Middle East history's
Cradle of civilisation Although rock art dating back to 10,000 BC lies hidden amid the desert monoliths of the Jebel Acacus in Libya , little is known about the painters or their nomadic societies, which lived on the outermost rim of the Middle East. The enduring shift from nomadism to more-sedentary organised societies began in the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq ) and the Nile River Valley of Ancient Egypt . In about 5000 BC a culture known as Al-Ubaid first appeared in Mesopotamia. We known little about it except that its influence eventually spread down what is now the coast of the Gulf. Stone-Age artefacts have also been found in Egypt 's Western Desert , Israel 's Negev Desert and in the West Bank town of Jericho . Sometime around 3100 BC the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt were unified under Menes, ushering in 3000 years of Pharaonic rule in the Nile Valley . The Levant (present-day Lebanon ,...
