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Lets preview the region:

India The 7th largest country in the world, 2nd most populous country in the world (1.2 billion people), most populous democracy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNpX_tdrvZg India

Nepal Located in the Himalayas. Home to Mt. Everest

Pakistan The 6th most populous country in the world. Capital: Islamabad

Ancient center of the silk road. President: Hamid KarzaiCapital: Kabul

Burqa

Afghanistan

Iran Major regional and middle eastern power. Capital: Tehran

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAs5X9weNuw&list=PLnLzj3Htnqmk0FC19vuxWUFFJpCdqEPBn Iran

Where Mesopotamia (“the land between the rivers” was located. Capital: Baghdad

hijabthwab

Iraq

Turkey Borders Greece and the Mediterranean Sea. A democratic country with a rich cultural heritage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrNN6dAhg4U&list=PLnLzj3Htnqmk0FC19vuxWUFFJpCdqEPBn Turkey

Saudi Arabia Economy largely backed by its oil industryMecca

Yemen and Oman

Sana’a, Yemen Muscat, Oman

Israel Capital: Jerusalem. The country is important and sacred to Jews, Muslims, and Christians as it is the site to many places that are pivotal to their religious beliefs. (Nazareth, Bethlehem, Tiberias and Safed, Ramla)

The Wailing Wall

Syria Capital: Damascus. One of the oldest cities in the world.

Kazakhstan

Himalayan Mountains• Home to the world’s highest

mountains, including Mt. Everest• Created by the collision of the

Indian tectonic plate and the Eurasian plate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuSHOQ6gv5Y How they were formed

Arabian Peninsula• A vast region containing oil and

natural gas (huge source of $$)

Mesopotamian Plain• Mesopotamia literally

means “land between rivers” in ancient Greek

• Centered around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers

• The south is flat and marshy• Thanks to advanced systems

of irrigation, soil (silt) was highly advanced in ancient civilization, and still is today!

The area was rich for farming

because of flooding every year. It

is STILL good for farming today

Sea of Marmara

The Dardanelles Strait

Bosporus Strait

These waterways link

the Mediterranean and

Black Seas and separate

Europe from Asia

The Red Sea Has a major reef system

Arabian SeaBay of Bengal

Both seas very important for fishing in the countries they border (India & more)

The Ganges River• The most sacred river to Hindus.• Also a lifeline to millions of

Indians who live along its course and depend on it for their daily needs

• It is worshiped as the goddess Ganga in Hinduism

• Ranked 5th most polluted river in the world

Central Asia

dry dry dry

Central Asia

Covered by deserts

dry dry dry

The need for water:• Rainfall is sparse over much of the region,

and high temperatures cause surface water to evaporate quickly.

• As a result, the population does not have enough water to meet it’s needs

• Some countries draw water from aquifers when they cannot access clean rivers

What is an aquifer?an underground layer of water-

bearing rock from which groundwater can be extracted

using a water well

Southwest Asia

Not quite

as dry

Southwest Asia

• Not as dry, but because there is a high concentration of people, supplies of fresh water are still low.

• Farmers are the largest consumers of water, often used for irrigation

• They also use underground aquifers