The Middle East and North Africa: Many Things In Common
The Middle East and North Africa are two regions that are often grouped together because they have many things in common. Islam is the dominant religion in the area and almost everyone speaks Arabic. Most of the Middle East and North Africa is composed of desert land where very little rain falls.
Middle East and North Africa Resources
Download this lesson as Microsoft Word file or as an Adobe Acrobat file.
Listen as Mr. Dowling reads this lesson.
Mr. Donn has an excellent website that includes a section on the Middle East and North Africa.

More than one million Muslim travel to Mecca, Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj (pilgrimage) to the Kaaba. The kaaba is the most sacred site of Islam.
Where is the Middle East?
The lands around the southern and eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea are often called the Middle East or the Near East. The term came from the first geographers in ancient Greece, for whom the region was both near and east. China and Japan are part of the Far East.
The west originally referred to Western Europe, but later included the American continents once they were discovered. Australia and New Zealand are often considered western nations. This is because most people in those nations have more in common with people in Western Europe and America than they do with China or Japan.