ABSTRACT
Chronologically, the ancient gardens of West Asia belong in Chapter 1. They are dealt with here, after Egypt, Greece and Rome, because of their subsequent relationship with Islamic gardens.
West Asia extends from India to Egypt and Turkey. The climate is predominantly hot and arid. Rainfall is spasmodic. There are long droughts and short floods. The mountains are harsh and dry, cold in winter and baked in summer. River valleys and coastal plains are lush and fertile. The region was occupied by migrants from Africa (Homo erectus) about 1-2 million years ago and by a later wave of African migrants (Homo sapiens) about 100,000 years ago.1 Until c. 10,000 BC men lived by hunting and gathering. Agriculture probably began with herding animals and with the harvest of wild grain by settled communities in North-east Africa and South-west Asia. Larger settlements, the world’s first towns, developed between 5000 and 3500 BC, probably in Anatolia and the East Mediterranean coastal plain. Urbanisation spread to the Persian Gulf and beyond. West Asia became a region of many languages, many cultures, many invasions and the first military empires known to history. Greek and Roman civilisation, as discussed in the previous chapter, grew from these roots.
