Sumer was the southernmost region of ancient Mesopotamia which is generally considered the cradle of civilization. The name comes from Akkadian, the language of the north of Mesopotamia, and means land of the civilized kings.
It is generally accepted that the first cities in the world rose in Sumer and, among the most important, were Eridu, Uruk, Ur, Larsa, Isin, Adab, Kullah, Lagash, Nippur, and Kish. The city of Uruk is held to be the first true city in the world. The last period in Sumerian history is known as The Ur III Period (2047-1750 BCE) so named for the Third Dynasty of the city of Ur. This period is also known as The Sumerian Renaissance due to the remarkable advances in culture – touching upon virtually every single aspect of civilized human life – which were made. Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization by the Western world, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian empires, all native to the territory of modern-day Iraq. In the Iron Age, it was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires. Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the Armenian Highlands. Both rivers are fed by numerous tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous region. Sumer was the southernmost region of ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq and Kuwait) which is generally considered the cradle of civilization. The name comes from Akkadian, the language of the north of Mesopotamia, and means “land of the civilized kings”. The last period in Sumerian history is known as The Ur III Period (2047-1750 BCE) so named for the Third Dynasty of the city of Ur. This period is also known as The Sumerian Renaissance due to the remarkable advances in culture – touching upon virtually every single aspect of civilized human life – which were made. The regional toponym Mesopotamia comes from the ancient Greek root words μέσος (meso) middle and ποταμός (potamia) river and literally means (Land) between rivers. It is used throughout the Greek Septuagint (ca. 250 BC) to translate the Hebrew equivalent Naharaim. Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the Armenian Highlands. Both rivers are fed by numerous tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous region. Babylon is the most famous city from ancient Mesopotamia whose ruins lie in modern-day Iraq 59 miles (94 kilometres) southwest of Baghdad. The name is thought to derive from bav-il or bav-ilim which, in the Akkadian language of the time, meant ‘Gate of God’ or `Gate of the Gods’ and `Babylon’ coming from Greek. Mesopotamia (from the Greek, meaning 'between two rivers’) was an ancient region in the eastern Mediterranean bounded in the northeast by the Zagros Mountains and in the southeast by the Arabian Plateau, corresponding to today’s Iraq, mostly, but also parts of modern-day Iran, Syria and Turkey. The ancient civilisation of Sumer. Sumer (sometimes called Sumeria), is the site of the earliest known civilization, located in the southernmost part of Mesopotamia between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, in the area that later became Babylonia and is now southern Iraq from around Baghdad to the Persian Gulf. Ancient Mesopotamia. Famous Rulers of Mesopotamia. 1  Gilgamesh (c. 2650 BC) - Gilgamesh was the fifth king of the Sumerian city of Uruk. 2  He became known as a demigod with superhuman strength in later legends and tales such as the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Sumerians were the first Mesopotamian civilization. They lived in independent walled city-states. Uruk, the first and one of the largest cities in Mesopotamia, had a six miles long wall with defense towers located at 30-35 foot intervals.  Cuneiform is a system of writing first developed by the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia c. 3500-3000 BCE. It is considered the most significant among the many cultural contributions of the Sumerians and the greatest among those of the Sumerian city of Uruk which advanced the writing of cuneiform c. 3200 BCE. The last period in Sumerian history is known as The Ur III Period (2047-1750 BCE) so named for the Third Dynasty of the city of Ur. This period is also known as The Sumerian Renaissance due to the remarkable advances in culture – touching upon virtually every single aspect of civilized human life – which were made. Sumer (/ˈsuːmər/) was one of the ancient civilizations and historical regions in southern Mesopotamia, modern-day southern Iraq, during the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze ages. 
http://www.ancient.eu/sumer/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamia http://www.ancient.eu/sumer/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamia http://www.ancient.eu/Mesopotamia/ http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-asia/sumerian-king-list-still-puzzles-historians-after-more-century-research-001287 http://www.ducksters.com/history/mesopotamia/famous_rulers_of_ancient_mesopotamia.php http://www.historywiz.com/exhibits/sumerians.html http://www.ancient.eu/sumer/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer
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