and one of the cradles of civilization.

It is in this vast area where the fundamental transition from lifestyles,

based on hunting and gathering to agriculture, took place.

It was here where temples and cities were first erected,

where the metal was first worked,

where the writing appeared and where great kingdoms and empires emerged.

The heart of the Middle East is Mesopotamia,

land between rivers, as named by the Greek historians.

This vast geographic area of ​​almost 80,000 km2,

includes modern Iraq and parts of Iran and Syria.,

where the Tigris and Euphrates which,

thanks to irrigating the fertile plains through which they run,

made the life in this region of extreme conditions,

with current temperatures above 50 degrees in summer and very low annual rainfall.

The land and water were the main resources,

providing abundant grass and a thriving agriculture.

The inhabitants of Mesopotamia were offered a variety of animals for food.

The steppes were inhabited by gazelles, deer and wild asses.

In the mountains there were deer, wild boars, tigers, lions,

bears and wild goats.

Towards 6500 BC,

sheep, goats, pigs and cows are in the diet of the people of Mesopotamia.

It was not until the end of the third millennium BC

when the horse and camel are domesticated.

The emergence of agriculture led to major changes.

From 8500 BC, the sedentary stretches across the Middle East.

Places like Jericho, Shanidar, Zawi Chemi, Karim Shefer, Cayönü, Jarmo and others

have great advances in farming techniques and materials.

In the Anatolian upland, Hacilar, Hasan Can and Suberde show a high degree of civilization,

but the largest settlement and best preserved is Çatal Huyuk.

With an area of ​​12 ha, throughout all the settlement there may be about 1000 homes,

in which must have lived a population of more than 5000 people.

Walls are made of mud and almost stuck to each other,

the entrance to the houses are made from the roof,

which was reached by a ladder.

The decoration of houses, with paintings, skulls and bull's horns, among other elements,

as well as structures called sanctuaries,

have allowed the suggestion that its population reached a high level of ritualization.

By the sixth millennium,

advanced places like Samarra or Hassunna,

have a pottery decorated with geometric motifs.

More importantly than these cultures was the one of Tell Halaf,

between 5600 and 4500 BC.

Its people developed new technical skills

and created one of the most beautiful ceramics in the entire history of this region.

A short time later, in southern Mesopotamia a flourishing settlement occurs;

the people, maybe coming from east or southern Iran attracted

by the area's natural resources:

abundant water, lush palm groves and conditions for hunting and fishing.

The most significant deposits were from Eridu, El Obeid, Uruk and Jemdet Nasr.

El Obeid, between 4800 and 3750,

presented the features of an advanced society and a theocratic organization.

The Ubaid period is characterized by its unique households,

with Madhhur Tell in Iraq being one of the best studied.

On this site, archaeological excavations brought to light a house,

the house of Usaid, built with walls made of adobe bricks.

It consisted of a large central room, flanked by a series of smaller rooms.

But the most interesting part

was that in the place remains of elements from the daily life were found,

such as vessels for eating, drinking, cooking or storing food, stone hoes, grinding stones, etc..

Uruk provides to humanity the oldest known examples of writing,

between 3500 and 3000 BC.

It's an already complete system with over 700 different signs,

and their role should be primarily economic,

to control and manage the wealth of the temples.

The first clay tablets recorded the sale of products such as grain, beer or livestock.

Others are lists that scribes learn to read and write.

The signs are often obvious, meaning simple figures in which,

for example, a spike represents the barley.

Over time they adapted the form of signs to write with a reed stylus.

The result was that the incisions were wedge shaped, hence the name of cuneiform.

Along with writing, other inventions of this period are on the path to civilization.

Uruk's culture was spread throughout the lower Mesopotamia,

provides full control of new techniques such as the wheel and the car,

the navigation, the potter's wheel, the plow or smelting.

The work of copper, from the fourth millennium BC,

the lost wax method, allowed making articles of gold, silver and lead.

While these developments arise, society is becoming increasingly urban.

City-state like Lagash, Ur, Kish and Tutub,

among many others, populate the landscape of southern Mesopotamia.

Now divided, we are in the third millennium,

in two large regions, Sumer and Akkad.

Sumerian cities, as Kafadye are dominated by a large temple,

and are surrounded by walls because disputes are frequent.

Some even count 24,000 residents and have a great market.

Protecting individual property

and ensuring proper treatment becomes an important issue,

and for that reason, cylinder seals are made,

in which are recorded scenes that are marked to pass on a clay surface.

The city-state, even though it was politically autonomous,

shared cultural traits like language or religion.

The ruler of one of these cities, Sargon of Akkad,

will rise above the rest and founded the first major state in the region, Akkadian,

in 2400 BC.

Also, the temples of the cities are evolving into stepped ziggurats.

One of the oldest and most famous was built in Ur in 2100 BC.

The great ziggurat of Babylon may have inspired the biblical description of the Tower of Babel.

By 2000 BC, Akkadian supremacy already disappeared due to external pressures.

The Middle East is a land of warring city-states,

where each one aims to achieve military and political supremacy,

establishing complicated alliances.

The political work is well known thanks to the tablets discovered

in the royal palaces of Mari and Ebla.

These tablets illustrate taxes and fees, numbers of slaves and craftsmen,

or details about the surrounding cities.

The kings of Babylon, Larsa and Eshnunna, direct political federations.

The most important of all is Hammurabi,

king of Babylon between 1792 and 1750 BC.

Hammurabi issued a legal code covering wide variety of topics:

trade agreements, matrimonial disputes, land disputes, etc..

The great Babylon, which means the gate of the gods, now live in all its glory,

thanks to being the center of worship of the god Marduk.

With its great ziggurat, its walls, its Ishtar Gate,

its beautiful gardens and glazed reliefs, Babylon will become a mythical city.

From 1500 BC, the region will live troubled times.

While Egypt is consolidating the New Kingdom,

the Hittite Empire dominates Anatolia and the United Mitanni controlled the Upper Euphrates.

Relations are strained;

the cities are besieged and battles are fought in the open field.

During this period until 1155 BC,

the cities of southern Mesopotamia are dominated by Cassita Dynasty,

which had its capital in Babylon.

The Cassita introduce the kudurru,

a type of marker used to record transfers of land.

By 1000 BCE begins an era dominated by the construction of large empires.

The first is the Assyrian, who, around 700,

will extend from the eastern Mediterranean to the Iranian plain.

Assyrian rulers adorned their most important cities with temples and palaces,

such as Dur Sharrukin now Khorsabad, city built by Sargon II.

The monarch is now the great ruler of peoples and leader of expeditions,

and for their enjoyment and omnipotence rises the palace,

symbol of his power.

Assyrian power will not last long, as an enemy coalition sacked the royal cities in 612.

This led to a new empire in the East, centered in Babylon,

which will also be demolished in 539 by another emerging power, the Persians.

Cyrus the Great is the founder of an empire that eventually will be extended

through Iran, Mesopotamia, Syria, Asia Minor, Thrace and parts of India.

One of their great rulers, Darius, sent up his residence to Persepolis,

A city that will begin to get rich in a lavish way,

especially thanks to their palaces.

The graves of these and other leaders will record the splendor of Persian civilization.

However, a number of rebellions and wars weakened the Persian power.

The expansionist ambitions of a young Macedonian king, Alexander the Great,

led him to confront and defeat easily the once powerful Persian empire.

It was in 331 BC and the Persian defeat not only put an end to an era

where Mesopotamia was, somehow, the center of the world,

but it marked the beginning of another

in which power is transferred to the thriving nations of the Mediterranean.