Near East
Geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the historical Fertile Crescent, and later the Levant region.
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Western Asia
Westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions.
Its typical definitions overlap substantially, but not entirely, with definitions of the terms Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean, and Near East (which is historically familiar but is widely deprecated today).
Far East
Eurocentric term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent.
The term first came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 15th century, particularly the British, denoting the Far East as the "farthest" of the three "Easts", beyond the Near East and the Middle East.
Levant
Approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia.
The term is also used for modern events, peoples, states or parts of states in the same region, namely Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey are sometimes considered Levant countries (compare with Near East, Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia).
Food and Agriculture Organization
Specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security.
Regional Office for the Near East, in Cairo, Egypt
Jordan
Country in Western Asia.
'Ain Ghazal, one such village located at a site in the east of present-day Amman, is one of the largest known prehistoric settlements in the Near East.
Cuneiform
Logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East.
Writing is first recorded in Uruk, at the end of the 4th millennium BC, and soon after in various parts of the Near-East.
Fertile Crescent
Crescent-shaped region in the Middle East, spanning modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Northern Egypt, together with the northern region of Kuwait, southeastern region of Turkey and the western portion of Iran.
The studies further suggest a diffusion of this diverse population away from the Fertile Crescent, with the early migrants moving away from the Near East—westward into Europe and North Africa, northward to Crimea, and northeastward to Mongolia.
Triple Entente
The Triple Entente (from French entente meaning "friendship, understanding, agreement") describes the informal understanding between the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
and helped to address British fears about the Baghdad Railway, which would help German expansion in the Near East.
Ancient Near East
The home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia , ancient Egypt, ancient Iran (Elam, Media, Parthia and Persia), Anatolia/Asia Minor and the Armenian Highlands (Turkey's Eastern Anatolia Region, Armenia, northwestern Iran, southern Georgia, and western Azerbaijan), the Levant (modern Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan), Cyprus and the Arabian Peninsula.
The ancient Near East is studied in the fields of Ancient Near East studies, Near Eastern archaeology and ancient history.
Greece
Country in Southeast Europe.
Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries, as Greece lies on the route via which farming spread from the Near East to Europe.