Other Empires of Mesopotamia
How many empires of Mesopotamia can you locate on this map?
Around the year 1600 BC, Babylon fell to invaders as well. Over the next thousand years, other groups took control of the area called Mesopotamia, and one by one, they fell too, mostly because of invasions. Practice saying their names out loud using the pronunciation guide.
- Hittites (Hit-tights)--most famous for inventing the chariot and iron weapons, which helped them to be fierce fighters
- Assyrians (Uh-see-ree-uhns)--experienced soldiers with advanced weapons; feared throughout the region because of their cruelty: they were known to torture citizens and burn cities to the ground during battles
- Chaldeans (Kal-dee-uhns)--most known for defeating the Assyrians and for famous King Nebuchadnezzar II, who built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
- Phoenicians (Fuh-nee-shuns)--expert sailors and traders on the Mediterranean Sea; most known for spreading their alphabet to other places on the sea. Historians think that the Phoenician alphabet is the ancestor to the famous Greek alphabet, which the Greeks got from trading.
- Persians (Per-shuns)--We'll talk about them in the next unit!