North Africa and Southwest Asia (Geography)

What is the Ka’aba?

The holiest site in the Islamic faith.

What is the Persian Gulf?

The body of water between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

What is the Red Sea?

The sea between Saudi Arabia and countries in Africa.

What is the Indian Ocean?

The sea to the right of Africa.

What is Arabic?

It is a language and ethnicity.

What is a cultural hearth?

The source of where a culture started.

What are the Abrahamic religions?

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

What is a liturgical language?

The language spoken during liturgy or worship.

What is a mosque?

A place of worship for the Islamic faith.

What is a minaret?

A tall, slender tower, used to call people to prayer.

How is calligraphy and floral motifs used in Islam?

They are used to decorate the interior of mosques and tell stories of Islam.

What is Islam?

It’s a verb meaning “To submit to God.”

What is a Muslim?

Someone who follows Islam. Who “submits to God.”

What is the Koran/Qur’an?

The main religious text of the Islamic faith.

Who was Mohammed?

The religious founder of the Islamic faith.

What is Mecca?

It is the birthplace and cultural hearth of the Islamic faith.

What is Medina?

It is where Mohammad went to return to Medina to later return to Mecca with his followers.

What is Jerusalem?

It is a sacred site of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim peoples and a hearth for Jewish and Christian peoples.

What’s the most contested sacred space in Jerusalem?

It is the Temple Mount.

What is a schism?

It is difference in belief of doctrine.

Who are the Shia Muslims?

They are the followers of Ali.

Who are the Sunni Muslims?

The followers of Caliphs, who are political and religious successors to Mohammad.

Who are Caliphs?

Religious successors to Mohammad.

What is the Hajj?

It is a religious pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. A sacred duty to Muslims.

What is pilgrimage?

A journey to visit sacred sites of a religion.

What is Haji/Haja?

An honorific you gain after going on a Hajj.

What is a hijab?

It is a covering of the head.

What is a burka?

A covering of the complete person.

What is a proxy war?

It is a war fought with funding from a different country.

What is a desert?

It is a dry arid biome.

What are the Hyrcanian Forests?

They are woodslands along the southern Caspian Sea in Iran and Azerbaijan.

Where are the Coral Reefs?

They are in the Red Sea.

What is an exotic river?

It is a river that originates in a water surplus zone and flows into a water deficit region.

What is population density?

It is how many people live in a square mile.

What is physiographic density?

The number of people per unit of arable land; indication of how much the land can sustain.

How is water used as a political weapon?

It’s used as a resource because some places in the region are quite arid.

What is a dam?

A barrier built by humans on a river, to change the flow of a river.

What is a reservoir?

It is a human made lake behind a dam.

What is the Aswan High Dam?

It’s an Egyptian lake that created Lake Nasser.

What are the benefits of dams?

They help regulate the flow of water and prevent flooding.

What are the consequences of dams?

They create stagnant water and more evaporation starts from the stagnancy.

What is silt?

They are small particles of sand/soil carried by running water; the river slows down & sediment is deposited.

What is the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam?

It is a dam built by Ethiopia that generates electricity for the country and could also be used to export it to other countries.