Four Major River Valley Civilizations

2. What were the environmental surroundings of each of the four major river-valley civilizations?
The four major river valleys were: Nile river (Egypt), Indus (Pakistan) Tigris and Euphrates (what is now Iraq), and the yellow river (what is now china). Egypt (Nile River) was surrounded by marshlands, ponds, and lakes. There was “black earth”, an alluvial plain created from regular floods from central African headwaters, Egypt was bordered by the Sahara desert, with scattered oasis. Indus (Pakistan) had wide alluvial floodplain and frequent changing river courses. They had varied climate-coastal outposts, hot interior, upriver Himalayan headwaters and flooding twice a year from spring snowmelt and monsoon rains. Mesopotamia (Iraq) like Egypt,
Most Egyptian gods represented one principle aspect of the world: for example, Ra was the sun god. Egypt was prone to floods because the level of the river falls. About 2500 B.C.E a king revealed his dream, the river failed to flood because the people neglected the gods who ruled beyond the cataracts, where the waters came from. From reading this you can assume ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses represented aspects of the Egyptians’ natural and “supernatural” surroundings and helped them understand its many aspects. The Egyptians believed in after life. Evidence shows that tombs were built and were places of interrogation after a moral preparation for the next life. The examined soul renounces; it was a long list of sins that concentrated on three areas: sacrilege, sexual perversion, and the abuse of power against the weak. When the good deeds appear such as, obedience to human laws, and divine will, acts of mercy, offerings to the gods and the spirts of ancestors, bread to the hungry, clothing to the naked, and a ferry for him who was marooned. The reward of the good is a new life in the company of Osiris, the ruler of the universe. For those who failed, the punishment was extinction. In Egypt, the law remained in the hands of the pharaoh, and people did not question his power. The pharaoh maintained a strong central government and he had almost absolute power. (Armesto, pg.