(contents)
Prologue (4)
004. Middle East
connecting Europe and Asia (2/3)
Asia occupies a large part of the Eurasian Continent. The Eurasian continents extends from the east longitude 10 degrees, where the Portugal is, and 180 degrees of the Bering Strait. Istanbul, the east end of Europe, is located at 30 degrees east longitude. This means that five-sixth of the Eurasian continent is Asia and Europe occupies only one sixth.
Asia is so
wide that Europeans could not bundle Asia as one region, They, therefore,
divided Asia into several regions. It was a very simple and unilateral division
from the viewpoint of their geographical perspective. They named each region as
the Near East, Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia and Far East. Far East
means the end of the east. It is a very rude naming for the people living in
that region. (Suppose that If the history was reversed, Britain, France might
have been called "Far West" at the end of the west!)
Anyway,
when crossing the Bosporus Strait, you are now in "Near East". It
covers the Anatolian peninsula. And the eastern Levant (nowadays Syria and
Lebanon), Israel, Iraq and Iran consist "Middle East". In modern
history, however, "Near East" and "Middle East" are united
and called "Middle East". India and Pakistan are called South Asia.
(To be continued ----)
(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)
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