The Fertile Crescent lies from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. The Fertile Crescent was a land named because of its good soil and its golden wheat fields. Within the Fertile Crescent was a region called Mesopotamia that the ancient Greeks had named later. This meant “between the rivers” where it was located it was between the Tigris river and the Euphrates river. In this area the world’s first civilization arose in Southeastern Mesopotamia and it was Sumer. The Nile rises in the highlands of Ethiopia and the lakes of Central Africa.
The Sumerians over time started to study the stars and make out the stars to be shapes. The Sumerians also recorded the movement of stars and planets. They made a number system based on the number six. They divided the hour in to sixty minutes and the circle into three hundred and sixty degrees. The Egyptians had to know mathematics to build the pyramids. The Egyptians knew Geometry. The Egyptian religion involved obeying the pharaoh who was the ruler over Egypt. But Egyptians believed that the pharaoh has an afterlife were once the pharaoh dies he has to be safe and protected, when his soul comes back to his body he can achieve immortality and rule over Egypt once again. In order for the pharaoh to be safe the Egyptians build pyramids to honor the pharaoh but to also protect his body. Inside the pyramid there were traps and fake rooms to make sure grave robbers don’t steal the pharaoh and his jewels he was buried with. In Sumer the Sumerians built ziggurats. This was a large stepped platform thought to have been topped with a temple but this was to honor the chief god or goddess. The Sumerians were polytheistic and worshipped many gods. They believed that the gods controlled every aspect of life. An ancient Greek historian named Herodotus said “is wholly the gift of the Nile” Without the Nile, Egypt would be just the barren desert. Where Egypt is