5400 BC - Farming villages appeared around lower Tigris/Euphrates Valley

3500 BC - Sumerians settled in plains and delta and founded city of Uruk. Sumerians built Temple at Eridu, which was the prototype for the Ziggurat design

3000 BC - Democratic assemblies began in Mesopotamia. City of Kish was founded

2850 BC - The city/state of Ur was founded. Democratic assemblies further evolved into hereditary monarchies

2750 BC - Gilgamesh, hero of Sumerian legends, reigned as king of Erech

2500 BC - Lugalannemudu was the first king to unite the city states

2400 2350 BC - Sargon of the Akkadians ruled lower Mesopotamia

2250 BC - Ur-Nammu created the fabulous ziggurat at Ur and dedicated it to the moon-god, Nanna. He also established the earliest law code

2140 BC - City of Ur became aggressive because it needed more resources, and conquered other Sumerian cities. The easy conquest of these cities made them soft and lazy

2000 BC - Elamites attacked and destroyed the most advanced city in the world, Ur

2000 BC - Old Babylonian kingdom was founded

1900 BC - Amorites of the Syrian Desert conquer Sumeria. Abraham, patriarch of Judaism, was born in Ur, but his family moved north to Haran

1792 1750 BC - Hammurabi ruled Old Babylon and provided written law called Hammurabi's Code

1600 1300 BC - The period known as the Iron Age began

1600 612 BC - Numerous wars between Assyrians, Ellamites, Aramaeans and Zagros tribes who conquered and ruled Mesopotamia for a period of time

612 BC - Medes and Chaldeans expelled Assyrians and founded a "New Babylonian" empire

600 BC - Nebuchadnezzar II ruled the Neo-Babylonian empire. He stormed Jerusalem, destroyed the Jewish temple, and took nearly the entire population captive to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar II built the Tower Of Babel, a temple to the god Marduk

539 BC - Cyrus, a great Persian warrior and statesman, invaded and conquered Mesopotamia

331 BC - Mesopotamia was conquered by Macedonian Greeks led by Alexander the Great

192 189 BC - The Romans invaded Mesopotamia

3rd Century AD - Romans completed their conquest

6th Century AD - Mespotamia was caught between the Byzantine and New Persian Empires

7th Century AD - Muslim Arabs conquered Mesopotamia