The Middle East is a geographical and cultural area comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. The Middle East is a subregion of Africa-Eurasia, or more specifically Asia, and sometimes Africa.
See separate article, History of the Middle East
Starting in the middle of the 20th century, the Middle East has been at the centre of world affairs, and is probably the modern world's most strategically, economically, politically and culturally sensitive area. It possesses huge stocks of crude oil, is the birthplace and spiritual centre of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is the location of the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict, and is the most important source of international terrorism.
The countries of the Maghreb (Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia) are frequently linked to the Middle East due to their strong historical and cultural associations, as is Sudan. The African countries Mauritania and Somalia also have links to the region. Turkey and Cyprus, although geographically close to the Middle East, consider themselves to be part of Europe. To the east, Afghanistan is sometimes linked to the Middle East.
With the disappearance of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, Near East largely fell out of common use, while Middle East came to be applied to the re-emerging countries of the Arab world. (It should be noted, however, that several academic disciplines, such as archaeology and ancient history, retain the use of Near East as a common designation, describing an area identical to that described by the more widely-used Middle East).
