STUDY GUIDE – NORTH AFRICA, SOUTHWEST ASIA, & CENTRAL ASIA
1) What does Mesopotamia mean?
2) How much of the region is covered by desert?
3) Which sea is drying up because the rivers that
feed/flow into it are being diverted for agriculture?
4) Which countries do the Tigris and Euphrates river
help irrigate?
5) What percentage of people live on 3% of Egypt’s
land?
6) How much of the world’s oil reserves are in North
Africa, Southwest Asia, and Central Asia?
7) What is an oasis?
8) What are countries in the region doing to decrease
their reliance on oil exports?
9) Where have they found new oil reserves in this
region?
10) Which countries do the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
flow through?
11) What is a wadi?
12) Which rivers gave birth to one of the world’s earliest
civilizations?
13) Which tectonic plates come together in this region?
14) What are examples of cereals?
15) What is causing the increase in water levels in the
North Aral Sea?
16) Where can you find the Aswan High Dam?
17) What is erg?
18) What country was a gateway for Arabs migrating to
North Africa?
19) When was the modern state of Israel founded?
20) Where do more than 90% of Egypt’s people live?
21) Who are the Berbers?
22) What are the dominant Islamic sects on the Arabian
Peninsula?
23) What was the result of the discovery of oil on the
region?
24) What are geometric boundaries?
25) What did the Arabs bring with them when they
migrated into North Africa?
26) Where do most people live in the Eastern
Mediterranean subregion?
27) What are some of the results of the Arab-Israeli
conflict over the territory of Palestine?
28) Where did Mesopotamia develop?
29) What type of government does Saudi Arabia have?
30) What is the modern location of the old Ottoman
Empire?
31) What is an effect of the Suez Canal on Egypt?
32) What is Egypt’s primate city?
33) Which sect of Islam is practiced in Oman?
34) Which sect of Islam is practiced by a majority of
Arabs in North Africa?
35) Which three major world religions come from this
region?
36) What do all three major world religion in this region
share in common?
37) What is an enclave?
38) What is an exclave?
39) When did many Central Asian countries declared
their independence?
40) Who took control of Afghanistan after the Soviet
invasion?
41) What are shiekdoms?
42) What is Shariah law?
43) DBQ
44) Where have overfishing and pollution decreased fish
catches in the region?
45) What percentage of the world’s oil reserves does the
region have?
46) What are the impacts of the Aswan High Dam?
47) What makes North Africa and Southwest Asia
popular tourist destinations?
48) What is desalination?
49) DBQ
50) DBQ
51) What are petrochemicals?
52) What was discovered in the Caspian Sea in the
1990s?
53) What is the Suez Canal?
54) What was a result of dumping oil in the Persian Gulf
by Iraqi troops?
55) What is the name of the ancient travel route in
Central Asia?
56) What resource do the countries in the region lack?
57) Which countries are landlocked in the region?
58) Where does the majority of fish in Israel come from?
59) What are people doing to reduce the amount of water
diverted from the Dead Sea?
60) Why do grain producing countries in the region still
have to import grain?
61) What is a result of the region’s heavy dependence on
the oil industry?
62) Why do countries use pipelines to transport oil?
63) Why does OPEC have influence on world affairs?
64) What is an aquifer?