Water was more important to the development of a working civilization in Ancient Egypt than Mesopotamia for the following reasons: irrigation, drinking, resources and trade. Although these factors were used by both Egypt and Mesopotamia, the latter had a better understanding and control over water than Mesopotamia.
Mesopotamia (3500 B.C.E. - 530 B.C.E.) was located in northeast Syria, which is now know today as Iraq. It was mainly surrounded by water, most notably the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which is how it adopted its name "the land between the rivers"ÃÂ. Luckily it was also located on the site of some of the world's first permanent farming villages. The land and climate within these regions was not the best area for the development of a working civilization, as the South was primarily flat flood plain.
Flooding was the Mesopotamia peoples' main problem, based on a lack of knowledge on how to deal with them.
The Iran-Iraq border runs through the Tigris water...
English: The Nile River as it flows through the ci...
Vegetation along the Nile. You can see the river n...The floods were unpredictable, and created hazards to the settlements situated near the rivers, such as destruction of land and housing. Based on the constant floods travel and communication were also hindered by the flooding.
After many civilizations were conquered, the people of Mesopotamia finally learned to control the floods in the South and used their acquired knowledge to drain the land and irrigate the soil. This in turn lead to the people of the region producing many different types of food, and contributing to their striving civilization. By this time their reign was almost coming to an end, and was relatively useless to them.
Water was never used to the best advantage by Mesopotamia. They were unable to control flooding or to develop adequate drainage, therefore it was of limited use to them.
Ancient Egypt (3100 B.C.E. - 395 B.C.E.), just as Mesopotamia, developed around...