World Maps and Early Civilizations

Hemispheres, latitude and longitude, and the great river valley civilizations of Africa and Asia.

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Overview

The equator divides Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and the prime meridian divides it into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Lines of latitude run east to west and measure distance from the equator; lines of longitude run north to south. The earliest cities grew beside rivers: Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates, Egypt along the Nile, the Indus Valley in South Asia and early China along the Huang He.