I have been studying information on the symbolism of the crescent for the last few days and came across an interesting concept - the fertile crescent. After which I received an answer to the question that was tormenting me - why are Iraq and Syria so important that for their sake the United States is ready to destroy the UN. And why . Although, perhaps I discovered a long-known bicycle. :)
Resources
In short, this conditional region was named so because of the fairly abundant rainfall and fertile soils. But if you look at the current situation, in addition to fertility, this region has several other important resources. For example, hydrocarbons, most of which are located in Iraq. Moreover, by a “strange” coincidence, the southern fields of Iraq (including the supergiant Rumailu and Western Qurna) are located on territory inhabited by Shiite Arabs with their Mahdi army, increasingly oriented toward Iran. And the northern deposits (including the gigantic Kirkuk) are located in territories inhabited by Iraqi Kurds, who, although Sunni, are.
The second unique resource of this region is transport, which historically formed near the Tigris and Euphrates. And even though the upper reaches are only accessible by rafts, these rivers remain a possible waterway from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. " General Francis Chesney towed two steamships overland through Syria in 1836 to explore the possibility of a land and river route to India, and proved that the river was navigable."(). The settlement in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates and the formation of cities on these rivers also determined the direction of automobile and railway routes. And even oil pipelines from Iraqi fields are not very far from the borders of the Fertile Crescent (see map).
After realizing the transport connectivity of Iraq with the Eastern Mediterranean through Syria and South. It is obvious to Turkey (populated by the same Kurds) that control of the territory of Iraq alone does not provide complete hegemony in the region. No matter how hard Qatar tried to conduct its pipeline without approaching the Crescent, it still had to run it through the territory of Syria and use the ports of Lebanon, a fairly large part of the population of which gravitates towards Syria. By the way, here's a fresh example: " Deadly fighting over Syria engulfs northern Lebanon" ().
It's obvious that The Syrian issue is largely a matter of control over traffic flow, bypassing the pirate-terrorized Gulf of Aden, and having the potential for greater capacity and speed than the Suez Canal.
Story
The Great Silk Road passed through the Fertile Crescent. In fact, the Fertile Crescent was the western extremity of the Great Silk Road.
If we recall the large-scale efforts of China to build a high-speed railway to the west through Urumqi into the territory of Kazakhstan (), it becomes clear why the US trade and financial empire, which rose from the control of trade routes, will not be satisfied with controlling Iraq and is so eager to control Syria and Central Asia.
In fact, before our eyes, the ancient trade route is being revived within the framework of the TRACECA international transport corridor. Now the main problem of this route is a large number of customs duties, and it is obvious that over time this problem will be solved, including through military means, through the formation of larger state entities. And the United States is trying with all its might to maintain control over global trade turnover, controlling Iraq, and trying to control Syria and Central Asia.
And here we come to the second historical role of the Fertile Crescent - a bridge for great conquests and the cradle of the empires of the South. This territory served as a transport bridge for Alexander the Great on his campaign to India. 
This bridge also worked in the opposite direction, allowing the Mongols under the leadership of Hulagu Khan to reach the Mediterranean - Syria and Turkey (the Middle Eastern campaign of the Mongols). 
If you look at the historical retrospective in more detail, an “amazing” thing will become clear. Ever since the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia, the empires of the south at some point (usually before reaching maximum power) completely controlled the Fertile Crescent (see maps under the cut).
Total
What we have. On the one hand, there is a territory that for thousands of years served as the cradle of powerful empires and a transport bridge between Asia and Europe. This area is rich in various mineral resources and can feed a fairly large number of people. And thousands of years of history show that this region is the key to control over Western Asia.
On the other hand, there is a dramatically rapidly weakening Anglo-Saxon world and a global financial elite losing influence (let's call them the Empire of the West). The projections of the Western Empire into Western Asia are the state of Israel, the current governments of Turkey and Azerbaijan, puppet Arab regimes, plus the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Obviously, it is the importance of strategic control over the key region of the Fertile Crescent, and not secondary goals like “oil”, “lack of democracy” or “Iranian nuclear weapons”, that is the true background to the events taking place in Western Asia. And depending on who controls this region - the Persians or the Turks - that empire will be revived (Ottoman or Persian).
