# The First Empires: Mesopotamia > How the cities between the Tigris and the Euphrates invented writing and then the world's first empires: Sargon's Akkad, Ur, Hammurabi's Babylon, Assyria and Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon. Episode 01 of the World Empires series. Interactive film: https://www.planetpast.com/stories/empires-mesopotamia/ Publisher: PlanetPast (https://www.planetpast.com/) · Published 2026-10-13 · History ## Prologue ### The first empires *World Empires · Episode 01* Mesopotamia, “the land between the rivers”. Mesopotamia means “the land between the rivers”: the Tigris and the Euphrates, in what is now Iraq. Here, by around 3200 BC, cities such as Uruk had grown to tens of thousands of people, and scribes began to write, pressing marks into clay. Writing let rulers count grain, record taxes and send orders. Those tools would one day make empires possible. Prologue · Episode 01 of the World Empires series #### The land between the rivers The flat floodplain of the Tigris and Euphrates had rich soil but little rain. Farming depended on canals, and canals needed organisation. Cities, temples and kings grew up to manage water, labour and food. - **Irrigation** produced grain surpluses. - **Surpluses** fed priests, craftsmen, soldiers and scribes. - **Writing** (cuneiform, from about 3200 BC) kept the accounts. On the globe, the yellow area marks the Sumerian heartland in the far south. Outlines throughout are approximate. Sources: [Wikipedia: Akkadian Empire (archived)](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211017070724/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_Empire); [Wikipedia: List of largest empires](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_empires) ### A land of rival cities *Prologue · 2900–2340 BC* Each Sumerian city had its own king, its own god and its own army. For centuries Sumer was a patchwork of independent city-states: Uruk, Ur, Lagash, Kish, Umma and others. They fought over fields and canals. Kings made treaties, built temple platforms, and boasted of their victories in stone. Shortly before 2300 BC, King Lugalzagesi of Uruk brought many of these cities under his control. But his realm would not last long. Prologue · Step 2 #### A land of rival cities Early Dynastic Sumer (c. 2900–2350 BC) had perhaps a dozen major cities. A ruler of one city sometimes dominated others, but none built a lasting state that ruled many peoples. The outline shows the area under Lugalzagesi of Uruk just before Sargon’s conquest (approximate). Sources: [Wikipedia: Sargon of Akkad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargon_of_Akkad); [Wikipedia: Akkadian Empire (archived)](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211017070724/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_Empire) ## Chapter I · Akkad ### Sargon of Akkad *Chapter I · c. 2334 BC* A new kind of ruler: king not of one city, but of many. Around 2334 BC, by the usual dating, a ruler called Sargon founded a new capital, Akkad. Later legend said he began as cupbearer to the king of Kish. He defeated Lugalzagesi and conquered Ur, Umma and Lagash, “as far as the sea”. Then he marched up the Euphrates to Mari and Ebla, toward the cedar forests and the silver mountains of the west. An inscription claims that 5,400 men ate bread daily in his presence: a standing royal army, something new. Chapter I · Step 3 #### Sargon of Akkad - **Reign**: c. 2334–2279 BC Middle Chronology - **Capital**: Akkad its site has never been found - **Claim**: “5,400 men ate bread daily before him” Sargon’s inscription from Nippur Dates for Akkad depend on which chronology scholars use; the “short chronology” puts everything about 64 years later. The story that Sargon was a cupbearer comes from later texts, not from his own time. Sources: [Wikipedia: Sargon of Akkad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargon_of_Akkad); [Wikipedia: Akkadian Empire (archived)](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211017070724/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_Empire) ### King of the four quarters *Chapter I · c. 2250 BC* Sargon’s grandson Naram-Sin pushed the empire to its height. Sargon’s grandson Naram-Sin ruled from about 2254 BC. He called himself “king of the four quarters” of the world. He was even worshipped as a god while still alive, something new for a Mesopotamian king. At its height the empire covered perhaps 800,000 square kilometres, from the Gulf to the Mediterranean. Its language, Akkadian, became the common language of the Near East for some two thousand