Middle East


The Middle East is a geopolitical region which includes the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Iran, and Iraq. The term and the definition which countries belong to the region are in a way eurocentric. The colonial countries divided the southern Asian countries in two parts, which were called Near East (closer to Europe) and Far East. Later the term Near East was changed into Middle East, during the early 20th century. Other terms for more or less the same region are Eastern Mediterranean and West Asia, Western Asia or Southwest Asia. We use the term because we think that most people have an idea which region is meant, which is all we need to make it useful for the hierarchical structure of our pages. The name of the region is used pragmatically and has no "correct" or generally accepted definition. So we have included the countries which have similar geology, climate and tourism peculiarities. We have not included Turkey, which we think belong geographically to Europe, or Egypt, which is obviously part of Africa.


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