The Middle East

The Middle East is a very large area: a transcontinental region as it is also known, stretching over more than 7.2 million square kilometres. It comprises many of the countries that are situated around the Southern and Eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, including those of North Africa, Western Asia, and Eastern and Northern Europe. Algeria is geographically the largest Middle Eastern country, while Bahrain is the smallest. However, the Middle East is paradoxically a very volatile political area, even though it is perhaps the richest area on earth, as it presides over almost two-thirds of the planet’s oil reserves and numerous other natural resources. Historically speaking, it is claimed that it was in this vast area that the first complex societies emerged onto the world stage where the first permanent settlements appeared. Here, the earliest agriculture, metalworking and writing systems commenced and developed. It is also in this region that the earliest centralized governments, legal systems, priesthoods, kings and large-scale organized warfare emerged.