid Persian Empire and 2,500 years of continuous statehood.
Explore history →Ancient Mesopotamia — the land between the Tigris and Euphrates where cities and writing were born.
Explore history →Anatolia — cradle of Neolithic Çatalhöyük, home of Troy, Byzantium and six centuries of Ottoman rule.
Explore history →Modern state established in 1948 in the ancient homeland of the Jewish people.
Explore history →The Arabian heartland of Islam and the modern kingdom of the House of Saud.
Explore history →Home of some of the world's oldest cities and the Umayyad Caliphate.
Explore history →Ancient Phoenicia, medieval Mount Lebanon Maronite refuge, and modern confessional republic.
Explore history →Nabataean Petra, Roman Decapolis, Umayyad desert palaces and Hashemite kingdom.
Explore history →Ancient Sheba and Himyar; frankincense kingdoms and modern civil war.
Explore history →