Western Asia,
West Asia,
Southwest Asia or
Southwestern Asia are terms that describe the westernmost
portion of
Asia. The terms are partly
coterminous with the
Middle East - which describes geographical position in relation to
Western Europe rather than location within Asia. Due to this perceived
Eurocentrism, international organizations such as the
United Nations, have replaced
Middle East and
Near East with
Western Asia.
Geography
Western Asia is located directly south of
Eastern Europe.
Climate
Cedar forest in winter, located in
LebanonWestern Asia is primarily
arid and
semi-arid, and can be subject to
drought; nonetheless, there exists vast expanses of forests 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 (or
sharki) 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 (50 miles 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 (including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait), often strong during the day, but decreasing at night. This weather effect occurs anywhere from once to several times a year.
Topography
thumb|left|225px|The [[Troodos Mountains|mountainous village of
Pyrgos, overlooking
Morphou Bay, in
Cyprus.]]
While Western Asia mainly contains areas with low relief,
Turkey,
Iran, and
Yemen include mountainous terrain. The
Anatolian Plateau is sandwiched between the
Pontus Mountains and
Taurus Mountains in Turkey.
Mount Ararat in Turkey rises to 5,165 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 (Great Salt Desert), 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 (1371 ft) below sea level, making it the
lowest point on the surface of the
Earth.
A large
lowland belt is located on the
Arabian Peninsula, from central
Iraq, through
Saudi Arabia, and to
Oman and the
Arabian Sea. The
Euphrates and
Tigris rivers cut through the lowland belt in Iraq and flow into the
Persian Gulf.
Rub'al KhāLī, 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
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.
[Beaumont (1988), p. 22] The Arabian Plate is moving northward into the
Anatolian plate (Turkey) 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.
[Beaumont (1988), p. 86] 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.
The
Nubian aquifer system underlies large areas of North Africa.
The
Great Manmade River project in
Libya utilizes an extensive network of
pipelines to transport water from the Nubian aquifer to its population centers.
Groundwater recharge for these deep rock aquifers is on the order of thousands of years, thus the aquifers are essentially
non-renewable resources.
[Beaumont (1988), p. 85] Flood or furrow irrigation, as well as sprinkler methods, are extensively used for
irrigation, covering nearly 90,000 km² across Western Asia for agriculture.
Countries in Western Asia
The countries of Western Asia according to the UN Subregion, listed below:
Though not included in the UN subregion of Western Asia,
Iran and sometimes
Afghanistan and
Egypt (which is only partially in Asia) are sometimes included in the region. It is to note that
Afghanistan can be considered
Central Asian,
South Asian,
[CIA world factbook, [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/af.html#Geo Afghanistan - Geography (Location: Southern Asia)]][MAPS SHOWING GEOLOGY, OIL AND GAS FIELDS AND GEOLOGICAL PROVINCES OF SOUTH ASIA Includes Afghanistan and Bhutan][Afghanistan-Tajikistan Bridge Links Central, South Asia Refers to Afghanistan as South Asian and Tajikistan as Central Asian][University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies: The South Asia Center http://jsis.washington.edu/advise/catalog/soasia-b.html][Syracruse University: The South Asia Center http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/moynihan/programs/sac/][http://www.brandeis.edu/registrar/catalog/one-subject.php?subject_id=6550 this sources admits in certain contexts that Tibet and Afghanistan are South Asian][http://www.britac.ac.uk/institutes/SSAS/about.htm Tibetan and Afghan flag shown] or
West Asian.
Territory and region data
Territories sometimes included
Use in ethnicity statistics
The Canadian government uses "West Asian" in its statistics.
See also
Other subregions of Asia
