Western Asia or West Asia is the westernmost subregion of Asia. Western Asia is a newer
term for the area that encompasses the Middle East and the Near East. Due to the Eurocentrism
of referring to an area as "east" of Europe, international organizations have replaced
Middle East and Near East with Western Asia and West Asia. West Asia and Europe are collectively
referred to as Western Eurasia.
History
The world's earliest civilizations developed in Western Asia. For most of the last three
millennia, the region has been united under one or two powerful states; each one succeeding
the last, and at times, eastern and western based polities. The main states in this regard
were the Assyrian Empire, the Babylonian Empire, the Achaemenid Empire, Ancient Israel, the
Kingdom of Armenia, the Seleucid Empire, the Parthian Empire, the Roman Empire, the Sassanid
Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Umayyad Caliphate, the Abbasid Caliphate, the Safavid
Empire, the Afsharid Empire, and the Ottoman Empire.
Geography
Western Asia is located directly south of Eastern Europe. The region is surrounded by
seven major seas; the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the
Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.
To the north, the region is delimited from Europe by the Caucasus Mountains, to the southwest,
it is delimited from Africa by the Isthmus of Suez, while to the east, the region adjoins
Central Asia and South Asia. The Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut deserts in eastern Iran somewhat
naturally delimit the region from Asia itself. European geographers historically viewed the
North Caucasus as part of Western Asia, as well as much of what is today European Russia.
Climate
Western Asia is primarily arid and semi-arid, and can be subject to drought, but it also
contains vast expanses of forest and fertile valleys. The region consists of grasslands,
rangelands, deserts, and mountains. Water shortages are a problem in many parts of West
Asia, with rapidly growing populations increasing demands for water, while salinization and
pollution threaten water supplies. Major rivers, including the Tigris and Euphrates, provide
sources for irrigation water to support agriculture. There are two wind phenomena in Western Asia:
the sharqi and the shamal. The sharqi is a wind that comes from the south and southeast.
It is seasonal, lasting from April to early June, and comes again between late September
and November. The winds are dry and dusty, with occasional gusts up to 80 kilometers
per hour and often kick up violent sand and dust storms that can carry sand a few thousand
meters high, and can close down airports for short periods of time. These winds can last
for a full day at the beginning and end of the season, and for several days during the
middle of the season. The shamal is a summer northwesterly wind blowing over Iraq and the
Persian Gulf states, often strong during the day, but decreasing at night. This weather
effect occurs anywhere from once to several times a year.
Topography Western Asia contains large areas of mountainous
terrain. The Anatolian Plateau is sandwiched between the Pontus Mountains and Taurus Mountains
in Turkey. Mount Ararat in Turkey rises to 5,137 meters. The Zagros Mountains are located
in Iran, in areas along its border with Iraq. The Central Plateau of Iran is divided into
two drainage basins. The northern basin is Dasht-e Kavir, and Dasht-e-Lut is the southern
basin. In Yemen, elevations exceed 3,700 meters in
many areas, and highland areas extend north along the Red Sea coast and north into Lebanon.
A fault-zone also exists along the Red Sea, with continental rifting creating trough-like
topography with areas located well-below sea level. The Dead Sea, located on the border
between the West Bank, Israel, and Jordan, is situated at 418 m below sea level, making
it the lowest point on the surface of the Earth.
Rub' al Khali, one of the world's largest sand deserts, spans the southern third of
the Arabian Peninsula in Saudi Arabia, parts of Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
Jebel al Akhdar is a small range of mountains located in northeastern Oman, bordering the
Gulf of Oman. Geology
Plate tectonics Three major tectonic plates converge on Western
Asia, including the African, Eurasian, and Arabian plates. The boundaries between the
tectonic plates make up the Azores-Gibraltar Ridge, extending across North Africa, the
Red Sea, and into Iran. The Arabian Plate is moving northward into the Anatolian plate
at the East Anatolian Fault, and the boundary between the Aegean and Anatolian plate in
eastern Turkey is also seismically active. Water resources
Several major aquifers provide water to large portions of Western Asia. In Saudi Arabia,
two large aquifers of Palaeozoic and Triassic origins are located beneath the Jabal Tuwayq
mountains and areas west to the Red Sea. Cretaceous and Eocene-origin aquifers are located beneath
large portions of central and eastern Saudi Arabia, including Wasia and Biyadh which contain
amounts of both fresh water and saline water. Flood or furrow irrigation, as well as sprinkler
methods, are extensively used for irrigation, covering nearly 90,000 km² across Western
Asia for agriculture. Demographics
The population of Western Asia is over 300 million. The most populous countries in the
region are Iran and Turkey, each with around 75 million people, followed by Iraq with around
32 million people. The major languages are Arabic, which is an official language in 14
regional countries, followed by Turkish, and Persian. Islam is the major faith in Western
Asia. Economy
The economy of Western Asia is diverse and the region experiences high economic growth.
Turkey has the largest economy in the region, followed by Saudi Arabia and Iran. Petroleum
is the major industry in the regional economy, as more than half of the world's oil reserves
and around 40 percent of the world's natural gas reserves are located in the region.
Definitions United Nations Statistics Division
The UN is the only institution that deviates from the commonly globally known definition
of West Asia. However, the United Nations personally notes that the "assignment of countries
or areas to specific groupings is merely for statistical convenience and does not imply
any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories."
The countries and territories in the UN Subregion of Western Asia, listed below:
Armenia Azerbaijan
Bahrain Cyprus
Georgia Iraq
Israel Jordan
Kuwait Lebanon
Oman Qatar
Saudi Arabia Syria
Turkey United Arab Emirates
Yemen Though not included in the UN subregion of
Western Asia, Iran is included within Western Asia by all other institutions, statistics
and boards. The Sinai Peninsula of Egypt geographically
belongs to West Asia. Government of Canada
The Canadian government uses "West Asian" in its statistics.
General data Map of Western Asia
See also
Cinema of West Asia List of World Heritage Sites in Western Asia
West Asian Football Federation West Asian Games
References
External links Stanford's Map of Western Asia from 1885 by
Edward Stanford