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

These small communities near the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the Middle East’s fertile crescent are where archeologists have found some of the oldest evidence of farms, domesticated animals, and domed ovens.

From Slate • May 4, 2020

The goal: a gathering that would celebrate the music, as well as the food and cultural traditions, of the region widely considered to be the fertile crescent of several strains of American music.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 24, 2019

The trail is steeped in history, traversing some of the oldest continually used paths in the world; this is, after all, part of the fertile crescent where civilisation first developed.

From The Guardian • Dec. 15, 2017

Once, Gamble said, he thought one or two high schools in this fertile crescent of Louisiana were worth recruiting.

From New York Times • Feb. 2, 2013

Wheat came 10,000 years ago from the fertile crescent in the Middle East and that's desert: very dry and hot.

From BBC • Jun. 5, 2011