Post 2: 15 Facts

1. Persian king who captured Babylon and took over the rest of the Fertile Crescent was Cyrus the Great
2. The Epic of Gilgamash reflects Sumerians beliefs about life and death.
3. Sargon was the most powerful Akkadian king.
4. Under Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon once again became a large and wealthy city.
5. The Akkadian Empire lasted about 150 years.
6. The ruler Hammurabi is best known for this code, a collection of about 282 laws dealing with issues from commerce to property rights.
7. Assyrians were a Semitic-speaking people from northern Mesopotamia and were fierce, effective warriors.
8. The Persian kings used secret agents, known as "the King's Eyes and Ears," to keep them informed.
9. Cuneiform writing developed from pictographic writing.
10. Each ziggurat could be up to 150 feet high and its top served as a
    shrine to a Sumerian god.
11. To keep their calendar accurate, the Sumerians added a month every few years.
12. Unlike boys, girls could not become scribes and did not attend school.
13. Before 3000 B.C., Sumerians had begun trading with other people in Southwest Asia.
14. Important Sumerian gods included An, the lord of heaven, Enlil, the god of air and storms, and Enki, the god of water and wisdom.
15. Neolithic people, called Sumerians, settled in this fertile valley (Fertile Creasant) and began to grow crops.