The central river valley of Mesopotamia has few natural boundaries such as mountains to separate peoples and polities. The geographical problems of the Middle East today are endemic. Alexander the Great could not hold the area together for long. The Romans conquered northern Mesopotamia for a short time and could only hold it for 30 or 40 years. And the Ottomans tried too, but they also had to struggle for success. It was, and still is, an area of migration and movement, and so, to the people of Jared, the idea of migrating to a new land would likely not have been a foreign concept.