A region of western Asia, in what is now Iraq, known as the âcradle of civilization.â Western writing first developed there, done with sticks on clay tablets. Agricultural organization on a large scale also began in Mesopotamia, along with work in bronze and iron (see Bronze Age and Iron Age).
Analysis: The photo is real â this orchid does exist, and the colorful center of the flower does resemble the face of a monkey or baboon â but the captions above are only semi-correct. The actual species name of the flower is Dracula gigas (Dracula meaning dragon, gigas meaning giant), not, as claimed above, Dracula simia.
Three-fourths of Madagascar's 860 orchid species are found here alone, as are six of the world's eight baobab species. The island is home to around 170 palm species, three times as many as on all of mainland Africa; 165 of them are endemic.