Eastern Mediterranean

Last updated
Aerial view of the Eastern Mediterranean ISS-47 Middle East.jpg
Aerial view of the Eastern Mediterranean

Eastern Mediterranean [1] [2] [3] [4] is a loose definition of the eastern approximate half, or third, of the Mediterranean Sea, often defined as the countries around the Levantine Sea. [5]

Contents

It typically embraces all of that sea's coastal zones, referring to communities connected with the sea and land greatly climatically influenced. It includes the southern half of Turkey's main region Anatolia, its smaller Hatay Province, the island of Cyprus, the Greek Dodecanese islands, and the countries of Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

Its broadest uses can encompass the Libyan Sea (thus Libya), the Aegean Sea (thus European Turkey and the mainland and islands of Greece), the Ionian Sea (thus southern Albania in Southeastern Europe), and can extend west to Italy's farthest south-eastern coasts. Jordan is climatically and economically part of the region.

Regions

Nicolas Sanson. Map of Eastern Mediterranean, 1651 A-3-37-69-East-Meditteranean.jpg
Nicolas Sanson. Map of Eastern Mediterranean, 1651

The eastern Mediterranean region is commonly interpreted in two ways:

Countries

The countries and territories of the Eastern Mediterranean include Cyprus, Turkey (Anatolia), its smaller Hatay Province, the Greek Dodecanese islands, and the countries of Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Israel, Jordan and Egypt.

North-eastern Mediterranean has been put to print as a term for the Greater Balkans: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, [8] [9] Slovenia, North Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Romania. [7] A five-author statistics-rich study of 2019 has sought to add Moldova and Ukraine beyond, which others link more to the Black Sea's economy and history. [7] The three-word term is mainly a complex euphemism for the Balkan peninsula used by those who stigmatise the word "Balkanisation" and to suggest parallels with other conflicts of the Eastern Mediterranean. [7]

The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean includes the Eastern Mediterranean as well as the other regions of contiguous Afro-Eurasia: West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and Central Asia. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levant</span> Region in the Eastern Mediterranean

The Levant is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of West Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is equivalent to Cyprus and a stretch of land bordering the Mediterranean Sea in western Asia: i.e. the historical region of Syria, which includes present-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Palestinian territories and most of Turkey southwest of the middle Euphrates. Its overwhelming characteristic is that it represents the land bridge between Africa and Eurasia. In its widest historical sense, the Levant included all of the Eastern Mediterranean with its islands; that is, it included all of the countries along the Eastern Mediterranean shores, extending from Greece in Southern Europe to Cyrenaica, Eastern Libya in Northern Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle East</span> Geopolitical region

The Middle East is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage as a replacement of the term Near East beginning in the early 20th century. The term "Middle East" has led to some confusion over its changing definitions, and being seen as too Eurocentric. The region includes the vast majority of the territories included in the closely associated definition of West Asia, but without the South Caucasus, and additionally includes all of Egypt and all of Turkey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pita</span> Yeast leavened flatbread baked from wheat flour

Pita or pitta is a family of yeast-leavened round flatbreads baked from wheat flour, common in the Mediterranean, Levant, and neighboring areas. It includes the widely known version with an interior pocket, also known as Arabic bread. In the United Kingdom, Greek bread is used for pocket versions such as the Greek pita, and are used for barbecues as a souvlaki wrap. The Western name pita may sometimes be used to refer to various other types of flatbreads that have different names in their local languages, such as numerous styles of Arab khubz (bread).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Near East</span> Geographical term that roughly encompasses West Asia

The Near East is a transcontinental region around the East Mediterranean encompassing parts of West Asia, the Balkans, and North Africa, including the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, East Thrace and Egypt. The term was invented by modern Western geographers and was originally applied to the Ottoman Empire, but today has varying definitions within different academic circles. The term Near East was used in conjunction with the Middle East and the Far East, together known as the “3 Easts”; it was a separate term from the Middle East during earlier times and official British usage. Today, the terms Near East and Middle East are used interchangeably to refer to the same region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latin Church in the Middle East</span> Latin Catholicism in the Middle East

The Latin Church of the Catholic Church has several dispersed populations of members in the Middle East, notably in Turkey and the Levant. Latin Catholics employ the Latin liturgical rites, in contrast to Eastern Catholics who fall under their respective church's patriarchs and employ distinct Eastern Catholic liturgies, while being in full communion with the worldwide Catholic Church. Latin Catholics in the Middle East are often of European descent, particularly from the medieval Crusader era and later the 20th-century colonial period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Asia</span> Subregion of the Asian continent

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 island of Cyprus, the Sinai Peninsula, and the southern part of the Caucasus Region (Transcaucasia). 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. The area contains the vast majority of the similarly defined Middle East, but excluding most of Egypt and the northwestern part of Turkey, and including the southern part of the Caucasus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greece–Turkey relations</span> Bilateral relations

Relations between Greece and Turkey began in the 1830s following Greece's formation after its declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire. Modern relations began when Turkey declared its formation in 1923 following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Middle East</span>

The Middle East, also known as the Near East, is home to one of the Cradles of Civilization and has seen many of the world's oldest cultures and civilizations. The region's history started from the earliest human settlements and continues through several major pre- and post-Islamic Empires to today's nation-states of the Middle East.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Near Eastern archaeology</span> Archaeological sub-discipline

Near Eastern archaeology is a regional branch of the wider, global discipline of archaeology. It refers generally to the excavation and study of artifacts and material culture of the Near East from antiquity to the recent past.

