ABSTRACT
The Ancient Near East (to the extent considered in this book) covers a relatively confined area of roughly 2,000,000 km2. It is therefore slightly smaller than Western Europe. Despite its limited size, this region contains a variety of areas characterised by different types of land, rainfall levels, climates, vegetation, and habitability levels (Figure 2.1). Mountain ranges can reach 3,500 m and 4,000 m in the Taurus, Pontic, and Zagros Mountains, 5,000 m in Armenia (Mount Ararat), while the land depression of the Dead Sea (–395 m below sea level) is the deepest in the world. The landscape of the Near East is thus composed of a mixture of mountain ranges, alluvial plains, and desert plateaus. The Mediterranean climate of the western coasts swiftly changes into the arid climate of the Syro-Arabian desert or, elsewhere, into a cold mountain climate. Rivers, such as the Tigris and Euphrates, cross regions otherwise condemned to total aridity. Similarly, densely populated areas are in close contact with sparsely populated ones.
