Mesopotamia and Persia

Predating the earliest know Egyptian buildings, the first permanent structures in the Near East were built in the area known as Mesopotamia from the tenth milennium BCE. The first culture to thrive in this region (between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in present-day Iraq) were the Sumerians, followed by the Akkadians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians and finally the Persians, who conquered the area in 539 BCE. Among these civilizations' many accompishments - including agriculture, a written language and the wheel - was the development of urban planning.

Architecture does not seem to have existed as an occupation, but the Mesopotamians perceived 'the craft of building' as a divine gift taught by the gods. They were the first society to build entire cities, dominated by ziggurats - tombs built to resemble the mountains where the gods lived. Cities were walled for protection, with large gateways. Mesopotamian buildings were initially made of mud bricks, but later of bricks fired in ovens.