Civilizations of the world: Mesopotamian

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Mesopotamia, mainly modern-day Iraq and Kuwait is mostly acclaimed as the cradle of civilizations as some of the top influential early cities and empires emerged there. Mesopotamia was also at the crossroads of Egyptian and Indus valley civilizations which made the sector a land of blending languages and culture, thereby having a notable and lasting effect on writing, technology, trading techniques, religion, law, and more.

Since the region is located in the southwest region of Asia along with the easy access to Euphrates and Tigris river system, Mesopotamia could benefit from the area's climate and geography to host the beginnings of human civilization.

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Cities, government, religion, social structure, architecture, and art are considered as the successful characteristics of Mesopotamian civilization.

Other major civilizations in Mesopotamia include Sumerian, Assyrian, Akkadian, and Babylonian.

Studies show shreds of evidence for the extensive use of technology, literature, legal codes, philosophy, religion, and architecture in these societies.

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The architecture was also a key element during the Mesopotamian civilization. A remarkable achievement of Mesopotamian architecture is the development of the ziggurat, a massive structure taking the form of a terraced step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels, with a shrine or temple at the summit.

Ziggurat pyramidal stepped was made by a core of clay brick and a surface coated by baked brick.

Since the favored design was rounded bricks, which were somewhat unstable, Mesopotamian bricklayers would lay a row of bricks perpendicular to the rest in every few rows. The advantages to plano-convex bricks were the speed of manufacture as well as the irregular surface which held the finishing plaster coat better than a smooth surface from other brick types.

Bricks were sun-baked to harden them. But these types of bricks are less durable when compared with oven-bakes and so buildings eventually deteriorated. They were periodically destroyed, leveled, and rebuilt on the same spot. Mud brick, mud plaster, and wooden doors were the common building materials used for residential construction.

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Though the middle-east is almost dry and sandy, Mesopotamia is blessed with two rivers which kept the land fertile and efficient enough to grow crops and do agriculture. Writing and the wheel are considered as the most important invention in Mesopotamian civilization ( though some scholars claim that it was found in Central Asia).

The Mesopotamian civilization which started around 4000 BCE (i.e 6000 years ago ) is also noted for developing one of the first written scripts around 3000 BCE.