The book by University of Chicago professor A. Leo Oppenheim contains a brief outline of the political history of Babylonia and Assyria, as well as the material and spiritual culture of ancient Mesopotamia (Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians). The author reports the appearance of the first cities in this territory, talks about religion, art, literature, medicine, mathematics, astronomy in ancient Mesopotamia. CONTENTS: Preliminary remarks. Introduction. Assyriology. How Assyriologists work. The formation of Mesopotamia. '' Let's build ourselves a city and a tower ''.Notes.''Dominion passes from people to people''.''God is close, but it is difficult to know him.''.''On baked bricks''.''There are many great forces in the world, but there is no stronger man in nature nothing''.Epilogue.Dictionary of names, geographical names, terms.List of basic abbreviations.