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Egypt And Mesopotamia Comparison Essay

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Two early civilizations, Mesopotamia and Egypt, had similar yet contrasting landscapes, governments, and religions. Mesopotamia located in the Fertile Crescent had flat land and irregular flooding, the government divided into city-states, and the people practiced a polytheistic religion. Egypt established next to the Nile had regular flooding, a centralized monarchy, and practiced a polytheistic religion as well. The two early civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt although similar had very different geography, government, and religion during 2000 BC to 100 BC. Mesopotamia located on a flat plain between two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, made significant agricultural advancements. Even though desert took over the majority of Egypt, …show more content…

The flooding in Mesopotamia caused destruction; however, it allowed the Mesopotamians to create irrigation canals and run-off ditches. The Nile flooded regularly this allowed the Egyptians to plan for harvesting; the Tigris and the Euphrates did not flood regularly and caused some destruction to the crops. The flat land of Mesopotamia also allowed for easy invasion, unlike Egypt that was surrounded by deserts and the Mediterranean. The invasions of Mesopotamia probably made it difficult to have a centralized government. Mesopotamia had city-states ruled by a king that had divine authority. The economy was also very independent and had a business class. Egypt’s bureaucracy set regulations and rules and Mesopotamia had a set of rules, Code of Hammurabi. Egypt had more of a centralized government than Mesopotamia because of the complexity of the harvest. While Mesopotamia had many kings Egypt had one, the pharaoh. The pharaoh was not looked upon as a human but a god and the pharaoh controlled everything. The regional governor reported back to the pharaoh and most of the economy was controlled by the governors and pharaoh. Since the pharaoh was looked upon as a god the people treated him/her as one, by building

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