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Southwest Asia or Southwestern Asia is the southwestern portion of Asia. West Asia or Western Asia are roughly analogous terms that are used, for example, in the United Nations subregion geoscheme and in writings about the archeology and the late prehistory of the region. Unlike the Middle East, which is broadly defined to include several North African countries such as Egypt, Southwestern Asia is a purely geographical term reserved for the southwestern extremities of the Asian continent.

Southwest Asia is partly coterminous with the traditional European names the Middle East and the Near East, both of which describe geographical position in relation to Europe rather than location within Asia. Because of this perceived Eurocentrism, international organizations such as the United Nations,[1] have replaced Middle East and Near East with Western Asia.

The United Nations considers Turkey, Cyprus, Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan to be in Western Asia. However, these countries lie in regions that straddle both Asia and Europe and have sociopolitical ties to both. [citation needed]

The Asian part of the Arab world (including Arabia proper) is called the Mashreq in Arabic.[citation needed]

See continent and transcontinental country for further definitions

Geography

See also: Geography of Asia

Climate

West 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.[2] Major rivers, including the Euphrates, provide sources for irrigation water to support agriculture.

Great Arabian Desert Saudi Arabia

There are two wind phenomenons in the West 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.[3]

Topography

While West 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.[4] 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.[5]

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

Cedar forest in winter, located in Lebanon

Three major tectonic plates converge on West 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.[6] The Arabian Plate is moving northward into the Anatolian plate (Turkey) at the East Anatolian Fault,[7] and the boundary between the Aegean and Anatolian plate in eastern Turkey is also seismically active.[6]

Water resources

Several major aquifers provide water to large portions of the Middle East. 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.[8] 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.[8] The Nubian aquifer system underlies large areas of North Africa.[8] 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.[9] Flood or furrow irrigation, as well as sprinkler methods, are extensively used for irrigation, covering nearly 90,000 km² across the Middle East for agriculture.[10]

Countries in West Asia

Some of the countries classified as Southwest Asian are sometimes put in other geographical categories. Afghanistan, for example, can be considered Central Asian, South Asian,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] or West Asian.[26]

UN Subregion of Western Asia:

UN Subregion of South Asia:

UN Subregion of Northern Africa:

  •  Egypt (Mostly in Africa)

Territory and region data

Country, with flag Area
(km²) 		Population Density
(per km²) 		Capital GDP (Total) Per capita Currency Government Official languages
Anatolia:
Turkey Turkey1 783,562 72,334,256 91 Ankara $888 billion (2007) $12,900 (2007) Turkish lira Parliamentary Democracy Turkish
Arabian Peninsula:
 Bahrain 665 656,397 987 Manama $24.5 billion (2007) $32,100 (2007) Bahraini Dinar Constitutional monarchy Arabic
 Kuwait 17,820 3,100,000 119 Kuwait City $130.1 billion (2007) $39,300 (2007) Kuwaiti dinar Constitutional Hereditary Arabic
 Oman 212,460 3,200,000 13 Muscat $61.6 billion (2007) $24,000 (2007) Omani Rial Absolute monarchy Arabic
 Qatar 11,437 793,341 69 Doha $57.7 billion (2007) $80,900 (2007) Qatari Riyal Monarchy Arabic
 Saudi Arabia 1,960,582 23,513,330 12 Riyadh $564.6 billion (2007) $23,200 (2007) Riyal Absolute monarchy Arabic
 United Arab Emirates 82,880 5,432,746 30 Abu Dhabi $167.3 billion (2007) $37,300 (2007) UAE dirham Federal Constitutional Monarchy Arabic
 Yemen 527,970 18,701,257 35 Sanaá $52 billion (2007) $2,300 (2007) Yemeni rial Republic Arabic
Caucacus:
Armenia Armenia 29,800 2,968,586 111.7 Yerevan $19.298 billion (2008) $5,437 (2008) Armenian dram Presidential republic Armenian
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan 86,600 8,621,000 97 Baku $65.523 billion (2007) $7,618 (2007) Azerbaijani manat Presidential republic Azerbaijani
Georgia (country) Georgia 69,700 4,630,841 99.3 Tbilisi $20.516 billion (2007) $4,694 (2007) Georgian lari Presidential democratic republic Georgian
Iranian Plateau:
 Iran 1,648,195 71,208,000 42 Tehran $753 billion (2007) $10,600 (2007) Iranian rial Islamic Republic Persian
Levant:
 Cyprus 9,250 801,622 90 Nicosia $22.703 billion (2008) $29,830 (2008) Euro Republic Greek, Turkish
State of Palestine Gaza Strip 360 1,481,080 3,823 Gaza $5 billion (includes West Bank) (2006) $1,100 (includes West Bank) (2006) Israeli new sheqel Palestinian National Authority Hamas Arabic
 Iraq 437,072 31,234,000 55 Baghdad $114.151 billion (2009) $3,655 (2009) Iraqi dinar Parliamentary Democracy (Developing) Arabic, Kurdish
 Israel 20,770 7,029,529 290 Jerusalem3 $185.9 billion (2007) $25,800 (2007) Israeli new sheqel Parliamentary democracy Hebrew, Arabic
 Jordan 92,300 6,198,677 58 Amman $31.1 billion (2008) $5,314[ (2008) Jordanian dinar Constitutional monarchy Arabic
 Lebanon 10,452 4,099,000 354 Beirut $49.514 billion (2008) $13,031 (2008) Lebanese pound Parliamentary democracy Arabic
 Syria 185,180 19,405,000 93 Damascus $94.4 billion (2008) $4,749 (2008) Syrian pound Presidential republic Arabic
State of Palestine West Bank 5,8603 2,500,0005 4323,4 Ramallah Israeli new sheqel Palestinian National Authority Fatah Arabic
North Africa:
 Egypt 1,001,449 77,498,000 74 Cairo $404 billion (2007) $5,500 (2007) Egyptian pound Semi-presidential republic (democracy) Arabic

