It is also where the 3 Abrahamic faiths originated: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Today, the region is almost 93% Muslim and is dominated by Islamic politics, although one country (Israel) is mostly Jewish. Two countries are Christian, namely Armenia and Georgia. Culturally, the region is Arab, Persian, Azerbaijani, Turkish, and Hebrew. Many countries in the Middle East are desert and thus many nomadic groups exist today.
On the other hand, modern metropolises also exist on the shifting sands: Abu Dhabi, Amman, Riyadh, Tel Aviv, Doha and Muscat. The climate is mostly of a desert climate however some of the coastal regions have a more temperate climate. On the other hand, the Anatolian plateau (Turkey, Armenia) is very mountainous and thus has a more temperate climate while the coasts have a distinct Mediterranean climate.
The Persian Plateau (Iran, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Turkmenistan) has a diverse terrain, it is mainly mountainous with portions of desert, steppe and tropical forest on the coast of the Caspian Sea. The tropical forest, unique in West Asia, straddles the southern and southwestern shores of the Caspian Sea, and is shared between Iran and Azerbaijan. West Asian cuisine is immensely rich and diverse. The literature is also immensely rich with Arabic, Jewish, Persian, and Turkish dominating. Asia is the biggest continent in the world.
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