Fertile Crescent: description, history, geography and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

In articles about the Middle East, the expression "fertile crescent" sometimes slips through, which causes bewilderment among the uninitiated. What is a crescent moon? Why is he so fertile? Let's find out, it's interesting!

Earth crescent

The Fertile Crescent is the area commonly referred to as the Middle East. It is called a crescent because of its shape, which really resembles a night luminary in half phase. Regarding fertility: this famous place is considered the cradle of all world civilization, and practically the birthplace of agriculture, grain crops and bread, like the famous Egyptian Nile Valley. It is an area with very rich soil and abundant rainfall in winter.

Another well-known name is the “golden triangle”. Often these two names are attributed to the same locality, but this is wrong. Yes, both the “fertile crescent” and the “golden triangle” are the names of territories that resemble these figures in outline. But unlike the first, the "golden triangle" is the area where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Burma meet. It is famous for the fact that it was here that the center of production and distribution of opium was born and flourished until the 20th century. The difference in the purpose of both centers is obvious.

Geographic location

Geographically, this territory occupies the area of Saudi Arabia along the northern edge of the Syrian Desert. The western edge is washed by the Mediterranean Sea, the eastern one rests on the Zagros Mountains. Occupies Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Israel, parts of Jordan and Turkey. The fertile crescent is the territory of ancient Mesopotamia and the Levant.

Shelter between mountain ranges, a sufficient number of rivers and swamps, rainwater, location at the crossroads from Africa to Asia - the combination of all these factors led to the fact that this particular area was destined to become the famous parent of arable farming, agriculture and animal husbandry.

Neolithic Revolution

Very fortunate geographical location led to the fact that the region of the fertile crescent became the focus of the Neolithic revolution. This is the name given to the period of transition of ancient tribes from gathering to production. This did not happen suddenly and not immediately, according to someone else's plan. The process dragged on for many hundreds of years, but the grandiose changes that have burst out in the life of mankind allow us to call it revolutionary.

It is known that the ancient tribesThey earned their livelihood by taking a part of what was produced from nature. Food was brought by hunting, fishing and picking ready-made berries, mushrooms, seeds, and fruits. Gradually devastating the territory, a reasonable person noticed that the seeds can not only be collected, but scattered especially for the next harvest. The consequences of this occupation led not just to a change in lifestyle, but to truly dramatic changes in the course of history. A productive economy is the basis of the life of the entire present world existence.

History and agriculture

The first peoples who tried to sow and produce were the tribes inhabiting the fertile crescent. History calls the main reason that forced these actions, a sharp change in climate after the Ice Age. It turned out that it was the territory of Mesopotamia and the Levant that remained the most fertile, while the Egyptian center of the origin of civilization was spoiled by a hot and arid climate.

Agriculture led to a settled way of life of the tribes, the first cities appeared. The cultivation of land and crops encouraged the creation of new tools, storage utensils, and new ways of cooking. In parallel, pottery, animal husbandry, and weaving began to develop. There were mills and ovens for baking bread. The fertile land produced a surplus of crops that could be exchanged for other necessary things. So agriculture led to the development of trade.

From agriculture to animal husbandry

The first animals that settled next to man were dogs. The remaining types of wild neighbors were for the primitive tribes the subject of hunting, and the prospect of eating meat. With the development of agriculture, the processing of fields began to take more and more time, and meat began to be “harvested for the future”, that is, caught and kept in pens. New individuals began to appear already in captivity.

Gradually, people began to eat milk, use the help of animals in the fields. Domesticated and domesticated animals were no longer considered only as food. They began to serve the people. They gradually changed their habits, instincts, and even the appearance and structure of internal organs. The Fertile Crescent became the birthplace of domestic goats, rams, bulls, and horses. Even the cat, which, as you know, walked for a long time on its own, first joined the hearth in a Middle Eastern village.

Life Grains

Why did cereals become the main crop of the Fertile Crescent? Wild progenitors of wheat, barley, lentils grew among forbs on vast areas of the planet. The exclusivity of the territory of ancient Mesopotamia is that it was here that the climate and soil turned out to be the most fertile for their reproduction and cultivation by sowing.

The first "tamed" cereals were wheat and barley. Their crops existed here already at the end of the 9th century BC. e. Whoever the Creator of man was, he took care of decent food for him! Times and tastes are changing, some plant species are disappearing andnew crops are emerging, and cereals, which originated in the Fertile Crescent, remain the most valuable food product of all time.

Cereals contain almost the entire complex of B vitamins necessary for the human body. Cereal fiber helps in the fight against bad cholesterol. Bread and cereals are products that quickly saturate the body, do no harm and contribute to the accumulation of energy. Grain is a source of magnesium, selenium, folic acid. In a word, cereals contain all the elements necessary for the he althy activity of a living organism.

A few facts about bread

There are no number of recipes for baking bread. Different nations make it in different ways. There is only one similarity - the basis of any bread is grain. Needless to say, the fertile crescent became the birthplace of the first baked bread.

• The first bread is more than 30 thousand years old. They were unleavened flatbreads made from crushed grain baked on hot stones.
• The oldest type of bread is Middle Eastern pita.
• Yeast bread was already baked in ancient Egypt.
• In all nations, bread is given magical power and the ability to strengthen. It is used in many religious ceremonies.
• Most bread is eaten in Turkey.
• Bread is the basis of the diet of 99% of the world's inhabitants.