Fertile Crescent

The non-desert land between the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf is called the Fertile Crescent, especially when referring to ancient history; however, due to erosion and overgrazing, much of the Fertile Crescent is not nearly as fertile today as it was in ancient times.

Fertile Crescent (green)
and hilly flanks (orange)

There were two main regions in the crescent at the time in history when it was most important:

• Ancient Mesopotamia — mainly in today's Iraq, plus parts of Syria and Turkey.
• The Levant — today's Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories

Some definitions, though not the one we use here, include Cyprus and parts of Ancient Egypt.

The important cities of ancient history, and some other archeological sites, are covered in the articles on Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Israel and the Phoenicians. For today's cities, see the various country articles.

Samarra bowl, c. 6000 BC

The region has some archeological sites that date to before the rise of cities and empires:

• 🌍 Göbekli Tepe (near Urfa, Turkey). The oldest temple in the world, Göbekli Tepe has changed the way that archaeologists look at history; it shows that mankind had organised religion before farming and settlements. Dated to 9000 BCE and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 
• Neolithic sites that were agricultural villages before 7000 BCE, among the earliest anywhere, include 🌍 Jericho in Israel, 🌍 Çatalhöyük in Turkey and 🌍 Jarmo near Kirkuk in northern Iraq.
• 🌍 Raqefet Cave (on Mount Carmel, northern Israel). This site has relics going back to Neanderthal times. It also has the oldest evidence of beer brewing yet discovered, dating to about 11,000 BCE. 
• 🌍 Samarra culture (around Baghdad). This was a neolithic culture in central Mesopotamia with its peak at roughly the same time as early Sumer in the south, 5500-4800 BCE. They had irrigation and a distinctive style of fine pottery. 

For powers that conquered part or all of the region in ancient times, see Ancient Egypt, Hittites, Persian Empire, Alexander the Great and Roman Empire.

Pre-pottery Neolithic sites, about 7500 BCE

This area has been inhabited since distant prehistoric times; all the groups of prehistoric humans that migrated out of Africa passed through this region.

Later it was one of the cradles of civilisation. The Neolithic Revolution — when agriculture was first developed and people settled near their crops — took place in this region starting around 10,000 BCE. It was a set of crops and animals first domesticated here — barley, wheat, cattle, sheep and others — that brought agriculture to other areas. In ancient times these crops spread west to Egypt, North Africa and Europe and east to Persia and the Indian subcontinent; later they spread around the world.

It is thought that the crop domestication took place mainly in the hilly flanks, where there is more rain and the wild ancestors of the crops are found. Later this was followed by other developments — irrigation, cities and then empires — which happened mainly in the lowlands. See Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Israel for those developments.

Crops and animal domestication also occurred independently in several other regions around the world, each with a different mix of crops. In Ancient China and in Mexico it happened at about the same time as in the Crescent or slightly later. It also occurred among the Incas, in the Sahel, in the highlands of New Guinea, and perhaps in other areas.

Much of this region is quite dangerous; in particular, see warnings in the Iraq and Syria articles.