Question

Why do you think that ancient civilizations formed around the basins of rivers?

Answer 1

Hint: A “civilization” implies a community of large permanent settlements.
 It features urban growth, social satisfaction, labour specialisation, organised administration, and written or other structured means of communication.
In the southern area of Mesopotamia, now part of modern-day Iraq, the first civilization arose in Sumer.

Complete Answer:
- Ancient Civilizations formed around the river basins because for the first civilizations, rivers were desirable locations as they offered a constant flow of groundwater and made the land fertile for growing crops.
- Moreover, it was easy to move goods and people, and people in these civilizations were able to fish and hunt the animals. Additionally, by moving downstream, where the main human population centres appear to concentrate, those lost in the forest might return to civilization. Not only do river banks have water, they often also have a broad flat floodplain that is readily adapted to agriculture.
- Also the oldest, least advanced farming techniques would have been successful in growing a large amount of crops from a river banks naturally-irrigated and fertile soil. Thus owing to the fertile land surrounding the river beds, the river banks have become suitable places for settlements.
- On the banks of rivers, the first civilizations developed. The most notable examples are the ancient Egyptians based on the Nile, the Mesopotamians based on the Tigris/Euphrates Rivers in the Fertile Crescent, the ancient Chinese based on the Yellow River, and Ancient India based on the river Indus. Around the time of the Neolithic Revolution, these early cultures started to develop (12000 BCE).

Note: For modern civilizations, access to water is still crucial; water shortages affect more than 2.8 billion people worldwide.
- The River Valley Civilizations that made lasting contributions to civilizations originated on the Yellow River, the Indus River, the Nile River, and between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
- The Mohenjo-Daro remnants, excavated in the province of Sindh, Pakistan, reveal the Great Bath in the foreground. On the right bank of the Indus River, Mohenjo-Daro is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the first to be declared a site in South Asia.