For Russia, the revival of the empire of the South in the Persian version will be rather a positive phenomenon. This is why Russia is behaving so differently in the Syrian issue from the Libyan issue. But more about that next time.
P.S. Attempts by the empire of the West to slow down the turn of the wheel of history will lead to nothing - the only time the empire of the South was formed from the West was by Alexander the Great. And now there are no invincible “phalanxes” in sight.
In my opinion, Iran has a better chance - for many reasons. But Türkiye, playing for the West, chose the wrong side. But, I'm afraid, it will be possible to check this only in 10-20 years...
Agriculture in the Middle East began in the so-called Fertile Crescent, an area that stretches in a wide arc from the Persian Gulf along the northern edge of the Syrian Desert to Palestine and the Egyptian border.
Bread gave birth to civilization. When there was a lot of it, people received a reliable source of food. And only then were they able to create a high culture. But in order to get enough bread, they had to unite into stable large communities. And it’s not far from the communities to the cities... At the dawn of civilization, at the end of primitiveness, humanity developed according to the old Russian proverb: “Bread is the head of everything.” The oldest center of agriculture developed in the Middle East. Neither the Nile Valley nor the area between the Tigris and Euphrates, which are rightfully considered the centers of the first civilizations, were originally included in this zone. Agriculture was brought to these countries from outside, from territories that, under the first pharaohs of Egypt, had already become the outskirts of the civilized world.
The end of the Ice Age - according to most historians - about 12 thousand years ago: a climate close to the modern one was established on the territory of Eurasia. Most of the Middle East was occupied by dry steppe or desert, and only in the north, in a wide strip from the Levant and Taurus mountains in the west to the Zagros mountains in the east, was there enough water. Here the clouds, clinging to the tops of the mountains, poured out rain, abundantly irrigating the slopes of the mountains. Mountain streams merged into large rivers, the greatest of which were the Tigris and Euphrates. In their interfluve there was more water than needed; the interfluve became a country of lakes and swamps, abundant in fish and game, but unsuitable for human life. The most convenient for hunters and gatherers of that era were the mountain slopes, covered with dense forests, with green glades and meadows.
Wild cereals began to attract the attention of ancient hunters early on, as evidenced by the finds of special flint knives used for collecting wild plants. The Fertile Crescent region had another advantage that was important to the lives of our ancestors. The mountains were rich in obsidian, a volcanic glass that was the main material for the production of arrowheads, darts and spears with which ancient hunters went hunting, as well as for making knives for collecting wild grains and processing hides.
Over time, local residents began to deliberately sow barley and wheat in convenient places, scattering the grains in clearings and meadows. Thus, the foundations of agriculture were gradually laid.
This era is best studied through the example of the ancient Natufian culture in Palestine. It dates back to the 10th millennium BC. and was named after the dry bed of the Natuf River, along which the first settlements of this culture were discovered. Local residents lived in small villages surrounded by stone walls. Their homes were round huts or caves in the rocks, in the center of which there was a fireplace. Their economy differed little from the life of hunters of previous eras. In the layers of Natufian settlements, archaeologists find bones only of wild animals: gazelle, red deer, roe deer, horse, donkey, and bulls. The only pet here was still a dog.
However, in addition to hunting, completely new features appeared in their economy, signs of a fundamentally different way of life. Among the objects common for that time, more than a thousand plates of a special shape, uncharacteristic for hunting cultures, were discovered. They served as the overhead blades of primitive sickles. In addition, bone hoes were found here, as well as special tools for crushing grain in the form of basalt pestles and the same stone mortars. Not limited to this, the inhabitants of the Natufian settlements hollowed out deep round holes in the rock, which served as devices for grinding grains.
In one of the caves on Mount Carmel, in the El-Wad grotto, burials have been preserved. Judging by the clothing of the buried, the Natufians wore headdresses in the form of a diadem, generously studded with decorations made of tubular shells. Around their necks they wore intricate necklaces made of mutually alternating shells and pairs of deer tusks. Strips of shells also decorated the clothes of the Natufians. Researchers explain the signs of severe wear on the teeth of representatives of the Natufian culture as sand getting into the flour during grain grinding.
