What is the Fertile Crescent?

What is the Fertile Crescent?

Humans first began to live in groups around 20, 000 BC. These groups were often nomadic, and lived in semi-permanent camps. They moved with the change of seasons and in search of food. Around 8000 BC, in the Middle East, people learned that they could control and domesticate the plants and animals that provided their food. The basics of farming and cattle-rearing began, and people started to settle down. This happened in the area around the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, in what is today’s Iraq and Syria. This area, thus came to be known as the Fertile Crescent. It was situated in what was called Mesopotamia in ancient times. Mesopotamia is a Greek word meaning ‘the land between the rivers’. Here, people first built their permanent dwellings, and the first cities grew. By 6000 BC, the Fertile Crescent had also become the Cradle of Civilisation, where people organized themselves into societies and set up systems of government to rule themselves.