The southern Near East consists of Arabia and the Fertile
Crescent. The
latter comprises Syria, the eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean and
its hinterland, and Mesopotamia, roughly equivalent to the modern Iraq.
Like the African plate of which it was originally part, this region is
predominantly flat. Where it is mountainous, this is largely a
consequence of the rifting system that extends into the southern Near
East from East Africa. Since the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden are
branches of this system, it is no surprise that Yemen, the adjoining
part of Arabia, is mountainous like the Ethiopian highlands. Farther
north yet another branch of the system runs up the middle of Syria,
where it is associated with two parallel mountain ranges. But in
general the southern Near East is a land of plains.
