Southwest Asia - the birthplace of the world's major religions

Much of what we do today and know first appeared in South-West Asia. Even before our era, people who inhabited this region, were already engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding, here successfully developed handicrafts, artificial irrigation was carried out. In this part of the world, an alphabetic alphabet was invented. South-West Asia is home to the world's major religions - Christianity and Islam.

The nature of this region is rather severe, in the topography the highlands predominate, along the outskirts of which the young folded mountains rise . Emerged relatively recently, they are very high and their tops are covered with domes of glaciers. Large areas occupy the plateau, along the large rivers are located lowlands. South-West Asia is characterized by a variety of climatic conditions. For example, the Arabian Peninsula with its natural conditions is similar to the desert areas of neighboring Africa. Over it is almost constantly dominated by hot and dry tropical air. In such conditions the Rub-al-Khali desert was formed, the driest in the world, in which precipitation is absent for several years. But on the coast of the Black and Mediterranean Seas, washing Asia Minor, the climate is warm, with a rainy winter. The Mediterranean climate allows you to grow citrus, grapes, olive trees.

The Arabian Peninsula and the Mesopotamian lowland are very rich in oil reserves. South-West Asia is the leader in oil production. Most of it is mined in countries such as Iraq, Kuwait, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Through a dense network of pipelines, oil arrives at port cities, and from there it is delivered to all corners of the world by huge tankers.

Countries and population

There are 16 states in the region. Most of the countries are unitary. The Federation is only one country - the United Arab Emirates. Here there are seven monarchies, and most of them are absolute. In other states the republican form of government. To date, South-West Asia is a very unstable corner of our planet. In many countries, the internal political situation is very tense. There are many unsolved problems between some states, which often leads to armed conflicts.

South-West Asia, whose countries have high rates of population growth, belongs to one of the most densely populated regions. The main reason for this is the influence of Islam. Countries have a multinational composition, as in them, in addition to the main ethnic groups, there are many national minorities.

Asia Minor, whose countries mainly profess Islam, is the center of the Muslim world. Here is perhaps the most famous in the world city of Jerusalem - the capital of the three world religions.

Located at the junction of Africa, Europe and Asia, being at the crossroads of important trade routes and possessing the largest oil fields, South-West Asia in today's world still remains one of the most influential world centers.