Oddly enough, the same titanic forces that created the Arabian Desert at the head of this great rift system also nurtured the rise of Western civilizations and three of the world's dominant religions. North of the Red Sea, the Suez Canal connects directly to the Mediterranean Sea, which is shrinking as a result of the same […]

A HUMAN PERSPECTIVE Two million people pour into the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca for a few weeks each year. They come from all over the world. In the past, the trip to Mecca involved a difficult journey across oceans and over miles of desert. Today, pilgrims arrive on airplanes. These people are fulfilling the […]

THE YUCATAN PENINSULA is made up of three states: Campeche, Quintana Roo, and Yucatan, which also include major resort areas such as Cancun, Cozumel, and Playa del Carmen. The Yucatan Peninsula extends northward from Central America and is bordered on the east by the CARIBBEAN SEA and on the north and west of the peninsula by the Gulf of Mexico. The Yucatan […]

THE SINAI PENINSULA (in Arabic, the Shibh Jazirat Sina) is the eastern extension of EGYPT onto the continent of Asia (Egypt being mainly in Africa), bordering on the country of ISRAEL. The western boundary of the peninsula is formed by the Gulf of Suez and the Suez Canal, while it is separated from SAUDI ARABIA and JORDAN to the east by […]

A PENINSULA IS AN area of land that projects out into a body of water that surrounds it on three sides. Some peninsulas, like Baja California, are joined to the mainland only by a narrow neck of land called an isthmus. Others, such as INDIA, are connected to the mainland by a wide area of […]

THE KOLA PENINSULA IS one of RUSSIA's regions of great contrast: at once an area of stark natural beauty and of severe ecological danger; rich in minerals, but one of Russia's poorest regions; and an area that is both closely linked to the concerns of Western Europe and strictly isolated from the outside world. The […]

RUSSIA'S FAR EAST IS MARKED by the large mountainous peninsula known as Kamchatka. Kamchatka peaks form one of the most volcanically active regions on earth, counting over thirty active cones, and at least a hundred more that are now inactive. Few people live in this remote corner of Asiatic Russia, where ties to central government, […]

THE 5,940-square-mi (15,384 square km) Delmarva Peninsula is located in the mid-Atlantic area of the UNITED STATES and borders the Chesapeake Bay, the Delaware Bay and the ATLANTIC OCEAN. The historic importance of the area is that it formed an important political and social demarcation between the North and the South of the United States: […]