Southwest Asia Landforms and Resources The Arabian Peninsula

Southwest Asia: Landforms and Resources

The Arabian Peninsula

The Red Sea and the Suez Canal • The Red Sea, on the west coast of the Arabian Peninsula, connects to the Suez Canal • This canal is very important for trade in both Europe and Africa

• Wadis: riverbeds that remain dry except during the rainy season Located throughout the Arabian Peninsula

Major Mountain Ranges • Hindu Kush Mountains: stretches between Central Afghanistan and Northern Pakistan

• Zagros Mountains: primarily in Iran Isolates the country from the rest of SW Asia

Important Bodies of Water • The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers: supported several ancient river valley civilizations in the Fertile Crescent Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians

• The rivers are still very important today for agriculture • The two rivers flow parallel to each other for hundreds of miles before joining and soon after emptying into the Persian Gulf

• Jordan River: serves as a natural boundary between Israel and Jordan Flows into the Dead Sea, a landlocked salt lake

Natural Resources • ½ of the world’s oil reserves are located in southwest Asia The United States depends heavily on these oil reserves • In some areas, the most valuable resource is water In mountainous countries such as Turkey, Iran, Lebanon, and Afghanistan, water is plentiful In regions containing deserts, rain is very scarce