The first “farmers” had a unique art that was in many ways reminiscent of the art of the previous era. The Natufians decorated their products with carved animal figures, for example, the handle of one bone tool, from which grows the figure of a kid raising its head. There are also examples of round sculpture. For example, a human head with a low forehead, sharply defined mouth and large almond-shaped eyes was carved from a piece of calcite.
The inhabitants of Natufian villages were among the first to begin collecting wild cereals, but already in the next millennium, collecting wild plants began to be accompanied by sowing cereals outside their natural habitat. Wild wheat growing in the foothills of the Taurus and Zagros mountains was found in settlements dating back to the 9th millennium BC. in Northern Syria, hundreds of kilometers south and east of those places. Wild plants became “domesticated”: the first cereals of a completely “domesticated” type appeared in the countries of the Fertile Crescent at the turn of the 9th-8th millennia BC. They were found in the Jordan Valley, at the large settlement of ancient farmers of Jericho, which grew out of a small village of hunters and gatherers of the Natufian culture.
By the 7th millennium BC. wheat and barley began to be grown in the territory from Anat (modern Turkey) to present-day Pakistan. Agriculture went beyond the Fertile Crescent, and a new stage of its victorious march began.
Agriculture changed the entire way of life for communities in the Fertile Crescent. Villages grew, gradually transforming from a small group of thatched huts into almost cities with neat rows of adobe houses, a central square, public buildings and sanctuaries. Large settlements of the first farmers are known throughout the Middle East from the Balkans and Asia Minor to the Zagros Mountains and the Iranian Plateau. First among Jericho is rightfully considered such “proto-cities,” as scientists call them, leaving a deep mark on the history of many generations. Its remains (now the site of Tel es-Sultan) are located in Palestine, on the territory of modern Jordan, 22 km northeast of Jerusalem. In human history, Jericho became famous because of the biblical story, according to which the walls of this city collapsed after its siege by the Israelites led by Joshua. The Bible says that the Ark of the Covenant was carried around the city walls seven times, while the priests blew the trumpets. When the city was circumambulated the seventh time, the Israelites let out a loud cry, “and the wall of the city fell down to its foundation, and the people went into the city, each from his side, and took the city.” The search for the legendary Jericho began in the 19th century, and after numerous expeditions, the ruins of the ancient city were discovered. When archaeologists led by Kathleen Kenyons delved further below the collapsed wall in 1950, it became clear that this city was not only older than the biblical events that took place in the 13th century BC. , but also one of the most ancient cities on earth.
The oldest settlement on the site of Jericho dates back to the time of the Natufian culture, and in the 7th millennium BC. this village had already grown to an impressive size - 1.6 hectares - and was surrounded by stone walls 800 m long with a massive tower in the middle. The height of the walls reached 4 m, and their thickness was 3 m. The diameter and height of the tower were 9 m. Inside the walls there were houses made of mud brick on wooden supports, sanctuaries, and streets. The population of the town was engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding. Archaeologists have found harvesting tools there. The inhabitants of Jericho raised sheep and goats. The meat of domestic animals in the diet of the townspeople finally replaced the meat of wild gazelles, the main hunting object of their ancestors.
Discoveries made in 1950 in ancient Jericho included painted heads made from unfired clay molded onto human skulls. Noses and other characteristic facial details were worked out so carefully that researchers had no doubt about their similarity to the appearance of real people. Scientists have suggested that these skulls belonged to noble members of the Jericho community, whose veneration continued after their death. Powerful walls and the cult of leaders distinguished
Jericho from other early agricultural villages of that era. Perhaps this was due to the fact that located among the dry steppes in a fertile oasis near a constant source of water, Jericho was surrounded by tribes that continued to live in the old way - hunting and gathering. A prosperous village could be considered by them as an object for attacks and robbery. Therefore, the inhabitants turned Jericho into an impregnable fortress.
