Fertile Crescent

American  

noun

1. an agricultural region extending from the Levant to Iraq.

2. an area in the Middle East: formerly fertile, now partly desert.

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Fertile Crescent British  

noun

1. an area of fertile land in the Middle East, extending around the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates in a semicircle from Israel to the Persian Gulf, where the Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Phoenician, and Hebrew civilizations flourished

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Etymology

Origin of Fertile Crescent

First recorded in 1910–15

Example Sentences

The Scientific American paper recounts how, 10,000 years ago, humans transitioned from hunting to farming in what’s called the Fertile Crescent, a Middle Eastern region that spans from Iraq to Israel.

From Seattle Times

And you see this pattern around the world, not just in the Fertile Crescent but also Mideast, which is now the modern Turkey area, where agriculture first got started.

From Salon

“What was once known as the Fertile Crescent started to die about 35 years ago,” he said.

From Reuters

The Syrian seeds were from the Fertile Crescent, the region where settled farming is believed to have emerged, and Ukraine also has a central place in agriculture.

From Reuters

The Fertile Crescent, from northern Egypt to the Persian Gulf, had the most easily domesticated grains and animals, and the absence of barriers to east-west travel in Eurasia facilitated the spread of agricultural techniques.

From Washington Post