Pays to know some basic geography: it helps understanding history.
The Tigris and Euphrates are in what we used to call Persia (modern name Irak).
The Yellow River is in China. (Huang He is the local name of the river).
The words "Indus" and "India" are related (not a coincidence).
You could also do a quick search on the city names (you don't need to read everything about them, just the first paragraph about their location).
