HUMAN GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE EAST

3 WORLD RELIGIONSJUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, & ISLAM

Religious Holy Places: Jerusalem Jewish Presence:

Temples of Solomon (Temple Mount) 1st – King Solomon 2nd – Built at the same location Western Wall (Wailing Wall)

Only remaining portion of the 2nd Temple Temple was destroyed by the Romans

in 70 A.D.

3 WORLD RELIGIONSJUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, & ISLAM

Religious Holy Places: Jerusalem Christian Heritage Mount of Olives

Last Suffering Crucifixion

Church of the Holy Sepulcher Burial Place

Crusades Wars to regain control of the Holy Land

3 WORLD RELIGIONSJUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, & ISLAM

Religious Holy Places: Jerusalem Islamic Sacred Sites

Dome of the Rock Muslims: Where Mohammad rose into Heaven Jews: Where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son

Isaac

CULTURAL HISTORY

Early Civilizations Mesopotamia (Land Between Two Rivers)

Sumer - First civilization to practice intensive, year-round agriculture

Babylonia - Hammurabi's Code, first written Code of Laws

Assyria - First form of formal writing used Chaldea - The sun dial, the 7 day week and the science

of astronomy

CULTURAL HISTORY

Outside of Mesopotamia Hittites

Turkey Introduced the use of iron weapons First to create an alliance with another empire

(Egypt) Persia

Iran Innovation in government organization

System of collecting taxes Splitting the huge empire into separate states called satrapies

RELIGIOUS & LAND STRUGGLES

Dividing the Moon Islam splits after the death of Mohammad

Sunni – 83% of all Muslims Arabian Peninsula & Turkey Allowed up to 4 wife's Succession:

Shi’it (Shia) – 17% of all Muslims Mostly in Iran Allowed only 1 wife Succession:

FIVE PILLARS OF ISLAM

Shahada

Salaah

Sawm

Zahaat

Haji

HISTORY OF UNREST

World War I & Treaty of Versailles Divided the Ottoman Empire

British – Southern section (Jordan & Palestine) French – Northern section (Syria & Lebanon)

Creating the State of Israel Zionism

Create a Jewish state in Palestine Before WWI 12% were Jewish Britain allowed uncheck immigration of Jews 1939 Britain halted immigration

HISTORY OF UNREST

Creating the State of Israel WWII

Thousand of Holocaust survivors wanted to settle in Palestine.

World opinion: Create of Jewish nation-state. Israel was created in 1948 by the United

Nations. Surrounding Arabs nations invaded Israel.

Hostilities continue today PLO – Palestine Liberation Organization

(regain occupied land for the Palestinian Arabs)