Why did civilization develop in Africa, Middle East, and Asia?

The first civilizations developed in North Africa, Middle East, and South and East Asia because of the advantages that this areas offered to the people inhabiting them. The biggest advantage were the big rivers with long and wide fertile plains beside them, which enabled the people to be involved in agriculture and produce big amounts of food and even reserves. Since the food problem was solved, they were able to concentrate on other things in their spare time and started to develop architecture, sciences, philosophy, writing systems ...