SOUTHWEST ASIA – THE

MIDDLE EASTChapters 21-22

Landforms

■ Arabian Peninsula– Most distinctive landform in

region– Separated from Africa by the

Red Sea– Suez Canal

■ Anatolian Peninsula– Occupied by Turkey– Marks the beginning of the

Asian continent

Bodies of Water

■ Tigris and Euphrates Rivers– Supported several ancient

river valley civilizations in the Fertile Crescent - MESOPOTAMIA

■ Jordan River– Flows into Dead Sea:

landlocked salt lake– Dead Sea is 1,349 feet below

sea level – the lowest place on the exposed crust of the earth

WATER IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Water in the Middle East■ Several countries in the region use drip irrigation – practice

of using small pipes that slowly drip water just above ground to conserve water used for crops

Desalinization

■Desalinization is the removal of salt from ocean water

■This is done at sophisticated water treatment plants

■Water may be too salty to use for irrigation so it is used in sewage systems

■Very expensive and cannot provide adequate quantities of water to meet all the needs of people in the Middle East

Fossil Water

■Water pumped from underground aquifers is called fossil water because it has been in the aquifer for a long time

■Fossil water has little chance of being replaced because the region has too little rainfall

■It is estimated that at the current rate water is being pumped, only about 25 to 30 years of water usage remain

OIL IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Impact of Oil on the Land

■Petroleum that has not been processed is called crude oil

■Crude oil pumped from the ground must be moved to a refinery

■The job of a refinery is to convert the crude oil into useful products

■Pipelines transport the crude oil either to refineries or to ports where the oil is picked up by tankers and moved to other places for processing

Risks of Transporting Oil

■Moving oil from one location to another always involves the risk of oil spills

■The largest oil spill ever recorded occurred on January 1991 during the Persian Gulf War– A series of tankers and oil storage

terminals in Kuwait and on islands off its coast were blown up

– More than 24 million gallons of crude oil were spilled into the water and on land

OPEC: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

■Established in 1960

■An organization of oil-producing countries to coordinate policies on selling petroleum products

■Purpose: help members control worldwide oil prices by adjusting oil prices and production quotas

■Southwest Asian OPEC Countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Iraq

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcarzmnarnI

RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Three Major Religions

■Islam

■Christianity

■Judaism

■“Abrahamic Faiths”

Islam■Monotheistic

■Follow the teachings of the prophet Muhammad

■5 Pillars – Faith– Prayer– Charity– Fasting– Pilgrimage

5 PILLARS

Click icon to add picture

Five basic acts in Islam

Considered mandatory by believers and are the foundation of Muslim life

Islam■Muslim armies spread across three

continents – Africa, Asia, and Europe

■By the Middle Ages, a large part of the world was controlled by Muslim empires– North Africa and the Middle East

have a large following of Islam today

– Three major holy cities: Mecca, Medina, & Jerusalem

Sunni and Shi’ite

■Two main branches of Islam

■83% of Muslims are Sunni

■Majority of Iranians are Shi’ite

Judaism

■ Judaism is over 3000 years old and is the oldest of the world's monotheistic religions (religions with only one God).

■ It's also the smallest, with only about 14 million followers around the world.

■ Its holy city is Jerusalem.

■ Jews believe that there is a single God (Yahweh) who not only created the universe, but with whom every Jew can have an individual and personal relationship.

■ They await the Messiah, who will be an earthly king.

■ Ten Commandments is the basic code of law.

■ The most holy Jewish book is the Torah (the first five books of the Christian Bible). Others include Judaism's oral tradition, the written form of which is known as the Talmud.

Judaism■Jerusalem is the center of their

modern and ancient homeland

■Modern Jews come to pray at the holiest site in Jerusalem which is a portion of the Second Temple known as the Western Wall or Wailing Wall

■It is the only remaining piece of the Second Temple, which was destroyed in A.D. 700 by the Romans

Christianity

■ Christianity is the world's largest religion, with about 2.2 billion followers worldwide. It is based on the teachings of Jesus Christ who lived in the Holy Land 2,000 years ago.

■ Christians believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God ■ God sent his Son to earth to save humanity from the

consequences of its sins ■ Christians believe that Jesus was the Messiah promised in the

Old Testament■ The Bible is the Christian holy book. It is divided into the Old

and New Testaments. Parts of the writing contained in the Old Testament are also sacred to Jewish and Muslim people.

Christianity■Jerusalem is sacred

location of the final suffering and crucifixion of Jesus

■Every year, Christians visit places such as the Mount of Olives and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by the thousands