70 Fun Facts About Middle East

Which country is the largest in the Middle East by area?

It was founded in 1932 by King Abdulaziz, who united the Hejaz, Najd and parts of eastern and southern Arabia.

Which three countries are the most populous in the Middle East?

Egypt alone has more than 107 million people, the most of any Arab country.

Which American naval strategist popularised the term 'Middle East' in 1902?

He used it to designate the area between Arabia and India; the British had used 'Near East' for the Ottoman lands.

How many of the 18 countries usually counted as the Middle East are part of the Arab world?

The exceptions are Turkey, Iran, Israel and Cyprus, plus one more depending on the list used.

Which three religions all originated in the Middle East and have their holiest sites there?

Jerusalem is sacred to all three, and its Old City has been a World Heritage Site since 1981.

Which region spanning the Levant and Mesopotamia is nicknamed 'the cradle of civilization'?

It saw the first settled farming as well as writing, the wheel and irrigation.

Which archaeologist popularised the term 'Fertile Crescent' in a 1914 textbook?

He founded the Oriental Institute in Chicago and was the first American to earn a PhD in Egyptology.

The Tigris and Euphrates both rise in which mountain range?

They flow through modern Turkey, Syria and Iraq before joining near the Persian Gulf.

The Dead Sea's shores are the lowest land on Earth, at roughly how far below sea level?

It has been shrinking since the 1960s as the Jordan River's water is diverted upstream.

Roughly what is the salinity of the Dead Sea?

That is nearly ten times the ocean, and dense enough that swimming turns into floating.

Which three territories border the Dead Sea?

Jordan lies to the east and Israel to the southwest.

The Suez Canal opened in 1869 under the control of which European country?

Ferdinand de Lesseps's company built it; Nasser nationalised it in 1956 and triggered the Suez Crisis.

On what date did Egyptian President Nasser nationalise the Suez Canal?

Britain, France and Israel invaded within months, then withdrew under American and Soviet pressure.

Which container ship blocked the Suez Canal for six days in March 2021?

Around 12 percent of world trade normally passes through the canal, so the queue quickly ran to hundreds of ships.

The Suez Canal has how many locks?

It is a sea-level waterway, so seawater flows freely along its 193 km.

Which narrow waterway connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman?

Eight countries have Gulf coastlines, and the region is the world's largest single source of petroleum.

How many nations have coastlines on the Persian Gulf?

Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

What does 'Rub' al Khali', the name of the great desert of southern Arabia, mean?

It covers about 650,000 square kilometres across Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE and Yemen.

OPEC was founded in 1960 in which city?

Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela were the founders; the headquarters moved to Vienna in 1965.

Which non-Middle Eastern country was one of OPEC's five founding members?

The organisation moved its base to Vienna after Switzerland declined to extend diplomatic privileges.

The Arab League was formed in 1945 in which city, which is still its headquarters?

Seven states signed up at first: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria and North Yemen.

The Gulf Cooperation Council, founded in 1981, has how many member states?

Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with headquarters in Riyadh.

The secret 1916 Anglo-French deal carving up the Ottoman Middle East is named after whom?

The two men initialled the memorandum in January 1916; it defined spheres of influence rather than borders.

Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation in December 2010 sparked the Arab Spring in which country?

Within weeks Ben Ali had fled, and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak resigned in February 2011.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned in February 2011 after how many days of mass protests?

He had ruled since Anwar Sadat's assassination in 1981.

Which city is considered the holiest in Islam and the birthplace of Muhammad?

Non-Muslims are barred from entering, and Hajj pilgrims more than triple its population each year.

The Kaaba, which pilgrims circle during the Hajj, stands inside which mosque?

Muslims believe the Kaaba was built by Abraham and Ishmael.

How many times do Hajj pilgrims walk around the Kaaba during the tawaf?

They circle it counter-clockwise, dressed in the plain white ihram.

Jerusalem's Old City has been divided since the 19th century into how many quarters?

They are the Armenian, Christian, Jewish and Muslim quarters.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in which 1967 conflict?

It also took the West Bank, Gaza, the Sinai and the Golan Heights in the same week.

On what date did Israel declare independence?

The British Mandate ended the same day, and neighbouring Arab states invaded.

What is the name of Israel's parliament?

It is elected by proportional representation under Israel's Basic Laws.

Petra, the rock-cut city in Jordan, was built by which nomadic Arab people?

Lost to the West until Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt found it in 1812, it is now a New 7 Wonder.

Petra is nicknamed the 'Rose City' because of what?

Its Treasury doubled as the temple of the Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Which Swiss traveller 'rediscovered' Petra for the Western world in 1812?

He travelled disguised as a Muslim scholar and also reached Abu Simbel.

