Mesopotamia (Ancient Greek: Μεσοποταμία "[land] between rivers") is a historical region situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in modern days roughly corresponding to most of Iraq plus Kuwait, the eastern parts of Syria, Southeastern Turkey, and regions along the Turkish-Syrian and Iran–Iraq borders.

Widely considered to be one of the cradles of civilization by the Western world, Bronze Age Mesopotamia includes Sumer and the Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian empires, all native to the territory of modern-day Iraq.

It is controlled in the Iron Age by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires.

The Sumerians and Akkadians (including Assyrians and Babylonians) dominate Mesopotamia from the beginning of written history (c. 3100 BC) to the fall of Babylon in 539 BCE, when it is conquered by the Achaemenid Empire.

It fall to Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, and after his death, it becomes part of the Greek Seleucid Empire.

Mesopotamia is under the control of the Parthian Empire around 150 BCE, when it becomes a battleground between the Romans and Parthians, with western parts of Mesopotamia coming under ephemeral Roman control.

A number of primarily neo-Assyrian and Christian native Mesopotamian states exist between the 1st century BCE and 3rd century CE, including Adiabene, Osroene, and Hatra.

Mesopotamia's eastern part falls to the Sassanid Persians in CE 226.

Division of Mesopotamia between Roman (Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, from 395) and Sassanid Empires lasts until the seventh century Muslim conquest of Persia of the Sasanian Empire and the Muslim conquest of the Levant from the empire.