Traditionally, it has been thought that civilization in the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean began in two centers, Sumer in the east between the Tigris and Euphrates, and Egypt in the west along the Nile. The earliest cities are believed to have been built in the flood plains of southern Mesopotamia during the mid-4th millennium BC. There is, however, some evidence that complex urban centers such as Tell Brak were already being built in ancient Syria at the same time. This has led some archaeologists to suggest that civilization began in the north independently of the southern Mesopotamian centers, or even before their emergence. Evidence shows that although proto-urban centers appear in the south first, they also arise very soon afterwards or simultaneously in the north, suggesting that ancient Syria is another center where civilization emerged independently, alongside Egypt and Sumer

Source: Ancient Syria: Another Cradle of Civilization? » The Event Chronicle