years. Chapter I · Step 4 #### King of the four quarters - **Naram-Sin**: c. 2254–2218 BC deified in his lifetime - **Peak area**: ~0.8M km² c. 2250 BC (Taagepera) Akkadian, written in cuneiform, was used for diplomacy across the Near East into the 1st millennium BC, even by Egyptian pharaohs writing to foreign kings. Sources: [Wikipedia: Akkadian Empire (archived)](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211017070724/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_Empire); [Wikipedia: List of largest empires](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_empires) ### The first fall *Chapter I · c. 2154 BC* Within two centuries, the first empire was gone. After Naram-Sin, the empire shrank. Cities revolted, and the Gutians, people from the Zagros mountains, raided the plain. Some researchers link the fall to a severe drought around 2200 BC, known from soils and lake sediments. Others think the evidence is weaker. By about 2154 BC, Akkad’s power was gone. The first empire had shown both how an empire could be built and how quickly it could break. Chapter I · Step 5 #### The first fall - Revolts Sumerian cities rebelled repeatedly against Akkadian rule - Invaders Gutian groups from the Zagros mountains - Climate? The “4.2 kiloyear event” drought; how much it mattered is debated The end date of 2154 BC is a chronological estimate, not a recorded event. The outline fades as Akkad loses control. Sources: [Wikipedia: Akkadian Empire (archived)](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211017070724/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_Empire) ## Chapter II · Ur and Babylon ### The bureaucrats of Ur *Chapter II · 2112–2004 BC* A smaller empire run on paperwork, or rather, clay-work. In 2112 BC Ur-Nammu of Ur reunited the south. His dynasty, the Third Dynasty of Ur, built the great ziggurat whose ruins still stand. A law code bearing his name is the oldest surviving collection of laws, known from later copies. Ur ran its provinces with scribes and records. About 120,000 administrative tablets from this period have been dug up. Around 2004 BC, attackers from Elam, in today’s south-west Iran, sacked Ur and carried off its last king. Chapter II · Step 6 #### The bureaucrats of Ur - **Founder**: Ur-Nammu r. 2112–2094 BC - **Tablets found**: ~120,000 administrative records - **Code of Ur-Nammu**: The oldest surviving law collection preserved in fragmentary later copies Sources: [Wikipedia: Third Dynasty of Ur](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Dynasty_of_Ur) ### Hammurabi’s Babylon *Chapter II · 1792–1750 BC* A small city becomes the centre of the Mesopotamian world. In 1792 BC Hammurabi became king of Babylon, then a modest city. Late in his reign he conquered his rivals, including Larsa and Mari. He is remembered for his law code: 282 laws carved on a black stone stele more than two metres tall. Many laws set punishments that varied by social class: an eye for an eye, but only between equals. The stele was found at Susa in 1901, probably carried off as war booty, and is now in the Louvre. His dynasty ended when the Hittites sacked Babylon in 1595 BC. Chapter II · Step 7 #### Hammurabi’s Babylon - **Reign**: 1792–1750 BC Middle Chronology - **Laws**: 282 in “if… then…” form - **The stele**: Diorite, about 2.25 m tall; found at Susa in 1901; now in the Louvre From Hammurabi’s time, Babylon stayed a sacred and political centre for more than a thousand years. Sources: [History.com: Hammurabi](https://www.history.com/articles/hammurabi) ## Chapter III · Assyria ### Assyria rises *Chapter III · 911 BC* A northern kingdom on the Tigris builds a war machine. In the north, on the Tigris, lay Assyria. From 911 BC its kings began to reconquer lands lost in the troubled centuries before. They moved the capital from Assur to Nimrud, and decorated their palaces with carved scenes of war and hunting. From 745 BC, Tiglath-pileser III built a professional standing army and turned conquered kingdoms into provinces, ruled by governors. Chapter III · Step 8 #### Assyria rises - 911 BC Adad-nirari II begins the Neo-Assyrian expansion - 879 BC Kalhu (Nimrud) becomes the capital - 745 BC Tiglath-pileser III: standing army, provinces, mass deportations - 729 BC Assyria takes Babylonia Sources: [Wikipedia: Neo-Assyrian Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Assyrian_Empire) ### From Iran to Egypt *Chapter III · 671 BC* The largest empire the world had yet seen. Assyria’s armies used iron weapons, cavalry and siege engines. Conquered peoples were often deported, tens of thousands