The Burj Khalifa is named after Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, the former president of which country?

Sheikh Khalifa's Abu Dhabi bailed out Dubai during the 2009 debt crisis, and the tower was renamed at its opening.

How tall is the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest structure?

That is just over half a mile; it has been the tallest building since topping out in 2009.

The United Arab Emirates is a federation of how many emirates?

Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ajman, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Umm Al Quwain and Fujairah.

Before independence in 1971, the UAE emirates were collectively what British protectorate?

The name came from 19th-century truces with Britain against piracy.

Iran was known internationally by what name until 1935?

Reza Shah asked foreign delegates at a Nowruz gathering to switch to the local name.

Who became Iran's first supreme leader after the 1979 revolution overthrew the monarchy?

He had spent 14 years in exile, the last months of it outside Paris.

Cyrus the Great founded which dynasty's realm, the largest Iranian state in history?

Darius the Great later began the ceremonial capital of Persepolis.

In which year was oil discovered in the Al-Ahsa region on the Arabian Gulf coast?

The kingdom went on to become the world's leading oil exporter.

Which Gulf state hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the first in an Arab country?

It is also home to the Al Jazeera network and the world's third-largest natural gas reserves.

Which capital city is home to more than 80 percent of its country's population?

The country's other towns are tiny by comparison; its wealth rests on natural gas.

Egypt spans two continents; which part of it lies in Asia?

The Suez Canal marks the boundary between the African and Asian portions.

Which of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is the only one still standing?

It is also the oldest of the seven.

The White Nile and Blue Nile meet at which capital city?

The Blue Nile, from Lake Tana in Ethiopia, supplies more than twice the water of the longer White Nile.

Which two languages are official in Iraq?

Assyrian, Turkmen and Mandaic are recognised regionally.

In which year did Saddam Hussein become president of Iraq?

He held power until the US-led invasion of 2003.

Which two Syrian cities are among the oldest continuously inhabited in the world?

Bashar al-Assad's rule ended in December 2024 after 13 years of civil war.

What tree appears in green on the flag of Lebanon?

It sits on the white band between two red stripes; the country gained independence from France in 1943.

Which ancient maritime civilisation was based in what is now Lebanon?

Its traders spread an alphabet around the Mediterranean between roughly 3200 and 539 BC.

Which Arab state describes itself as the oldest independent state in the Arab world?

Sultan Qaboos ruled it from 1970 until his death in 2020, when Haitham bin Tariq succeeded him.

Which sultan ruled Oman from 1970 until his death in 2020?

He was the Arab world's longest-serving ruler when he died.

North and South Yemen united to form the Republic of Yemen in which year?

For centuries the country exported coffee through the port of Mocha, which gave the drink one of its names.

Yemen's port of Mocha lent its name to what?

The country was a primary coffee producer for centuries; the Socotra archipelago is also Yemeni.

Iraq invaded and annexed which neighbour in August 1990, triggering the Gulf War?

Retreating Iraqi troops set the oil wells on fire in February 1991.

Which country's dinar was the world's most valuable currency unit in 2026?

In 2026 one Kuwaiti dinar was worth about 3.25 US dollars, more than any other currency unit.

Bahrain is linked to the Arabian mainland by a 25 km road causeway named after which Saudi ruler?

The island state was the ancient Dilmun civilisation and was famed for pearl fisheries into the 19th century.

Bahrain was famous from antiquity until the 19th century for what industry?

Cultured Japanese pearls and oil ended the trade in the 1930s.

Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in which year?

Egypt had signed the first Arab-Israeli peace treaty 15 years earlier.

Turkey's largest city is Istanbul, but which city is its capital?

The Republic was proclaimed in 1923 under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Over 16 centuries, Constantinople served as the capital of how many empires?

Roman, Byzantine, Latin and Ottoman; the Ottomans held it from 1453 to 1922.

Istanbul straddles which strait, one of the busiest waterways in the world?

About two-thirds of the city's 15 million people live on the European side.

In 2022 the Turkish government asked the UN to use which name for the country in English?

The UN agreed to the change that May.

Göbekli Tepe, in southeastern Turkey, is roughly how old?

That makes its carved stone pillars older than Stonehenge and the pyramids by several millennia.

Arabic is written in which direction?

Its script is an abjad of 28 letters and it is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.

Which US president's 1957 policy marked Washington's first official use of the term 'Middle East'?

Secretary of State John Foster Dulles defined the region as everything between and including Libya in the west and Pakistan in the east.

Which British diplomat wrote the 1902 Times series 'The Middle Eastern Question'?

His 20-article series followed the reprinting of Alfred Thayer Mahan's essay that had first popularised the phrase.