Way back, very long ago, in about 3,500 BC, a civilization that we now call Mesopotamia arose. This place was in the middle-east and the region is now made up of the countries Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Some people include part of Egypt as Mesopotamia, but some don't.

The name Mesopotamia means "the land between two rivers." This is because it is between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, two rivers in that region. These rivers would helped a lot.

See, there was a problem with farming in Mesopotamia. During the growing season, there was no rain. It was dry heat. The temperature could reach very high there as well.

So, the Mesopotamians found a solution. They made some of the first irrigation systems. They built tiny tributaries (little rivers breaking off of the big one) to their crops from the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.

in addition, there were few resources there, so they were limited to water and soil. Because of this they learned to build buildings out of mudbricks. They had little wood as well, so they later started trading for it.

Finally, once farming was great, Mesopotamia divided into a few city-states, cities with their own government.

I'm going to go surf on Google Earth. It rocks.

This is ps2man1, searching Mesopotamia on Google Earth!

Author's Note: Sources: My Social Studies textbook and my teacher