Bread gave birth to civilization. When there was a lot of it, people received a sure source of food. And only then were they able to create a high culture. But in order to obtain stable grain harvests, they had to first of all unite into stable large communities. And it’s not far from the communities to the cities... Thus, at the dawn of civilization, at the end of primitiveness, humanity developed according to the old Russian proverb: “Bread is the head of everything.”
The oldest center of agriculture developed in the Middle East. Neither the Nile Valley nor the area between the Tigris and Euphrates, which are rightfully considered the centers of the first civilizations, were originally included in this zone. Agriculture was brought to these countries from outside, from territories that, under the first pharaohs of Egypt, had already become the outskirts of the civilized world. Agriculture in the Middle East began in the Fertile Crescent, an area stretching in a wide arc from the Persian Gulf along the northern edge of the Syrian Desert to Palestine and the Egyptian border.
Fertile Crescent
With the end of the Ice Age - according to most historians, about 12 thousand years ago - a climate close to the modern one was established in the vast expanses of Eurasia. Most of the Middle East was occupied by dry steppe or desert, and only in the north, in a wide strip from the Levant and Taurus mountains in the west to the Zagros mountains in the east, was there enough water. Here, clinging to the high peaks, the clouds poured out with rain, abundantly watering the mountain slopes. Mountain streams merged into large rivers, the greatest of which were the Tigris and Euphrates. In their valleys there was even more water than necessary, and their interfluve became a country of lakes and swamps, abundant in fish and game, but unsuitable for human life. The most convenient for hunters and gatherers of that era were mountain slopes covered with dense forests, with green glades and meadows.
There were wild goats, rams, and donkeys here. Among the herbs of the meadows grew the ancestors of future cultivated plants - barley and wheat. Wild cereals began to attract the attention of ancient hunters early on. This is evidenced by the finds of special flint knives used for collecting wild plants. The Fertile Crescent region had another advantage that was important in the lives of our ancestors. The mountains were rich in obsidian, a volcanic glass that was the main material for the production of arrowheads, darts and spears with which ancient hunters went hunting, as well as for making knives for collecting wild grains and processing hides.
Over time, local residents began to deliberately sow barley and wheat in convenient places, scattering the grains in clearings and meadows. Thus, the foundations of agriculture were gradually laid.
This era is best studied through the example of the ancient Natufian culture in Palestine. It dates back to the 10th millennium BC. e. and was named after the dry bed of the Natuf River, along which the first settlements of this culture were discovered. Local residents lived in small villages surrounded by stone walls. Their homes were round huts or caves in the rocks, in the center of which there was a fireplace. Their economy differed little from the life of hunters of previous eras. In the layers of Natufian settlements, archaeologists find bones only of wild animals: gazelle, red deer, roe deer, horse, donkey, and bulls. The only pet here was still a dog.
However, in addition to hunting, completely new features appeared in their economy, signs of a fundamentally different way of life. Among the objects common for that time, more than a thousand plates of a special shape, uncharacteristic for hunting cultures, were discovered. They served as insert blades of primitive sickles. In addition, bone hoes were found here, as well as special tools for crushing grain in the form of basalt pestles and the same stone mortars. Not limited to this, the inhabitants of the Natufian settlements hollowed out deep round holes in the rock, which served as devices for grinding grains.
In one of the caves on Mount Carmel, in the El-Wad grotto, burials have been preserved. Judging by the clothing of the buried, the Natufians wore headdresses in the form of a diadem, generously studded with decorations made of tubular shells. Around their necks they wore intricate necklaces made of mutually alternating shells and pairs of deer tusks. Strips of shells also decorated the clothes of the Natufians. Researchers noted signs of severe wear on the teeth of representatives of the Natufian culture and came to the conclusion that this was due to the presence of sand in the flour, which got there during grain grinding.
The first “farmers” had a unique art that was in many ways reminiscent of the art of the previous era. The Natufians decorated their products with carved animal figures, such as the handle of one bone tool, from which emerges the figure of a kid raising its head. There are also examples of round sculpture. From a piece of calcite, the Natufian “sculptor” with a confident hand carved, for example, the head of a man with a low forehead, a sharply defined mouth and large almond-shaped eyes. 
