Map of Mesopotamia
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In Greek, Mesopotamia means 'land between the rivers', and the term came to be applied to the land between the two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, which flow from eastern Turkey, through present-day Iraq, to The Gulf; the Euphrates also takes in a large part of northern Syria.

Mesopotamia was the name of an area rather than a country, but has come to be applied to the many rich cultures that flourished in ancient Iraq. These included Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian and many other cultures, whose influence extended into neighbouring countries, certainly from around 5,000 BC.

After the fall of the Assyrian Empire in 612 BC, Mesopotamia was ruled by a succession of foreign dynasties. Eventually, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War One, the modern state of Iraq was formed, a state that became independent in 1932.

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