ABSTRACT
The orographic and climatic characteristics of the Mediterranean originate from an historical complex and geopolitical evolution. It has become, through the centuries, a defined geographical and geopolitical basin called Mediterranean Civil Ecumene, where first Egyptian and Greek, then Roman, through the city of Rome and its ten centuries of the Roman Empire, and finally Byzantine and Islamic dominations left us important common historical and cultural roots. ‘The fundamental unifying basis of the Mediterranean zone is the climate, which brings landscapes and [societies] ... closer together’ (Braudel, 1987).
