Many readers have heard about the Hanging Gardens of Queen Semiramis, about the Babylonian step pyramids-zakkurata (the prototype of the Tower of Babel), about the tablets of the laws of the mighty king Hammurabi, about the eternal heritage of Mesopotamia. And yet, this book, which opens the “Great Civilizations” series, is dedicated not only to the masterpieces of culture born between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The publication, exhaustive in its completeness, also tells about how the Sumerians and Babylonians ran their households, studied in schools and were treated for diseases, what kind of music they listened to and what cosmetics they anointed themselves with.