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Bordering the Mediterranean Sea is a narrow coastal plain. To its east are a series of north-south hills and mountains, highest in the north. Beyond this the land falls--deeply in the south to a Rift Valley that includes two salt lakes--less so in Lebanon where there is an intermontane plateau. Further east the land again rises in the south. Beyond these parallel features are two large zones. In Israel's far south is the Negev Desert; and in Jordan's east is the Syrian Desert which slopes down toward the interior.
The Yam Ha Melaḥ/ al-Bahr al-Mayyit (or Dead Sea), the largest of the salt lakes, and the Wadi Rum, a desert valley, are both tourist attractions.
This is one of two areas where a majority speak Arabic dialects in the Syro-Lebano-Palestinian group, and most understand modern standard Arabic as well.
Seven out of ten people are Moslims--more than six of ten Sunni, most of the rest Shi'ites. Almost three in ten of the people are Jewish, almost all of them in Israel. The remainder are Christian, predominantly those at least nominally reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church.
See the Table of Israel, Lebanese, Jordanian and Palestinian cities.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites honoring current cultures are: the Baha'ī Holy Places in Haifa and the Western Galilee;
By 4,000 years ago Proto-Semitic had evolved from Afro-Asiastic and its speakers had passed through the area and settled in Arabia. Their descendents who moved back north spoke various languages. Later languages include the Phoenician-Samaritan-Classical Hebrew dialect continuum, as well as Moabite and Aramaic, all as first languages, and Akkaidan
Religion had three phases: pre-Christian, Christian and Moslem. Pre-Christian religion during historical times had several well known local religions, and some non-local imports such as Hathor at Byblos. The best known local religion is Judaism, which evolved gradually from polytheist precursors to monotheism, and absorbed stories, laws, quotes and beliefs from other religions and texts. The gods, El, Baal, Yam and Mot, of ancient Judaism's chief rival, are no longer worshipped. The religion of the Kingdom of Israel when that was distinct from Judah was all but exterminated by the Christian Greeks. The last local religion, that of the Essenes, was an offshoot of Judaism; some of their scripts found their way into Christianity.
In the second phase a Jewish or Essene prophet was eventually regarded as an incarnation of the new religionists' god. The religion, after many transformations outside the region, and after being adopted as the only allowed religion within the Roman Empire, imposed itself on the region, exterminating paganism
Islam swept the region in its initial military expansion, converting by the full range of means from gentle to cruel, although not eliminating the Christians. Jews, dispersed throughout the former Roman and Parthian empires, began migrating back to Israel in the last century, especially when the nation won independence from Britain and survived the subsequent conquest attempt by neighboring states.
UNESCO World Heritage sites honoring the cultural past are: Biblical Tels--Megiddo, Hazor, Be'er Sheva';
Masada and the plains below, Yisra'el
north
east
southeast, from southeasternmost Jordan
southeast, from all but southeasternmost Jordan
south
southwest
west
1. Here, ישראל (Yisra'el or Israel) includes all of Yerusalayim/ al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the entire West Bank. The United Nations recognizes the State of Palestine, centered in al-Quds and the West Bank, and including the Gazzah (Ghazzah or Gaza) Strip. The Gaza Strip is in fact independent of the Palestinian government that is centered outside of the strip. I am ignorant of whether the Gaza government calls itself the State of Palestine as does the West Bank government, so I just called it the Gaza Strip for now. The West Bank area is not a de facto state based on 2013 conditions. While the Palestinian government has civil and police control over scattered areas, and civil-only control over other areas, ישראל (Yisra'el or Israel) has total control or police-only control over the rest. The West Bank is still de facto occupied notwitstanding the scattered partial or whole exceptions to Israeli control.
2. More than one in twenty speak a dialect of Arabic spoken in eastern Egypt.
3. or Ivrit in modern Hebrew.
4. These are sites in or near the cities of Hefa (Haifa), 'Akko (Acre) and in a third rural area.
5. The city if formally Tel Aviv-Yafo.
6. The western dialect is often called Assyrian.
7. Including those aetheist communists who are of Christian ancestry.
8. Paganism became a Christian term for the non-Judeo-Christian religions of the Roman Empire. It means religions of the country people, although many urban people also followed these religions.
9. Megiddo or Armageddon is a ruin; the ruin of Hazor is near but distinct from the modern city of Haẕor ha-Gelilit; and the tel of Be'er Sheva' (Be'ér Sheva', Beer Sheba, Beersheba) is near but distinct from the the modern city of the same name.
10. The sites are Haluza (or Khalasa), Mamshit (or Kurbub), Avdat (or Avedat) and Shivta (or Subeita).
11. Also called Meẕada.
12. The modern city is 'Acco.
13. The modern city is Ba'labakk.
14. The modern city is Jubayl.
15. The modern city is Sūr.
16. Also called Batrā.
17. The first word is also spelled Quasr or Qasr; the second word is also spelled Amrah.
18. Also called Um ar Rasas or Um er Risas.