Geography of Mesopotamia

Abstract It was ancient Greek travelers and historians who first gave the land the name by which we know it: Mesopotamia. The name means “the land between the rivers” (from mesos, the Greek word for “between” or “in the middle”; potamos, the Greek word for “river”; and ia, a suffix that the Greeks attached to the names of places). The ancient Mesopotamians did not have a name for the whole land; instead, their mental horizons were limited to the names of the cities and kingdoms where they lived. Today, most of ancient Mesopotamia lies within the borders of modern Iraq, with some parts-to the west and north-in Syrian and Turkish territory.