Middle East Geography

A. Jerusalem: Population 750,000

Jerusalem is the holiest city in Judaism and has been the spiritual center of the Jewish people since c. 1000 BCE, when David the King of Israel first established it as the capital of the united kingdom of Israel, and his son Solomon commissioned the building of the First Temple in the city.

The Western/Wailing Wall

The name “Wailing Wall” stemmed from the Jewish practice of coming to the site to mourn and bemoan the destruction of the Temple. During the 1920s with the growing Arab-Jewish tensions over rights at the wall, the Arabs began referring to the wall as al-Buraq. This was based on the tradition that the wall was the place where Muhammad tethered his miraculous winged steed, Buraq.

Jerusalem is also considered a holy city in Christianity and contains a number of significant Christian sites. Islam regards Jerusalem as its third-holiest city. Despite having an area of only 0.9 square kilometer (0.35 square mile), the Old City is home to sites of key religious importance, among them the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The site is venerated by many Christians as Golgotha, (the Hill of Calvary), where the New Testament says that Jesus was crucified, and is said to also contain the place where Jesus was buried (the sepulchre). The church has been an important pilgrimage destination since at least the 4th century, as the purported site of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders on 15 July 10991. The Holy Sepulcher2. The Dome of the Rock3. Ramparts

Altar of the Crucifixion

Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock is an Islamic shrine and major landmark located on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It was completed in 691-692, making it the oldest existing Islamic building in the world. The site's significance stems from the religious beliefs regarding the rock, known as the Foundation Stone, at its heart. It was constructed over the site of the Second Jewish Temple which was destroyed during the Roman Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Under Jordanian rule of Jerusalem, Jews were forbidden from entering the Old City. Israel took control of the Dome of the Rock during its victory in the Six-Day War in 1967.

Al Aqsa Mosque:

Al-Aqsa Mosque is an Islamic holy place in the Old City of Jerusalem. The site that includes the mosque (along with the Dome of the Rock) is also referred to as al-Haram ash-Sharif or "Sacred Noble Sanctuary", a site also known as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. Widely considered as the third holiest site in Islam, Muslims believe that the prophet Muhammad was transported from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to al-Aqsa during the Night Journey. Islamic tradition holds that Muhammad led prayers towards this site. According to Islamic belief, the Prophet Jacob, son of Isaac, was the first to build the Mosque as a House of God.

Mt. Sinai

According to tradition, this is the mountain where God gave laws to the Israelites.

B. The Sinai PeninsulaAt the beginning of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Egyptian forces entered the former British Mandate of Palestine from Sinai to support Palestinian and other Arab forces against the newly declared State of Israel. For a period during the war, Israeli forces entered the north-eastern corner of Sinai. With the exception of the Palestinian Gaza Strip, which came under the administration of the All-Palestine Government.

The Dead SeaThe Shoreline is at 1,386 ft. below sea level. The lowest spot on the Earth’s surface

C. The Suez Canal

Opened in 1869, this 120 mile long waterway connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. In 1956 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser took control of the canal from Britain, intending to finance the dam project using revenue from the canal. This led up to the Suez Crisis, in which the UK, France and Israel invaded Egypt.

D. Beirut, Lebanon

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following World War I Beirut, along with the rest of Lebanon, was placed under the French Mandate. After Lebanon achieved independence in 1943, Beirut became its capital city. It remained an intellectual capital of the Arab world and quickly became a financial center for much of the Arab world and major tourist destination. This era of relative prosperity ended in 1975 when the Lebanese Civil War broke out throughout the country. During most of the war, Beirut was divided between a Muslim west part and the Christian east.

A particularly destructive period was the 1982 Israeli invasion, during which most of West Beirut was under siege by Israeli troops. began on 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon. The Government of Israel decided to launch the military operation after the assassination attempt against Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, by the Abu Nidal Organization, a mercenary organization opposed to the PLO.

Damascus, Syria

Damascus is the capital of Syria. Currently, the city has an estimated population of about 1,669,000.

2013 Syria in Ruins

Tel Aviv, Israel Population 400,000 (3.2 million metro) 40 miles W of Jerusalem

Amman, JordanPopulation 2 million 50 miles east of Jerusalem

5. The Golan HeightsThe Golan Heights is a plateau and mountainous region at the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and remains a highly contested land straddling the borders of Syria and Israel.

The Golan Heights has been under Israeli control since the Six Day War in 1967.

In 1981, Israel passed the Golan Heights Law, which extended Israeli law and administration throughout the Israeli-occupied territory, a move which was condemned by the United Nations Security Council.

The River Jordan

The Jordan River is a river in the Middle East flowing to the Dead Sea. It is one of the world's most sacred rivers. In Judaism, the river serves as the eastern border of the "Eretz Yisra'el", the Land of Israel. In Christian tradition, Jesus was baptized here by John the Baptist.

6. Gaza StripJust 25 miles long and 8 miles wide, it is home to more than 1.5 million Palestinians.

The shape of the territory was defined by the Armistice Line following the creation of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent war between the Israeli and Arab armies.

Egypt administered the Strip for the next 19 years, but Israel captured it during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and Gaza has been under Israeli control since then.

7. The West BankThe West Bank, is a Palestinian territory under military occupation by Israel since the end of the Six-Day War in 1967.

Israel began building a 420 mile barrier in and around the occupied West Bank in 2002.

Israel says the barrier is the only way to defend against a wave of suicide bombings by Palestinian militants which shook the country in the early years of the intifada, or uprising, which began in 2000.