North Africa and Southwest Asia Geography Interactive

Chapter 5 Interactive

The SWANA Geography Lab

A region is not merely found on a map. It is built from choices about which physical, cultural, historical, and economic connections matter.

Who belongs in the region?

Turn the four lenses on and off. A country brightens when it matches any selected lens. Watch the edges shift—and notice that no single combination produces the one eternally “correct” region.

MoroccoMaghreb
AlgeriaMaghreb
LibyaNorth Africa
EgyptNile Valley
IraqMesopotamia
IranPersian core
TurkeyAnatolia
Saudi ArabiaArabian Peninsula
UAEGulf
JordanLevant
LebanonLevant
Palestinian territoriesLevant
IsraelLevant
CyprusEast Mediterranean
SudanNile / Sahel
QatarGulf
AzerbaijanSouth Caucasus
SomaliaHorn of Africa
13 places highlighted. Language creates a broad Arab region, but it leaves out Persian-speaking Iran, Turkish-speaking Turkey, and Hebrew-speaking Israel.

What makes a chokepoint powerful?

Move the slider to reduce shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. This is an illustrative systems model, not a price forecast. Its lesson is geographic: concentrated routes transmit disruption far beyond the narrow waterway.

ClosedNormal flow

100% of normal traffic

At normal flow, the route is still strategically important because so much energy trade is concentrated in one narrow passage.

Model assumption: effects rise nonlinearly because ships, ports, pipelines, insurers, and buyers cannot all adjust at once. The meters show relative pressure only.

Diffusion detective

Read the evidence, then identify the process. You will get an explanation immediately—because the useful part is not the score but the reasoning.

Designed to accompany Chapter 5: Southwest Asia & North Africa · Results remain in this browser only.

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