Mesopotamia and Egypt
... Great buildings and temples dedicated to these new enterprises characterized these cities: the pyramids and temples of Egypt and the Ziggurats (Towers of Babel) of Sumer and Babylon. ... In general--the contact of Western Civilization (born in Egypt and Mesopotamia) with Eastern Civilization (India and China) was very slight--so they developed along quite different lines. ... But the earliest and most extensive development of true urban culture was to be found along the two major river systems of the middle East: 1) the lower reaches of the Nile in Egypt and 2) the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what was anciently called "Mesopotamia" by the Greeks (modern Iraq).