In order to allow maintenance of the museum's exhibition spaces and upkeep of its collections, the following rooms may be closed:Mondays: rooms 300 to 304 and 306 to 314 (Sully wing) / Wednesdays: rooms 227 to 230 (Richelieu wing)
Crossed by the only two rivers known from the biblical paradise, whose importance and dangers may have inspired the myth of the flood, ancient Mesopotamia is also the land where irrigation was first invented and developed. These first experiences of human mastery of water, through the artificial transformation of its natural environment, gave rise to the invention and development in Mesopotamia of the first known hydraulic works (first canals, bridges, aqueducts, networks of pipes, artificial lakes, etc.).