La Mesopotamie

Mesopotamia… the very word makes us yearn to travel. Nestled between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers, and inspiring daydreams of the Orient, this country conjures up the Bible and the Garden of Eden, Paradise, and the birth of Humanity. Between the middle of the 4th millennium and the beginning of our era, three very different—yet closely related—cultures flourished there which archaeologists have been struggling to revive for the last one hundred and fifty years : 1/ Sumer : which invented the city and writing 2/ Babylonia : the megalopolis and heiress of Sumer, with its Tower of Babel, paling, famous suspended gardens, and —above all— its status as a place of great learning and scholarly pursuits ; and, last but not least 3/ Assyria : which was unknown to the first two cities, but fell under their influence and cultivated the art of war fare more than any other people of the ancient Orient. In keeping with the spirit of this Collection, this book is primarily intended for readers unfamiliar with the subject in the hope of inspiring them to explore these cultures that vanished several millenniums ago, many facets of which remain undiscovered (Sumerian has been a dead language for nearly four thousand years and is far from being deciphered!)