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Arabian Peninsula
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The Arabian Peninsula (in Arabic: شبه الجزيرة العربية, or جزيرة العرب) is a peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia consisting mainly of desert. The area is an important part of the Middle East and plays a critically important geopolitical role because of its vast reserves of oil and natural gas. The coasts of the peninsula land, on the west, the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba; on the southeast, the Arabian Sea (part of the Indian Ocean); and on the northeast, the Gulf of Oman, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Persian Gulf. Its northern limit is defined by the Zagros collision zone, a mountainous uplift where a continental collision between the Arabian Plate and Asia is occurring. Geographically, it merges with the Syrian Desert with no clear line of demarcation. Geographically, the Arabian Peninsula includes parts of Iraq and Jordan.
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The Arabian Peninsula is a large land bridge suspended between Africa and Asia. It is among the largest peninsulas on earth, and is surrounded by water on all four sides. To the north lies the Mediterranean Sea and to the west lies the Red Sea. To the east is the Persian (or Arabian) Gulf, and to the south is the Arabian Sea, which is ... part of the Indian Ocean.
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The better-watered, higher portions of the extreme south-west portion of the Arabian Peninsula supported three early kingdoms. The first, the Minaean, was centered in the interior of what is now Yemen, but probably embraced most of southern Arabia. Although dating is difficult, it is generally believed that the Minaean Kingdom existed from 1200 to 650 BC The second kingdom, the Sabaean (see Sheba), was founded around 930 BC and lasted until around 115 BC; it probably supplanted the Minaean Kingdom and occupied substantially the same territory. The Sabaean capital and chief city, Ma’rib, probably flourished as did no other city of ancient Arabia, partly because of its controlling position on the caravan routes linking the seaports of the Mediterranean with the frankincense-growing region of the Hadhramaut and partly because a large nearby dam provided water for irrigation. The Sabaean Kingdom was widely referred to as Saba, and it has been suggested that the Queen of Sheba mentioned in the Bible and the Quran, who visited King Solomon of Israel in Jerusalem in the 10th century BC, was Sabaean. The Himyarites followed the Sabaeans as the leaders in southern Arabia; the Himyarite Kingdom lasted from around 115 BC to around AD 525.
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Rain falling on the arid soil of the Arabian Peninsula brings a brush of green to the landscape. It ... provides the key ingredient in initiating an outbreak of desert locusts. Water signals to locust eggs buried in the sand that it is time to hatch, and the new vegetation provides a source of food for the emerging locusts. As a result, one of the easiest ways to track emerging locust populations is to look for new vegetation in the desert. This satellite image does just that: it is a vegetation index image that reveals the state of vegetation on the Arabian Peninsula. Areas in which plants are more abundant or growing more quickly than average are green, while regions of poorer-than-average plant growth are brown.
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The Arabian Peninsula sub-region that is covered by the Arabian Peninsula sub-regional grouping of AARINENA is constituted by 6 countries. These countries roughly cover 2.5 million sq. km. and have a totla population of 29 million. Average per capita GNP for the region is estimated at US$ 5400.
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Until comparatively recent times knowledge of the Arabian Peninsula was limited to that provided by ancient Greek and Roman writers and by early Arab geographers; much of this material was unreliable. In the 20th century... archaeological exploration has added considerably to the knowledge of the area.
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Arabian Peninsula