PLACES IN THE ANCIENT WORLD: The Fertile Crescent (The Middle East)
THE Fertile Crescent is the region in the Middle East which curves like a quarter-moon shape, from the Persian Gulf, through modern-day southern Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and northern Egypt. The term “Fertile Crescent” was first used in 1916 by Egyptologist James Henry Breasted in his work ‘Ancient Times: A History of the Early World’, where he wrote: “this fertile crescent is approximately a semi-circle, with the open side toward the south, having the west end at the south-east corner of the Mediterranean, the centre north of Arabia and the east end at the Persian Gulf.
The Fertile Crescent is associated with the location of the Garden of Eden (in Judaism, Christianity and Islam). Known as the ‘Cradle of Civilization’, the Fertile Crescent is regarded as the birthplace of agriculture, urbanization, writing, trade, science, history and organized religion.
(Info by Joshua J. Mark on Ancient History Encyclopedia)
