Regions People Think of the Middle East

¶ … Regions

People think of the Middle East and mistakenly think that the area is all the same. Most people think about the dry sand and the hot sun. People who do not know much about the area assume that all of the countries have the same land types and the same climates. These people make their assumptions because of what they see on television and in movies about these places in the world. They think of deserts and maybe the Nile River but they assume that the whole place looks the same and has many of the same things. The areas of Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Yellow River area, and the Indus River region are very different but they also have some things in common.

Ancient Egypt is known for being a desert region but it also has water ways which allow for plants to grow there. However, the area is most known for its large deserts and the buildings which the Ancient Egyptians build there. The country was connected to the Nile which was very important for the people there. The Nile was used for transporting goods to other countries from Asia and to Europe and Africa too. Along the riverbanks, people could grow plants which they could then eat. This allowed for more population and for more people to be able to survive and have plenty of food. The amount of food made it so that the Egyptian people did not have to work so hard to get it. This allowed them to have free time and historians have said that it was because of the Nile river and its soil that the Egyptians were able to make so much art and to develop their language and their heritage.

The area which is called Mesopotamia is now broken into several countries. This is one way it is different from Egypt, which is still just one country. In this part of the world, Mesopotamia had a water system which had both the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in it.

The Indus River Valley, like the other locations described was a civilization that was centered around a waterway. The Indus River region was a large area which made up the land that is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, and part of India. Like Egypt, the area was highly developed with the people making crafts and creating a writing system. This supports the theory that areas which have large supplies of food have a better likelihood of developing in other areas, such as the sciences and in language and literature.

Unlike the other three areas discussed, the Yellow River is not part of the Middle East. It is actually a part of China. Like the other places though, the Yellow River region was a location of civilization because it was associated with a long waterway. At the river, people could transport their goods for sale and get either money or other goods in exchange. This led to wealthy people being settled in the area who would go on to help develop the civilization.