Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula or Arabia[1] is a peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia. It lies east of Ethiopia and northern Somalia; south of Israel, the disputed Palestinian territories, and Jordan; and southwest of Iran.
The waters around Arabia are: on the southwest the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba; on the southeast the Arabian Sea; and on the northeast the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf.
Arabia includes the countries of:
The peninsula is part of the Middle East, but that usually means the Arabian Peninsula with the Levant and Mesopotamia. The word "Arabia" often refers only to Saudi Arabia.
The country of Saudi Arabia covers almost all of Arabia. The majority of the population of the peninsula live in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Northern Arabia has important oil wells. Climate change and the scarcity of water has affected the whole of this area.[2] Water has become scarcer because human numbers have grown greatly. Most rivers are tapped in their upper reaches, which reduces water in the lower reaches of the rivers.
Geography/geology[change | change source]
The Arabian Plate is a minor tectonic plate in the northern and eastern hemispheres. The most prominent feature of the peninsula is the desert. In the southwest there are mountain ranges. These get more rain than the rest of the peninsula.
References[change | change source]
Related pages[change | change source]
Other websites[change | change source]
- Arabia British Foreign Office, 1920
