Egypt And Mesopotamia Comparison Essay

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A Comparison and Contrast of Mesopotamia and Egypt The Mesopotamian and Egyptian empires are two of the earliest civilizations in history. Mesopotamia came into existence around 3000 B.C. and was located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. While Egypt was located along the Nile River, it also came into existence around 3000 B.C. Mesopotamia and Egypt were fertile areas that attracted migrants because of their access to these rivers. Although the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt share similar cultural, religious, and political aspects, they are different in many ways.
The most populated portion of Mesopotamia was Sumer and with the introduction of artificial irrigation, crops flourished causing more people to move into area. The growth in population caused “the Sumerians to built the world’s first cities,” as said by the textbook. These cities eventually became states and created governments to keep a sense of order in the community
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Egypt also recognized their need for a formal government and created states with official authorities. According to the textbook, “The earliest Egyptian states were small kingdoms.” The ruler, Menes, unified the small kingdoms into a large and powerful kingdom with Memphis serving as the capital city. Menes built a government in which the king was called the pharaoh. These early pharaohs called themselves gods who took the form of humans and in the textbook they were, “owners and absolute rulers of all the land.” The people believed that the pharaoh was truly a god on earth and that after his death he merged with the spiritual god. Although people worshipped many gods, they were loyal to the pharaoh and believed that the “Gods blessed people and made life good.” according to presentation 1. Egypt also had many cultural contributions such as pyramids, embalming, hieroglyphics, sailboats, and social