Mesopotamia
...ers, which flooded at irregular intervals, and the floods were destructive and they destroyed the irrigation systems upon which the very existence of the civilization depended. At first, this region was not settled because of lack of rainfall, and the absence of plants and animals. But, once a diverse agricultural technology was acquired, domestication of plants and animals came into play. Then a suitable social structure was developed, and population boomed causing the civilization to spread wider. In Mesopotamia irrigation farming was at least 4 times greater than for the dry faming in the surrounding mountains. The two rivers provided plenty supply of water. The first agricultural people to move in were the Hassuna, and then the Halaf. Who praticed dry farming, cultivated wheat, barley, and flax; kept cattle and were known to have done trades on distances of more than 600 miles. Egypt was more isolated than Mesopotamia, with a hot dry desert on the east and west sides, a sea to its north, and a series of cataracts to its south, faced rarely it any threats from the outside. Cataracts were a series of geological plates, which interrupted the smooth flow of the river with steep white wa...