By Louis  & Jennifer
 

     This web page will help you find out information about Egypt and Mesopotamia.  You will also find out information about farming and agriculture in Egypt and farming and agriculture in Mesopotamia. We will discuss how they are the same and how they are different.

    The Nile River helped farming and agriculture in Egypt.  It helped by providing silt whenever there was a flood. The Nile River floods between June and October.  Crops are usually harvested during the spring.  The depth of the flood was 45 feet.  After floods, there would be a fertile strip along the Nile river that was 12 miles wide.  There, the Egyptians would plant and grow things such as vegetables and fruits.  The Nile River is the longest river in the world.  Farmers sophisticated irrigation systems and used dikes to maximize the use of the Nile River.  The Nile River helped the Egyptians by supplying water for the farmers and their family.
  
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    Farming brought people together.  During harvest season, everyone was made to gather the crops together.  Economy was based on wheat and grains.  The economy grew stronger because of irrigation.  Irrigation led to an increased food supply.  Irrigation helped water dry lands with streams, canals, or pipes.  Farmers planned for the seasonal flooding.  They also used wooden plows led by a pair of oxen, but by 2800 BC, they learned how to make bronze tools.  They used tools made of flint to cut wheat.  They threw seed into the ground to grow fruit and vegetables.  Farmers led farm animals loose to trample seeds into soil.
 
    In Mesopotamia, there were a lot of crops to grow.  Farmers raised grain, fruit, vegetables, and barn yard animals.  Farmers changed their houses from reed house to brick houses.  They plowed ground with stone hoes.  The metal plows had a funnel shape.  They filled containers with seeds.  Cows would pull plow seed and the seeds would go into the ground.  This method was quick and easy.  Sumerians had handbooks that told much how to plant crops.

    Irrigation helped tremendously.  Like the Egyptians depended on the Nile River, Mesopotamians depended on the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.  The silt left over from the flooding of these rivers made the soil fertile.  Irrigation produced an extra supply of food.  Farmers would trade would trade grain for lumber and stone.  Farmers didn't have money so they used their crops.  The climate of the Mesopotamia was dry.  There was very little rainfall.  Farmers had to do find ways to find water for their crops.  In the spring and early summer, melting snow from the northern mountains to overflow the crops.  The floods were violent and unpredictable.  They destroyed villages and took many lives.  Floods sometimes caused rivers to change courses.  A lot of trouble is caused to the farmers' crops when river change course.
 
    Mesopotamia wheat and barley were most important grown crops by the Sumerians.  Shade trees protected trees from harsh winds and from the sun.  Some of the fruits they planted were dates, grapes, figs, melons, and apples.  Their favorite vegetables that they grew were the eggplant.  They planted vegetables such as onions, radishes, beans, and lettuce.  Farmers irrigated land and started planting wheat, barley, millet, beans, and sesame seeds.  They used spears to hunt, caught fish in nets, and killed birds with sling shots and arrows.  Sumerians got their food from nearby marshes and rivers.  Thought the climate in Mesopotamia was very hot, they still received enough rainfall for crops. Soon, Mesopotamia became a very rich farming ground.
 
    Though Mesopotamia and Egypt are on different continents, they still have similarities.  Some of the similarities of Egypt and Mesopotamia are that the river(s) provided silt to help their crops grow.  Irrigation helped both Egypt and Mesopotamia.  Irrigation helped them get a surplus, or extra, supply of food.  The first great civilization arose in the two regions.  Egypt and Mesopotamia both have fertile land, but neither received enough rain to grow crops.  By 3000 BC., farmers invented plow the oxen could pull.  The extra supply of food helped people to give up farming and live in the city.  Also by 3000 BC., Egypt and Mesopotamia developed the world's first large-scale irrigation system.

    Though there are many similarities, there still are differences.  First of all, Egyptian sophisticated irrigation and dikes to maximize the use of the Nile and Mesopotamia just used irrigation.  The people of Egypt knew when the Nile River would flood (predictable), but the people of Mesopotamia didn't know when the Tigris and Euphrates River would flood (unpredictable).  Floods of the Nile River were between the months of June and October.  The depth of the flood would be 45 feet deep.  The Tigris and Euphrates River's depth and the months it flooded differ every time it floods.  One either sides of the Nile River is a fertile strip of 12 miles wide, but there weren't any fertile strips around the Tigris and the Euphrates River.  Farmers in Mesopotamia used the rivers to trade with merchants.

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    In this web page we described things about Mesopotamia and Egypt.  Also, in this essay is a comparison of farming and agriculture of Egypt and farming and agriculture of Mesopotamia.  We believe that the Egyptians and Mesopotamians were very advanced in their farming and agriculture.  Now we hope that you will cherish this information about the differences and similarities about farming and agriculture of Egypt and farming and agriculture of Mesopotamia.
 
 

References

Ancient Egypt : The Geography, History, Culture and Scientific Achievements of the People of the Nile River; Gordon, A.
Ancient Mesopotamia: the Geography, History, Culure and Scientific Achievements of Its People;  Gordon, A. 
http://www.city.ac.uk/~es161/iraq-te.html
http://www.the-wire.com/usr.msshDigitalNile/EgyptNileIndex.html
World Book, Letter A, Book #1
World Book, Letter E, Book #6
World Book, Letter M, Book #13
The First Book of Ancient Mesopotamia and Persia by Robinson Jr., Charles A., Fraukin Watts, Inc. 1962; J 913.35 R