Source:

Notes:

1 The figures for Turkey includes Eastern Thrace, which is not a part of Anatolia.

2 Under Israeli law. The UN doesn't recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

3 Includes the whole of the West Bank, according to the pre-1967 boundaries.

4 In addition, there are around 400,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, of which half are in East-Jerusalem.

Use in ethnicity statistics

The Canadian government uses "West Asian" in its statistics; however people from the Arab countries are counted in a separate "Arab" category.[27][28]

See also

Other subregions of Asia

References

  1. ^ United Nations Cartographic Section Web Site
  2. ^ "Chapter 7: Middle East and Arid Asia". IPCC Special Report on The Regional Impacts of Climate Change: An Assessment of Vulnerability. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 1997.
  3. ^ Taru Bahl, M H Syed, ed. (2003). Encyclopaedia of the Muslim World. New Delhi: Anmol Publications. p. 20. ISBN 9788126114191. Retrieved 1 February 2009.
  4. ^ Sweeney, Jerry J., William R. Walter. "Preliminary Definition of Geophysical Regions for the Middle East and North Africa" (PDF). Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ "ASTER Image Gallery: The Dead Sea". NASA.
  6. ^ a b Beaumont (1988), p. 22
  7. ^ Muehlberger, Bill. "The Arabian Plate". NASA, Johnson Space Center.
  8. ^ a b c Beaumont (1988), p. 86
  9. ^ Beaumont (1988), p. 85
  10. ^ "Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)".
  11. ^ CIA world factbook, Afghanistan - Geography (Location: Southern Asia)
  12. ^ Center for South Asia Studies: University of California, Berkeley [1]
  13. ^ Center for South Asia Outreach UW-Madison [2]
  14. ^ Department of South Asia Studies: University of Pennsylvania [3]
  15. ^ South Asia: Data, Projects, and Research [4]
  16. ^ MAPS SHOWING GEOLOGY, OIL AND GAS FIELDS AND GEOLOGICAL PROVINCES OF SOUTH ASIA [5] Includes Afghanistan and Bhutan
  17. ^ Afghanistan-Tajikistan Bridge Links Central, South Asia [6] Refers to Afghanistan as South Asian and Tajikistan as Central Asian
  18. ^ University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies: The South Asia Center http://jsis.washington.edu/advise/catalog/soasia-b.html
  19. ^ Syracruse University: The South Asia Center http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/moynihan/programs/sac/
  20. ^ Center for South Asian Studies
  21. ^ 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
  22. ^ http://www.britac.ac.uk/institutes/SSAS/about.htm Tibetan and Afghan flag shown
  23. ^ Organization - Center for South Asian Studies - Oscar
  24. ^ University of Hawaii at Manoa | South Asia Collection
  25. ^ Rutgers, SAS South Asian Studies: - Home
  26. ^ Ethnic Origin (247), Single and Multiple Ethnic Origin Responses (3) and Sex (3) for the Population of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2006 Census
  27. ^ Statistics Canada: Population Groups (28) and Sex (3) for the Population of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2006 Census
  28. ^ http://www.google.com/search?q=west+asian+site%3Astatcan.ca
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