Dimensions
165 x 242 x 35mm
Situated in an area roughly corresponding to present-day Iraq, Mesopotamia was one of the great ancient civilizations, yet it is still relatively unknown. The Mesopotamian peoples (the Babylonians, Sumerians and Assyrians) have not entered the public imagination in the same way as the Ancient Egyptians. But as the new millennium begins with the majority of the world's population living in cities, Mesopotamia, more than agrarian Egypt, has much to teach us. It was here that the experiment with the city first took place.
Gwendolyn Leick looks at these extraordinary and innovative urban centres. Each of the ten chapters focuses on the life of one city; each has its own unique character. There were holy cities, cities of learning, cities of commerce and of kings, cities that blossomed for a while and were then abandoned, and cities still inhabited to this day. Leick concludes with that potent symbol of glamour and decadence, Babylon - the first true metropolis: multicultural, multi-ethnic, the last centre of a dying civilisation.
