ABSTRACT
The Mediterranean proper has been the scenario for the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome, the Arab and Ottoman empires, and the birth of the religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Since the 1960s the era of mass travel has meant that millions of people from northern Europe can now visit and appreciate its distinctive landscape. In recent years many geography departments in northern Europe have used the Mediterranean for teaching and research. Mediterranean parts of other continents were settled from the seventeenth century onwards. The great antiquity of archaeological remains in the Mediterranean basin points to long and extensive ‘attack’ by human societies on a changing and emerging Mediterranean forest. The process of armouring is an important subsystem in the complex system which governs Mediterranean desertification. There are several important aquifers around the Mediterranean, and many regions are dependent upon them for their supplies of drinking water, and supplies for industry and irrigation.
