Egypt Turkey Lebanon Syria Jordan 100 100 100 100 100 200 200 200 200 200 300 300 300 300 300 400 400 400 400 400 500 500 500 500 500

This has been considered Egypt’s lifeline for thousands of years.

Nile River

Most of Egypt’s people live here.

Within 20 miles of the Nile River

This waterway allows ships to travel between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, without going all the way around Africa.

Suez Canal

This group of Muslims invaded Egypt in 641, taking over the country and still dominating it today.

Arabs from Southwest Asia

This man-made construction has allowed Egypt to control the Nile’s flooding and grow 2 or 3 crops a year, but at the cost of depriving farmers of silt and forcing them to use costly and dangerous chemical fertilizers

Aswan High Dam

This city is the only one in the world to rest on two continents.

Istanbul

This ethnic minority without a country makes up 20% of Turkey’s population.

The Kurds

This city, now known as Istanbul, was the capital of the Byzantine Empire for nearly 1,000 years.

Constantinople

This body of water marks the dividing line between Europe and Asia in Turkey.

Turkish Straits

This conflict caused the break-up of the Ottoman Empire.

World War I

This is why French is one of the official languages of Lebanon.

France occupied Lebanon until its independence in the 1940s.

This industry employs 60% of Lebanon’s people.

Service Industries

This nearly led to the destruction of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, and is the reason why the city is still being rebuilt today.

Lebanon’s Civil War, 1975 - 1991

European tourists once called Beirut this name.

“Paris of the East”

Lebanon was especially famous for this, even in the Bible.

Cedar Trees

Since the 1960s, Syria’s political situation can be described in this way.

Dominated by the Ba’ath political party.

This city is the longest continuously inhabited city in the world.

Damascus

Syria’s main export is this product.

Oil.

Syria’s main economic activity is this.

Agriculture.

Syria has been a center of this economic activity for centuries.

Trade.

Along with lacking energy resources, Jordan also lacks this important resource.

Water

Jordan’s 5.5 million population includes over 1 million of this group.

Palestinian Refugees

Along with Great Britain, Jordan has this type of government.

Constitutional Monarchy

The River Jordan marks the boundary between Jordan and this country.

Israel

A constitutional monarchy operates like this.

The country is governed by elected officials, but the king or queen is technically the head of state.