Middle East The Middle East is the cradle of civilization. The people who lived in the valley of the Tigris and Eufrates and in the Levant were the first to use the alphabet. The most visited countries in the region are probably Turkey with its palaces and mosques in Istanbul and its beaches on the Mediterranean and Agean coast and Israel with its good tourist infrastructure, the city of Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are easy to visit as well. They are compact countries with lots of sights on a small surface and a friednly population. The countries of the Persian Gulf are somewhat less visited. Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrein, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have all benefited from the oil boom. Their societiesare still pretty conservative though. Yemen is located at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula. The country is extremely beautiful, travel can be a bit tough, however. Iran has started to open up and is rapidly becoming one of the most interesting detsinations in the regions. Isfahan, Tabriz and Shiraz are all very old cities with beautiful old centres. Iraq is hard to get to and due to the political climate you should ask yourself twice if you really want to. It does have many interesting historical sights, however.
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