The first cities, the first writing, the first empires and the first written laws — all between the Tigris and Euphrates.
Stop 01 · 3000 BCE
The First Cities
In southern Mesopotamia — today's Iraq — the Sumerians built the world's first cities. Uruk may have had 40,000 people by 3000 BCE. To keep track of grain, livestock and labor, its temple administrators developed cuneiform, the earliest known writing system, around 3200 BCE.