While I have had a better understanding of Middle Eastern geography and landscape for several years now, I had to go looking for some example images to include here this afternoon. To start with, I looked at some parts of Turkey. One impressive piece of geography I quickly came across was the Pontic Mountain range, located in Northern Turkey. In one of the images I saw of them, if I did not know better I would have thought they were somewhere in Oregon:
Another place in Turkey I found was the beach city of Alanya on the southern coast. It clearly does not look like a place in Oregon, but it certainly is not a desert nor is it flat either:
Going south to Israel, this picture of the Aminadav Forest looks quiet and pretty, and possibly a nice place to take a walk judging from the path. The flowers in springtime must be beautiful there:
The Rainbow Cave located in Israel’s Galilee region, is an extraordinary part of nature, and it is what is called a “natural arch”. The stream it is near is called the Nahal Betzet.
In neighbouring Jordan, this stream and the surrounding woods, located near the city of Salt, look exactly like much of the forestland I remember in Oregon:
Now going over to Iran, the following image is of the Shirabad Waterfall in the north-eastern part of the country. It is just as beautiful as all the other examples I have listed here:
Finally, this picture shows Tehran and its surroundings completely covered in snow. It is only in the last couple of years I learnt that Tehran can receive a substantial amount of snowfall, and Iran itself has a large amount of ski resorts. This image is a spectacular view of the landscape:
The Middle East is a truly diverse place geographically, and as I noted above, some parts of it even look similar to areas of North America (yes, I did single out Oregon, but there are more places across the continent the region has resemblances to). It is not all flat and desert…not by a long shot, and it does disappoint me when some people assume it is (I have heard this same misconception be applied to all of Africa, too). Every region of the world has its natural beauty, and none of it should be dismissed so readily.
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