The primary geological event in the making of the Near
East was a
collision between two continental plates. This collision, an event of
the last fifty million years, joined Eurasia to the northeastern edge
of what was then a greater Africa. This took place in two steps. The
first was the opening of the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. This took
place over the last twenty million years or so. The second step was
the formation of the Persian Gulf as a result of the risisng sea levels
of the Holocene. The most significant event was undoubtedly the
collision of the two plates. The junction runs from the northeastern
corner of the Mediterranean, near the island of Cyprus, to the Gulf of
Oman on the edge of the Indian Ocean. This line is of more than
geological interest. It divides the Near East into two parts with
significantly different characteristics.