If the inhabitants of Natufian villages were among the first to begin collecting wild cereals, then already in the next millennium the collection of wild plants began to be accompanied by sowing cereals outside their natural habitat. Wild wheat, growing in the foothills of the Taurus and Zagros, was found in settlements of the 9th millennium BC. e. in Northern Syria, hundreds of kilometers south and east of those places. Wild plants became “domesticated”. The first cereals of a completely “domesticated” type appeared in the countries of the Fertile Crescent at the turn of the 9th-8th millennia BC. e. They were found in the Jordan Valley, at the large settlement of ancient farmers of Jericho, which grew out of a small village of hunters and gatherers of the Natufian culture.
Judging by the size of the grains, domesticated cereals produced quite a decent harvest and could compete not only with their wild-growing counterparts, but also with other methods of obtaining food by the ancient inhabitants of the Fertile Crescent, in particular with hunting.
With such obvious advantages, the new type of farming began to quickly spread throughout the surrounding areas. By the 7th millennium BC. e. wheat and barley began to be grown in the territory from Anatolia (modern Turkey) to present-day Pakistan. Agriculture went beyond the Fertile Crescent, and a new stage of its victorious march began.
FERTIL CRESCENT (English Fer-tile Crescent) is a historical and geographical region in the Middle East: from the foothills of Ash-Shar through Palestine, the foothills of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, through the Southern Taurus and Iraqi Kurdistan to the Southern Zagros.
From the south, the fertile crescent of the og-ra-ni-chen Si-riy-skoy and se-ve-ro-ara-viy-ski-mi pus-you-nya-mi, equal-to-mi Me-so-po -ta-mii, from the south-west - the Si-nai Peninsula, from the south-west - the Middle Sea, from the north - Taurus and Ar-myan- skim on the mountain, from the east - ridge-ta-mi Za-gro-sa. The term “Fertile Crescent” first appeared in the work of the American Egyptian J.G. Bre-sti-da “Ancient records of Egypt” (“Ancient records of Egypt”, vol. 1-5, 1906-1907).
The Fertile Crescent is one of the main zones where the transition from the pile-up to the production of eco-no-mi-ke took place (see Living here-but-water-st-vo, Land-le-de-lie). It was in the fertile crescent that the development of those agricultural traditions began, based on certain complexes. - there were ci-vi-li-za-tions of the Near and Middle East, Northern Africa, Europe. Along with Not-oli-ti-che-skoy re-vo-lu-tsi-ey, the fertile crescent is one of the basic principles for researching the development of a new economy st-va.
The attention of scientists to the Fertile Crescent is connected with the research of those places where the earth first appeared. In the 1880s, the Swiss bo-ta-nik A. de Kan-dol, the creator of one of the first scientific concepts about the production of cultural races, it was assumed that the land did not grow on the level riverine areas. st-kah, and in the sub-mountain areas. Half a century later ex-pe-di-tion N.I. Va-vi-lo-vapo-ka-za-li, what exactly in the foot-mountain regions of the countries of the tropics, sub-tropics and temperate zones -sa on-the-blue-has-the-most-diversity-of-pre-species of cultivated plants. N.I. Va-vi-lov carried the territory of the fertile crescent to the primary hearths of the earth. In the 1920s, G. Child paid attention to the archeo-logical monuments of the Near East as a ver-ro-yat- but the center of the pro-is-ho-zh-de-niya pro-from-in-the-shay eco-no-mi-ki, from-where it spread and to Ev-ro-pu. Since the late 1940s, R. Braid-vu-dom has been initiating complex and systematic research of neo-oli -tic monuments in the area of the Fertile Crescent. For the southern foothills of the Taurus and Za-gro-sa, he introduced the word “hilly flanks” (English Hilly Flanks), pre-lo-living, which is called but there you should look for information about the owner. These workers were under the powers and continued by H. Cham-bel, M. Oz-do-gan (Turkey); K. Ken-on (Ve-li-ko-bri-ta-nia); J. Co-ve-nom, D. Stor-der (France); BUT. Ba-de-rom, N.Ya. Mer-per-tom, R.M. Moon-chae-vym (Russia); H. Ha-upt-man-nom, K. Schmid-tom (Germany); M. Rosen-ber-gom, G. Rol-lef-so-nom (USA); S.K. Kozlovsky, R.F. Ma-zu-row-skim (Poland); O. Bar-Yo-ze-fom (Iz-ra-il) and others. In the study of archaeological monuments of the Fertile Crescent, great attention is paid to the use of paleo data -kli-ma-to-logia, geo-logia, pa-leo-bo-ta-ni-ki, pa-leo-zoo-logia and other dis-qi-p-lin.
