ABSTRACT
Lebanon differs strikingly both physically and culturally from the rest of the Middle East. Dominated by the rugged and well-watered range of Mount Lebanon, its green and rainfed western slopes face the blue Mediterranean, and its brown steppes and deserts face east toward Syria. It is small enough to be traversed by car in a few hours even on its long axis, yet it displays almost as much landscape diversity as does Turkey, seventy-six times its size. The four countries long customarily labeled as petrocarbonpoor-—Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon, and Turkey—have become some of the hottest new prospects for expanding the global supply of natural gas as claimants to parts of the Levant Basin and adjacent subsea regions. Cyprus has a typical Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers and mild, moist winters. Water supply and pollution are increasingly serious problems, not only for agriculture, but also crucially for the vital tourist economy and for households.
