What's the difference between West Asia and the Middle East?

Middle East: also known as the Middle East, refers to the eastern and southern Mediterranean, from the eastern Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf; West Asia: West Asia, from Iran to Turkey, is a hub connecting Asia, Europe and Africa, and connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean.

The Middle East refers to some areas from the eastern and southern Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf coast, including most parts of West Asia except Afghanistan, and the Transcaucasian region bordering Egypt and Russia in Africa. About 23 countries and regions, 65.438+0.5 million square kilometers, 490 million people.

Climate types mainly include tropical desert climate (including subtropical desert climate), Mediterranean climate and temperate continental climate, among which tropical desert climate is the most widely distributed. Terrain is dominated by plateau and plain. The main rivers are Euphrates and Nile. Geographically, the Middle East connects Asia, Europe and Africa.

Connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean, it has been a transportation hub between East and West since ancient times. As a land of "two oceans, three continents and five seas", its strategic position is extremely important. In order to compete for scarce fresh water resources and valuable oil resources, at the same time, due to religious and cultural differences, the situation has been turbulent all the year round since World War II.

Traditional culture:

The Middle East, represented by Arab cuisine, has spread to other countries, so from the perspective of the whole Middle East, the tastes of dishes are very similar. Even within a country, there will be no different dishes in different regions.