The Middle East. You can’t consume the news or study history without hearing about this multicultural and multi-ethnic region. Many of us could probably point to it on a map or name some of the related countries, but it’s important to remember just how vast and vibrant this area is!

Take a moment to pull up a map now–digital is fine! Place your finger on Egypt, home to the Pharaohs and the Great Pyramid. Trace your finger up the Nile River to the Mediterranean Sea. Tracing along the coast, you’ve reached the Levant, home to the Ancient Israelites and Phoenicians. Going southwest, you reach the Arabian Peninsula. If you follow the Red Sea away from the Levant, you reach Mecca, the most important city in Islamic culture. Tracing up the Persian Gulf, you will find Iraq, home to the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk and Hammurabi. From there, Iran, home to centuries of dynasties, is to the east. Finally, trace your finger towards Greece and find yourself in Turkey, which was the center of the Byzantine Empire from roughly 500 to 1450 AD/CE. 

What a trip! You’ve traced over 6,000 miles and 13,000 years of human civilization. 

So, why is this sprawling area called the “Middle East”? “Middle” compared to what? 

Europeans called the countries of East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, and more) the “Far East” or “Far Orient” for centuries to differentiate it from the “Near East,” which was the Ottoman Empire based in Turkey. Beginning in the mid-19th century, European powers began to see the area between Egypt and India as more politically important and designated it as the Middle East. 

There has been some criticism of the term as Eurocentric and a reminder of a colonizing past. Southwest Asia or Swasia have been offered as alternatives. MENA is also used in some contexts to include both the Middle East and North Africa. The Middle East terminology remains in popular use across Europe and the United States. 

Rebecca is a writer and editor based in Fairfax, Virginia. She has a passion for history education and holds an MA in History of Decorative Arts. Rebecca believes that hands-on history and interacting with objects helps learning come alive for children and adults.