The Mesopotamians lived in the region between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in modern-day Iraq. They relied on these rivers for irrigation and grew crops like wheat and barley. In the third millennium BC, King Hammurabi united several Mesopotamian nations into a single kingdom based in Babylon. Babylon was a major city with royal palaces, temples, and defensive walls. The Mesopotamians believed many gods controlled different aspects of life and made offerings to them. They developed one of the earliest systems of writing using symbols on clay tablets.

1. THE MESOPOTAMIANSTHE MESOPOTAMIANS
Ana Horcas Chorro
6th
C

2. Location
• The name of
Mesopotamia means
in Greek “the country
between the rivers”.
• The main area of
Mesopotamia was in
the current country of
Iraq.
• It was between the
Tigris and Euphrates
rivers.

3. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers
• The Tigris and Euphrates
rivers watered two big
valleys where farmers
grew wheat and barley
and raised goats and
sheep.
• If the rain was very heavy
the rivers overflowed and
flooded the towns, but if it
was too light there was
drought and people were
starving.

4. Hammurabi
• In the third and second
millenniums before
Christ, Mesopotamia was
composed of several
nations. In the twenty-
eighth century BC the
king of Babylon,
Hammurabi, founded one
single nation covering the
area between the Persian
Gulf and the city of Mari.

5. Babylon
• Babylon was the capital of Mesopotamia.
• It was a beautiful city with its royal castle,
its ziggurat (a tower that seems to touch
the sky), the temples, the hanging gardens
and the bridge over the Euphrates river.
• It had a wall 6 meters wide and 18 km
long surrounding the city.
• Babylon had a small wall to protect the
city. It had eight gates.

6. Gods
• The Mesopotamians
believed in many gods.
Each of them had an
specific task except Enlil
who governed everything.
The Mesopotamians
believed that everything
that happened to them
was the result of the will
of the gods. Therefore
they offered temples,
statues, food, sacrifices,
hymns, prayers and
jewelry.

7. Writing
• At the beginning traders
were issuing their gods
along with a ball of clay
containing in it as many
chips as commodities.
Then they began to make
marks on the balls that
gradually became a
tablet. At first signs
schematically
represented objects.
Later they designated
sounds and syllables.