Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt The first, true civilizations in ancient times both formed near prominent rivers. These first civilizations developed in the Middle East, Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates and Egypt by the Nile River. Egypt and Mesopotamia are examples of some early river-valley civilizations that relied heavily on its geographies and the surrounding environment. Mesopotamian civilization featured a distinctive culture and was the home of the world's first set of laws. The Egyptian …showed first 75 words of 549 total…

…showed last 75 words of 549 total…peculiar geography made it a difficult country to attack, which is why Paranoiac Egypt was for so long an independent and self-contained state. Once Egypt did succumb to foreign rule, however, it proved unable to escape from it, and for 2,300 years, foreigners governed Egypt. As agricultural civilizations, Egypt and Mesopotamia depended a great deal on their nearby rivers. Besides sharing a few similarities, their geography shaped them to the extent that they developed quite differently.