section_path: Economy/Trade
section_name: Trade
paragraph_text: Trade
  
  Mesopotamian trade with the Indus Valley civilisation flourished as early as the third millennium BC. Cylinder seals found throughout ANE is evidence of trade between Mesopotamian cities. Starting in the 4th millennium BC, Mesopotamian civilizations also traded with ancient Egypt (see Egypt–Mesopotamia relations).
  
  For much of history, Mesopotamia served as a trade nexus – east-west between Central Asia and the Mediterranean world (part of the Silk Road), as well as north–south between the Eastern Europe and Baghdad (Volga trade route). Vasco da Gama 's pioneering (1497–1499) of the sea route between India and Europe and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 impacted on this nexus.