Fertile Crescent
- a crescent-shaped area of fertile land in the Middle East extending from the eastern Mediterranean coast through the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers to the Persian Gulf. It was the centre of the Neolithic development of agriculture (from 7000 BC), and the cradle of the Assyrian, Sumerian, and Babylonian civilizations.肥沃新月, 新月沃地（中东的一个新月形的沃土地区, 从地中海东岸经底格里斯河和幼发拉底河流域延伸至波斯湾; 是新石器时代农业［始于公元前7000年］发展中心, 亚述文明、苏美尔文明和巴比伦文明的摇篮）。