Daily 8

Describe the importance of water in the ancient world.

Water was very important to the ancient world. Of course, it was used as something to drink, but it was also used for irrigation. Irrigation was used to water the fields. They built canals that helped when the area flooded. The irrigation system also increased the food supply.  The water was also used in farming, which created a clean fertile land that was fit to grow fruits and vegetables. The towns and civilizations that lived on a riverside were better off than the other groups of people. All of the towns, eventually built wells to supply them with water. In Mesopotamia, the two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, were the most important parts of the area. Every person living in Mesopotamia centered their life on these rivers. In a desert land, water is the best and most important natural resource. The rivers and the oceans also held fish and other marine animals for the people to eat. The land in Mesopotamia was very low, so the area flooded in certain times of the years, while other times it was dried out. The water also created jobs for the people because they needed people to farm, build dam like structures, and work on the irrigation system. Another important river was the Nile. The Egyptians also used a form of irrigation that is still used, in part, today. Most of the time, there was enough rain water to help the areas grow crops, but they had the problem of storing the water. Too much of the salt water was also a problem. That is why the rivers and the rain were so important. Water was essential to the productivity and lifestyle of the ancient world.