Over recorded history, there have been many names of the Levant, a large area in the Near East, or its constituent parts. These names have applied to a part or the whole of the Levant. On occasion, two or more of these names have been used at the same time by different cultures or sects. As a natural result, some of the names of the Levant are highly politically charged. Perhaps the least politicized name is Levant itself, which simply means "where the sun rises" or "where the land rises out of the sea", a meaning attributed to the region's easterly location on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turkish people</span> Turkic ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and Northern Cyprus

Turkish people or Turks are the largest Turkic people who speak various dialects of the Turkish language and form a majority in Turkey and Northern Cyprus. In addition, centuries-old ethnic Turkish communities still live across other former territories of the Ottoman Empire. Article 66 of the Turkish Constitution defines a Turk as anyone who is a citizen of Turkey. While the legal use of the term "Turkish" as it pertains to a citizen of Turkey is different from the term's ethnic definition, the majority of the Turkish population are of Turkish ethnicity. The vast majority of Turks are Muslims and follow the Sunni and Alevi faith.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mediterranean Basin</span> Region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have a Mediterranean climate

In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin, also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea, is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and warm to hot, dry summers, which supports characteristic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation. It was a very important part of Mediterranean civilizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Late Bronze Age collapse</span> End of several civilizations in the Late Bronze Age

The Late Bronze Age collapse was a time of widespread societal collapse during the 12th century BC, between c. 1200 and 1150, and was associated with environmental change, mass migration, and destruction of cities. The collapse affected a large area of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East, in particular Egypt, eastern Libya, the Balkans, the Aegean, Anatolia, and, to a lesser degree, the Caucasus. It was sudden, violent, and culturally disruptive for many Bronze Age civilizations, and it brought a sharp economic decline to regional powers, notably ushering in the Greek Dark Ages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basbousa</span> Semolina or farina cake soaked in syrup

Basbousa is a sweet, syrup-soaked semolina cake that originated in Egypt. The semolina batter is baked in a sheet pan, then sweetened with orange flower water, rose water or simple syrup, and typically cut into diamond (lozenge) shapes or squares. The dish has also spread within most areas of the former Ottoman Empire, and is generally featured in Middle Eastern cuisines, Maghrebi cuisine, Greek cuisine, Azerbaijani cuisine, Ethiopian cuisine, and many others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethnic groups in the Middle East</span>

Ethnic groups in the Middle East, in the 'transcontinental' region which is commonly a geopolitical term designating the intercontinental region comprising West Asia without the South Caucasus, and also comprising Egypt in North Africa. The region has historically been a crossroad of different cultures and languages. Since the 1960s, the changes in political and economic factors have significantly altered the ethnic composition of groups in the region. While some ethnic groups have been present in the region for millennia, others have arrived fairly recently through immigration. The largest socioethnic groups in the region are Arabs, Turks, Persians, Kurds, and Azerbaijanis but there are dozens of other ethnic groups that have hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions of members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levantine Sea</span> Easternmost part of the Mediterranean Sea

The Levantine Sea is the easternmost part of the Mediterranean Sea.

Transjordan, the East Bank, or the Transjordanian Highlands, is the part of the Southern Levant east of the Jordan River, mostly contained in present-day Jordan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Syria (region)</span> Region east of the Mediterranean Sea

Syria or Sham is a historical region located east of the Mediterranean Sea in West Asia, broadly synonymous with the Levant. Other synonyms are Greater Syria or Syria-Palestine. The region boundaries have changed throughout history. In modern times, the term "Syria" alone is used to refer to the Syrian Arab Republic.

References

  1. "Eastern Mediterranean Political Map". National Geographic Store. National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 21 February 2018. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
  2. Gore, Rick (17 October 2002). Clark, Robert (ed.). "Ancient Ashkelon". National Geographic Magazine . National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
  3. Franks, Tim (6 November 2011). "The state of Israel: Internal influence driving change". BBC News . BBC. Archived from the original on 9 July 2020. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  4. Orfalea, Gregory (2006). The Arab Americans: A History . Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press. p.  249. ISBN   9781566565974.
  5. "Which Countries Have A Coastline On The Levantine Sea?". WorldAtlas. 2019-03-27. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
  6. The Report: Egypt 2010. Oxford Business Group. ISBN   9781907065170 via Google Books.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Brauch, Hans Günter; Liotta, Peter H.; Selim, Mohammad El-Sayed; Rogers, Paul F. (28 September 2018). Security and Environment in the Mediterranean: conceptualising security and environmental conflicts : with 177 figures and 144 tables. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN   9783540401070 via Google Books.
  8. 1 2 Diez, Thomas (28 September 2018). The European Union and the Cyprus Conflict: Modern Conflict, Postmodern Union. Manchester University Press. ISBN   9780719060793 via Google Books.
  9. 1 2 Springer-Verlag (28 September 2018). Mediterranean Climate: Variability and Trends. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN   9783540438380 via Google Books.
  10. Lucarelli, Sonia; Fioramonti, Lorenzo (16 October 2009). External Perceptions of the European Union as a Global Actor. Routledge. ISBN   9781135239497 via Google Books.
  11. "The Growing Alignment Between the Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean". Middle East Institute. Archived from the original on 2021-05-25. Retrieved 2021-08-15.
  12. Hassan Salah and Michael Kidd. Family Practice in the Eastern Mediterranean Region:Primary Health Care for Universal Health Coverage, CRC Press, April 8, 2019