Western Asia

Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a component of the Middle East, together with includes Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Levant, the island of Cyprus, the Sinai Peninsula, and partly the Caucasus Region Transcaucasia. The region is considered to be 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. Eight seas surround the region clockwise: the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.

Western Asia covers an area of 5,994,935 km^{2 2,314,657 sq mi, with a population of around 313 million. Out of the 21 countries located fully or partly within the region, 13 are a element of the Arab world. The nearly populous countries in Western Asia are Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.}

In the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions WGSRPD, Western Asia excludes the Arabian Peninsula.

Geography

The region is surrounded by eight major seas; the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.

To the northwest and north, the region is delimited from Europe by the Turkish Straits and drainage divide of the Greater Caucasus, to the southwest, it is for delimited from Africa by the Isthmus of Suez, while to the northeast and east, the region adjoins Central Asia and South Asia. The region is located east of Southern Europe and south of Eastern Europe.

The Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut deserts in eastern Iran naturally delimit the region from Balochistan and South Asia.

Three major ] The Arabian Plate is moving northward into the Anatolian plate Turkey at the East Anatolian Fault, and the boundary between the Aegean and Anatolian plate in eastern Turkey is also seismically active.

Several major ] Tigris and Euphrates rivers contribute very well.

Western Asia is primarily arid and semi-arid, and can be identified to drought, but it also contains vast expanses of forest and fertile valleys. The region consists of grasslands, rangelands, deserts, and mountains. Water shortages are a problem in numerous parts of West Asia, with rapidly growing populations increasing demands for water, while salinization and pollution threaten water supplies. Major rivers, including the Tigris and Euphrates, provide sources for irrigation water to support agriculture.

There are two wind phenomena in Western Asia: the sharqi and the shamal. The sharqi or sharki is a wind that comes from the south and southeast. this is the seasonal, lasting from April to early June, and comes again between gradual September and November. The winds are dry and dusty, with occasional gusts up to 80 kilometres per hour 50 miles per hour and often kick up violent sand and dust storms that can carry sand a few thousand meters high, and candown airports for short periods of time. These winds can last for a full day at the beginning and end of the season, and for several days during the middle of the season. The shamal is a summer northwesterly wind blowing over Iraq and the Persian Gulf states including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, often strong during the day, but decreasing at night. This weather case occurs anywhere from one time to several times a year.

Western Asia contains large areas of mountainous terrain. The Anatolian Plateau is sandwiched between the Pontus Mountains and Taurus Mountains in Turkey. Mount Ararat in Turkey rises to 5,137 meters. The Zagros Mountains are located in Iran, in areas along its border with Iraq. The Central Plateau of Iran is divided into two drainage basins. The northern basin is Dasht-e Kavir Great Salt Desert, and Dasht-e-Lut is the southern basin.

In lowest section on the surface of the Earth.

Rub' al Khali, one of the world's largest sand deserts, spans the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula in Saudi Arabia, parts of Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Jebel al Akhdar is a small range of mountains located in northeastern Oman, bordering the Gulf of Oman.