Starting from the early go-lo-tse-na, in the era of te-p-le-niy and uv-laz-ne-niya cli-ma-ta, ter-ri- The to-rii of the fertile crescent were at the junction of forests and steppes. Translation of several natural-climatic zones with seismically active faults -sob-st-vo-va-li mu-ta-tsi-yam, gi-ri-di-za-tions of animals and plants that bring-in-di-lo to their -you-shen-but-mu-vis-a-many-about-ra-zia. This is the attraction of epi-pa-le-o-li-tic hunters and co-bi-ra-te-leys, creating a pre-re-sentence for Apparently they are settled and have a demographic growth.
Some of the living species and plants in the foothills of the Taurus and Za-gro-sa are suitable for home ka-tions, often wild ancestors of cows, goats, sheep, pigs, wheat - two-grain and one-grain nyan-ki, yach-me-nya, flax, well-ta, go-ro-ha, che-che-vi-tsy, bitter vi-ki, fis-ta-shek and others. The climate in the fertile crescent zone XII-IX thousand years ago was characterized by hot summers and comparatively mild, humid winters. Winter rainfall, with up to 92% of annual precipitation, is it possible to develop non-rainfalls? -th earth-le-de-lia. All this is the creation of a pre-reference for the search for new economic (pro-from) -dying eco-no-mi-ka; in the fertile crescent all the stages of pre-location are presented from the earliest days) and with -tsi-al-no-po-li-ticheskogo (hierarchical society) strategy of development. At the same time, the hunt and co-bi-ra-tel-st-vo will allow you to maintain the un-about-ho-di-my level of existence -va-niya of large groups of people in a long-term transition period.
The process of transition to the production of eco-no-mi-ke was traced in several centers on the fertile territory crescent: on ma-te-ria-le rya-da cult-tour Le-van-ta(western flank of the fertile crescent; Ie-ri-hon, Ke-ba-ra, Mu-ray-bit, na-tu-fiy-kul-tu-ra, Khi-am-skiy pe-ri-od), Northern Me-so-po-ta-mii (the central part of the fertile crescent; Ne-va-ly-Cho-ri, Nem-rik, “Ur-fa”, Hall-lan-Che-mi, Chai-o-nu) and in the foothills of Za-gro-sa, on the border of modern North-Eastern Iraq and North-Western Iran (eastern flank of the fertile crescent; Zar-Zi culture, Ze -vi-Che-mi-Sha-ni-dar, Ka-rim-Sha-hir, Choga-Go-lan, Ganj-Da-re).
With the ut-ver-expectation of food coming from the water-st-va in the zone of the fertile crescent, this demo-graphic leap followed, cli-ma-ticheskie ko-le-ba-niya sp-sob-st-vo-va-li mi-gra-tsi-yam and other forms of race-pro-country non-oli-ti- for-tions (see article Neolithic) to areas suitable for their natural-climatic characteristics ( Central and Southern Me-so-po-ta-mia, Iran and south-west Central Asia, Trans-Caucasus, Egypt, Ana-to-lia, islands of the Eastern Middle -Zem-no-Morya, South-Eastern Europe and others). At the end of the day, a new way of life is expected with the invention of the art of oro-she- along the riverbeds of large rivers beyond the borders of the Fertile Crescent (end of the 6th - 4th millennium BC), which led to further progress gres-su about-from-water-st-va, growth-tu-in-the-village, the establishment of social structures, ideological systems and, in - some result, the creation of the first cities and states. In the village of the Fertile Crescent, where the beneficial conditions are not required for survival in-ten-si-fi-ka -tions of economic and social development, settled on the periphery of these processes.