Historically
the first great civilizations all grew up in river valleys. The oldest,
3500 to 2000 B.C.E., was along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the
Middle East; the name given to that civilization, Mesopotamia, means
"between the rivers". The Nile valley in Egypt had been home to
agricultural settlements as early as 5500 B.C.E., but the growth of
Egypt as a civilization began around 3100 B.C.E. A third civilization
grew up along the Indus River around 2600 B.C.E., in parts of what are
now India and Pakistan. The fourth great river civilization emerged
around 1700 B.C.E. along the Yellow River in China.
