West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian highlands, the Levant, the Sinai Peninsula and the South Caucasus. The region is separated from Africa by the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt, and separated from Europe by the waterways of the Turkish Straits and the watershed of the Greater Caucasus. Central Asia lies to its northeast, while South Asia lies to its east. Twelve seas surround the region (clockwise): the Aegean Sea, the Sea of Marmara, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aqaba, the Gulf of Suez, and the Mediterranean Sea. West Asia contains the majority of the similarly defined Middle East, but excludes most of Egypt and the northwestern part of Turkey, and includes the southern part of the Caucasus.
West Asia covers an area of , with a population of about 313 million. Of the 20 UN member countries fully or partly within the region, 13 are part of the Arab world. The most populous countries in West Asia are Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia.
In the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD), West Asia excludes the Arabian Peninsula and includes Afghanistan. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) excludes Egypt and includes Afghanistan. The United Nations Environment Programme excludes Cyprus, Israel, Turkey, and Iran from West Asia.
Definition The term West Asia is used pragmatically and has no "correct" or generally accepted definition. Its typical definitions overlap substantially, but not entirely, with definitions of the terms Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean, and Near East.What Is The Difference Between Near East and Middle East? worldatlas.com The National Geographic Style Manual as well as Maddison's The World Economy: Historical Statistics (2003) by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) include only Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Palestine (called West Bank and Gaza in the latter), Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, UAE, and Yemen as West Asian countries. By contrast, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in its 2015 yearbook includes Armenia and Azerbaijan, and excludes Israel (as Other) and Turkey (as Europe).
Unlike the UNIDO, the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) excludes Iran from West Asia (included as South Asia) and includes Turkey, Georgia, and Cyprus in the region. In the United Nations geopolitical Eastern European Group, Armenia and Georgia are included in Eastern Europe, whereas Cyprus and East Thracian Turkey are in Southern Europe. These three nations are listed in the European category of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
National members of West Asian sports governing bodies are limited to Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The Olympic Council of Asia's multi-sport event West Asian Games are contested by athletes representing these 13 countries. Among the region's sports organisations are the West Asia Basketball Association, West Asian Billiards and Snooker Federation, West Asian Football Federation, and the West Asian Tennis Federation.
Map
Countries
Country Area(km2) Population() Density(per km2) Capital Nominal GDP(2012) Per capita(2012) Currency Government Official languages 783,562 94.1 Ankara $788.042 billion $10,523 Turkish lira Presidential republic Turkish 780 1,646.1 Manama $30.355 billion $26,368 Bahraini dinar Constitutional monarchy Arabic 17,820 167.5 Kuwait City $184.540 billion $48,761 Kuwaiti dinar Constitutional monarchy Arabic 212,460 9.2 Muscat $78.290 billion $25,356 Omani rial Absolute monarchy Arabic 11,437 123.2 Doha $192.402 billion $104,756 Qatari riyal Absolute monarchy Arabic 2,149,690 12 Riyadh $733.956 billion $25,139 Saudi riyal Absolute monarchy Arabic 82,880 97 Abu Dhabi $383.799 billion $43,774 UAE dirham Federal constitutional monarchy Arabic 527,970 44.7 Sanaa $35.05 billion $1,354 Yemeni rial Provisional presidential republic Arabic 8,660 242,862 28 Sokhumi $500 million N/A Georgian lari Semi-presidential republic Abkhaz, Russian 29,800 108.4 Yerevan $9.950 billion $3,033 Armenian dram Semi-presidential republic Armenian 86,600 105.8 Baku $68.700 billion $7,439 Azerbaijani manat Presidential republic Azerbaijani 69,700 68.1 Tbilisi $15.847 billion $3,523 Georgian lari Semi-presidential republic Georgian 3,900 53,532 13 Tskhinvali $500 million N/A Georgian lari Semi-presidential republic Ossetian, Russian 438,317 73.5 Baghdad $216.044 billion $6,410 Iraqi dinar Parliamentary republic Arabic, Kurdish 20,770 365.3 Jerusalem $353.65 billion $39,106 Israeli new shekel Parliamentary republic Hebrew 92,300 68.4 Amman $30.98 billion $4,843 Jordanian dinar Constitutional monarchy Arabic 10,452 404 Beirut $42.519 billion $10,425 Lebanese pound Parliamentary republic Arabic 6,220 667 Ramallah $6.6 billion $1,600 Egyptian pound, Jordanian dinar, Israeli new shekel Semi-presidential republic Arabic 185,180 118.3 Damascus N/A N/A Syrian pound Transitional government Arabic 1,648,195 45 Tehran $548.590 billion $7,207 Iranian rial Islamic republic Persian 254 15,700 N/A Episkopi N/A N/A Euro Stratocratic dependency under a constitutional monarchy English 9,250 117 Nicosia $22.995 billion $26,377 Euro Presidential republic Greek, Turkish 3,355 313,626 93 North Nicosia $4.032 billion $15,109 Turkish lira Semi-presidential republic Turkish 60,000 600,000 82 Cairo $262.26 billion $3,179 Egyptian pound Presidential republic Arabic
History
"Western Asia" was in use as a geographical term in the late 18th and early 19th centuries,e.g. James Rennell, A treatise on the comparative geography of western Asia, 1831. before "Near East" became current as a geopolitical concept. For example, William Ouseley used the phrase in 1795 in Persian Miscellanies to refer to a region including Syria, Mesopotamia, Chaldea and Persia. In the context of the history of classical antiquity, "Western Asia" could mean the part of Asia known in classical antiquity, as opposed to the reaches of "interior Asia", i.e. Scythia, and "Eastern Asia" the easternmost reaches of geographical knowledge in classical authors, i.e. Transoxania and India.James Rennell, The Geographical System of Herodotus Examined and Explained, 1800, p. 210.Hugh Murray, Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in Asia (1820).Samuel Whelpley, A compend of history, from the earliest times, 1808, p. 9 . In the 20th century, "Western Asia" was used to denote a rough geographical era in the fields of archaeology and ancient history, especially as a shorthand for "the Fertile Crescent, excluding Ancient Egypt" for the purposes of comparing the early civilizations of Egypt and the former.e.g. Petrus Van Der Meer, The Chronology of Ancient Western Asia and Egypt, 1955. Karl W. Butzer, Physical Conditions in Eastern Europe, Western Asia and Egypt Before the Period of Agricultural and Urban Settlement, 1965.
Use of the term in the context of contemporary geopolitics or world economy appears to date from at least the mid-1960s.The Tobacco Industry of Western Asia, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service, 1964.
Geography
The region is surrounded by eight major seas; the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.
To the northwest and north, the region is delimited from Europe by the Turkish Straits and drainage divide of the Greater Caucasus, to the southwest, it is delimited from Africa by the Isthmus of Suez, while to the northeast and east, the region adjoins Central Asia and South Asia. The region is located east of Southern Europe and south of Eastern Europe.
The Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut deserts in eastern Iran naturally delimit the region from Balochistan and South Asia.
Geology Plate tectonics 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.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 West 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. Flood or furrow irrigation, as well as sprinkler methods, are extensively used for irrigation, covering nearly across West Asia for agriculture. Also, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers contribute very well.
Climate
West 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 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 kilometres 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 West 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 . 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 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 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.
Economy