Fertile Crescent

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Fertile Crescent

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Fertile Crescent historic region of the Middle East. A well-watered and fertile area, it arcs across the northern part of the Syrian desert. It is flanked on the west by the Mediterranean and on the east by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, and includes all or parts of Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. From antiquity this region was the site of settlements and the scene of bloody raids and invasions.

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Fertile Crescent

A Dictionary of World History | 2000 | © A Dictionary of World History 2000, originally published by Oxford University Press 2000. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Fertile Crescent The fertile land stretching from the Mediterranean coast of Syria, Lebanon, and Israel down the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the Persian Gulf. The expression was coined by the archaeologist James H. Breasted to describe that part of the Middle East that formed the cradle of early civilizations such as the Assyrian, Sumerian, Phoenician, Babylonian, Hittite, and Hebrew. Archaeological evidence confirms the existence of agricultural communities in the area by 8000 BC.


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Fertile Crescent. (Image by NormanEinstein, GFDL)

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