Fertile CrescentThe Fertile Crescent (الهلال الخصيب, הסהר הפורה) is a crescent-shaped region in the Middle East, spanning modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Jordan, together with the northern region of Kuwait, southeastern region of Turkey and the western portion of Iran. Some authors also include Cyprus and Northern Egypt. The Fertile Crescent is believed to be the very first region where settled farming emerged as people started the process of clearance and modification of natural vegetation to grow newly domesticated plants as crops.
TikritTikrit (تِكْرِيت Tikrīt ˈtɪkriːt) is a city in Iraq, located northwest of Baghdad and southeast of Mosul on the Tigris River. It is the administrative center of the Saladin Governorate. , it had a population of approximately 160,000. Originally a fort during the Assyrian empire, Tikrit became the birthplace of Muslim military leader Saladin. It was the birthplace of Saddam Hussein and the city from where a significant portion of those he appointed to government roles originated during the time of Ba'athist Iraq until the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Ancient historyAncient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history covers all continents inhabited by humans in the period 3000 BC - AD 500. The three-age system periodizes ancient history into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age, with recorded history generally considered to begin with the Bronze Age.
KültepeKültepe (Turkish: ash-hill), also known as Kanesh or Nesha, is an archaeological site in Kayseri Province, Turkey, inhabited from the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, in the Early Bronze Age. The nearest modern city to Kültepe is Kayseri, about 20km southwest. It consisted of an Upper city, and a lower city, where an Assyrian kārum, trading colony, was found. Its ancient names are recorded in Assyrian and Hittite sources.
AleppoAleppo (ʌˈlɛpoʊ; حَلَب / ALA-LC: , ˈħalab) is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city and also one of the largest cities in the Levant region. Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world; it may have been inhabited since the sixth millennium BC. Excavations at Tell as-Sawda and Tell al-Ansari, just south of the old city of Aleppo, show that the area was occupied by Amorites by the latter part of the third millennium BC.
NippurNippur (Sumerian: Nibru, often logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;" Akkadian: Nibbur) was an ancient Sumerian city. It was the special seat of the worship of the Sumerian god Enlil, the "Lord Wind", ruler of the cosmos, subject to An alone. Nippur was located in modern Nuffar in Afak, Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, Iraq. It is roughly 200 kilometers south of modern Baghdad and about 60 miles southeast of the ancient city of Babylon.
Near EastThe Near East is a transcontinental region around the East Mediterranean encompassing West Asia, Southeastern Europe and North Africa, including the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, East Thrace and Egypt. The term was originally applied to the Ottoman Empire, but today has varying definitions within different academic circles. According to National Geographic, the terms Near East and Middle East denote the same territories and are "generally accepted as comprising the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian territories, Syria, and Turkey".
Assyrian Church of the EastThe Assyrian Church of the East (ACOE), sometimes called Church of the East, officially the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East (HACACE), is an Eastern Christian church that follows the traditional Christology and ecclesiology of the historical Church of the East. It belongs to the eastern branch of Syriac Christianity, and employs the Divine Liturgy of Saints Addai and Mari belonging to the East Syriac Rite. Its main liturgical language is Classical Syriac, a dialect of Eastern Aramaic, and the majority of its adherents are ethnic Assyrians.
Orontes RiverThe Orontes (ɔːˈrɒntiːz; from Ancient Greek Ὀρόντης, ) or Asi (العاصي, alˈʕaːsʕiː; Asi) is a river with a length of in Western Asia that begins in Lebanon, flowing northwards through Syria before entering the Mediterranean Sea near Samandağ in Turkey. As the chief river of the northern Levant, the Orontes was the site of several major battles. Among the most important cities on the river are Homs, Hama, Jisr al-Shughur, and Antakya (the ancient Antioch, which was also known as "Antioch on the Orontes").
KurdistanKurdistan (Kurdistan; ˌkʊɾdɪˈstɑːn), or Greater Kurdistan, is a roughly defined geo-cultural region in the Middle East wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, languages, and national identity have historically been based. Geographically, Kurdistan roughly encompasses the northwestern Zagros and the eastern Taurus mountain ranges. Kurdistan generally comprises the following four regions: southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdistan), northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan), northwestern Iran (Eastern Kurdistan), and northern Syria (Western Kurdistan).
