Mashriq

geographical region, Middle East

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Mashriq, geographic region extending from the western border of Egypt to the eastern border of Iraq. It includes the modern states of Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq and covers an area of approximately 2.7 million square miles (7 million square km).

The Mashriq comprises two major physical regions. One consists of barren desert areas that are dominated by the great plateau of the Arabian Peninsula and that support the nomadic Bedouin people. Average summer temperatures in this region exceed 120 °F (48.9 °C). The other region consists of the rich and fertile territory that is generally defined by the Fertile Crescent. Long considered to have been the “cradle of civilization,” the Fertile Crescent extends in an arc from the Nile River valley through Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria and into Iraq. At either tip of the crescent is a river valley—that of the Tigris and Euphrates in the east and that of the Nile in the west—that is annually flooded and replenished with alluvium.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by John M. Cunningham.