at a time, to break resistance. In 722 BC Samaria fell and the kingdom of Israel ended. In 671 BC Esarhaddon invaded Egypt. At about 1.4 million square kilometres, Assyria was the largest empire the world had yet seen. At Nineveh, King Ashurbanipal gathered a great library of clay tablets, which preserved the Epic of Gilgamesh. Chapter III · Step 9 #### From Iran to Egypt - **Peak area**: ~1.4M km² c. 670 BC (Taagepera) - **Capital**: Nineveh from 705 BC Assyria held Egypt only loosely and briefly (about 671–656 BC). Deportation figures in Assyrian records are large but debated. Sources: [Wikipedia: Neo-Assyrian Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Assyrian_Empire); [Wikipedia: List of largest empires](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_empires) ### The fall of Nineveh *Chapter III · 612 BC* Within twenty years, the mightiest empire on Earth was gone. After Ashurbanipal died, civil war split Assyria. In 626 BC Nabopolassar made Babylon independent again. Babylon allied with the Medes of Iran. In 612 BC their armies sacked Nineveh. The last Assyrian king held out at Harran until 609 BC. Assyria, feared for three centuries, simply disappeared from the map. Chapter III · Step 10 #### The fall of Nineveh - 626 BC Nabopolassar crowned in Babylon - 614 BC Assur falls to the Medes - 612 BC Nineveh sacked by Medes and Babylonians - 609 BC Harran falls; Assyria ends Historians point to rule by fear, civil war, the “Babylonian problem” and possibly drought. None alone explains such a rapid collapse. Sources: [Wikipedia: Neo-Assyrian Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Assyrian_Empire) ## Chapter IV · Babylon reborn ### Babylon’s last glory *Chapter IV · 605–539 BC* Nebuchadnezzar II rebuilds Babylon, then Persia arrives. In 605 BC the crown prince Nebuchadnezzar defeated Egypt at Carchemish and became king. He ruled for over forty years. He besieged Jerusalem twice. After 587 BC many of its people were taken to Babylon, the Babylonian Exile. He rebuilt Babylon with the blue glazed Ishtar Gate and a great ziggurat. The famous Hanging Gardens have never been proven to exist. In October 539 BC, the Persian king Cyrus took Babylon. The age of Mesopotamian empires was over. Chapter IV · Step 11 #### Babylon’s last glory - **Nebuchadnezzar II**: 605–562 BC - **Peak area**: ~0.5M km² 562 BC The Ishtar Gate was excavated in the early 20th century and reconstructed in Berlin’s Pergamon Museum. Episode 03 continues with Persia. Sources: [Wikipedia: Neo-Babylonian Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Babylonian_Empire) ## Epilogue ### What Mesopotamia left us *Epilogue* Writing, written law, cities, and the hours of the clock. For about 1,800 years, empires rose and fell between the rivers: Akkad, Ur, Babylon, Assyria and Babylon again. Each fell to revolts, rival powers, and sometimes a changing climate. Yet their inventions spread far beyond them. Writing, written law, kingship and imperial provinces were copied by later empires. Their counting in sixties survives in our sixty seconds and sixty minutes. Next, we travel west to the Nile, and the pharaohs of Egypt. Epilogue #### What Mesopotamia left us - Writing Cuneiform, used for some 3,000 years - Law Written law codes (Ur-Nammu, Hammurabi) - Empire Provinces, governors, standing armies - Time Base-60 counting: 60 seconds, 60 minutes, 360 degrees #### The series - **00**The Rise and Fall of Empires (overview) - **01** The First Empires: Mesopotamia (this film) - **02**Egypt of the Pharaohs - **03**Persia and Alexander - **04**The Maurya Empire of India - **05**China Unified: Qin and Han - **06** Rome (coming soon) - **07** The Islamic Caliphates (coming soon) - **08** The Khmer Empire of Angkor (coming soon) - **09** The Mongol Empire (coming soon) - **10** The Ottoman Empire (coming soon) - **11** The Aztec and Inca Empires (coming soon) - **12** The Age of Sea Empires (coming soon) - **13** The End of Empires (coming soon) All outlines shown here at once overlap in time only on the map, not in history. The still images on the chapter cards are AI-generated illustrations. Sources: [Wikipedia: Akkadian Empire (archived)](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211017070724/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_Empire); [Wikipedia: Neo-Assyrian Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Assyrian_Empire); [Wikipedia: Neo-Babylonian Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Babylonian_Empire); [Wikipedia: List of largest empires](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_empires)