Akkad

Syrian

Babylon

Desert

Sinal

Peninsula

Persian

Gull

Sea

12. What factor may have limited the growth of Sargon's empire?

a. The Akkadian army stopped the empire from expanding to the south.

b. The Euphrates River often flooded, making farming difficult.

c. The Syrian Desert did not have enough good farmland.

d. Ninevah did not have enough water to support its population.

c. The Syrian Desert did not have enough good farmland.

Explanation:

The Akkadian Empire was a great kingdom of Mesopotamia formed from the conquests of Sargon I of Akkad. It maintained its maximum splendor in the XXII century BCE (2334 to 2192 BC) in which five monarchs succeeded each other: Sargon himself, his sons Rimush and Manishutusu, his grandson Naram-Sin and his son, Sharkalisharri who ruled for 141 years.

The dominions of the Akkadian Empire extended to the entire basin of the Tigris and Euphrates, Elam, Syria and - according to the inscriptions - even further, to Lebanon and the Mediterranean coast. According to these inscriptions, incursions into Anatolia and the interior of the Zagros Mountains would be made and the empire would control the trade of the Persian Gulf towards "Magan" (possibly Oman) and the Indus Valley region.

The empire reached its maximum territorial extension: in the western limits it incorporated the regions of Aleppo (in present-day Syria), and the surroundings of Tripoli (in the Canaanite Mediterranean coast of present-day Lebanon); in the Orientals it conquered Susa and, in the north, it expanded by Anatolia. It is a combination of steppe and desert that is located in the north of the Arabian peninsula and covers more than 500,000 km2 in eastern Syria and Jordan, and in western Iraq. The desert is very rocky and flat. Due to its scarcity of resources and its extreme climate, it is a region little inhabited by life. For this reason, the Syrian desert did not have enough good farmland which limited the expansion of the empire of Sargon of Akkad.