Given its location as the most accessible, ergo profitable, commercial connector between contrasting climates providing desirable products for nations that can’t produce these themselves, the Middle East has always served as the crossroads of empires. Across this narrow bridge the religion, art, and civilization of the East as far as India found their way into Greece; and passed back again, adapted by Greece.
And it was a narrow bridge. The eastern sub-basin of the Mediterranean, known as the Levantine Sea, is surrounded on its three sides by natural barrier, funneling traffic into only two passes.
- To the south in Africa is the vast expanse of the Sahara and Libyan Deserts.
- To the north, in Asia Minor / Turkey are the high and rugged Taurus Mountains, with a mean elevation of 6,500 feet but rising at intervals to 10,000 feet or more.
- To the east is another line of mountains from the Amanus Range in northern Syria to the towering Mount Sinai (8,530 feet) in the south, with a second line of mountains paralleling the first, rising to the imposing height of Mount Hermon (9,020 feet) in the north, beyond which stretch the Syrian and Arabian Deserts to the banks of the Euphrates.
There are only two partial breaches at each extremity of the eastern mountain ranges, both in Syria.
The Gulf of Alexandretta (Iskenderun), the ancient Gulf of Issus, drives a marine wedge fifty miles back into the coast line of northern Syria. The mountain barrier also contracts and drops to the single, relatively low chain of the Amanus Range. This was crossed in ancient times by three pass routes.
One is the route used for Germany’s Bagdad Railroad during its alliance with the Ottoman Empire.
The second route was used by Darius’ army after being routed by Alexander’s army at the battle of Issus in 332 BC.
But it was the great pass city of Antioch and its port Selucia which exploited their geographical position as the natural western termini of the great trade route to the East.
On the side – this explains why Antioch was the first city in which pagan Gentiles were evangelized into salvation by YHVH’s Savior. This city and its traveling salesmen were in position to proselytize the entire known world. There is just 100 miles through a short low section of the Amanus Range, across a grassy plain from Selucia to a western bend of the Euphrates River, giving access to the great valley of the twin rivers, stretching southwest for 800 miles to the Persian Gulf.
The second pass is to the south, where the Suez Isthmus affords a short and level passage to the Red Sea. However,
- year-round violent northwest winds in the Gulf of Suez and the upper half of the Red Sea,
- a broad belt of coral reefs along the shores,
- desert coasts, and for the most part desert hinterland
all combined to make navigation dangerous for sailing vessels and to reduce the profits of commercial voyages, and many commercial vessels opted to spend the time and cost circumnavigating the entire continent of Africa to the southern Indian ocean.
A canal through the Suez Isthmus, envisioned and even attempted from very ancient times, was only finally realized during Industrial Revolution under the British. And thereby becoming a major asset drawing political, international, and military attention.
The 193.30 km (120 miles)-long Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway located in Egypt connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Gulf of Suez, a northern branch of the Red Sea, and from there to all points east.
Officially opened in November 1869, the Suez Canal was vital to the British Empire’s economy as it provided a shorter sea route to its colonies and the oilfields of the Persian Gulf.
Britain strengthened its control over Egypt in 1875, invaded Egypt in 1882 sending forces to protect the canal until 1922 following WWI when Britain provided nominal independence to Egypt. In 1936 with the winds of WWII blowing Britain resumed complete control of the Suez Canal, again deploying troops. In 1956 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal which caused the invasion of Egypt by the UK, France, and Israel. It was only after the intervention of the United Nations, the three forces withdrew from Egypt, allowing the country to reopen the canal for commercial shipping.
Making the Suez Canal an essential asset for any aspiring world ruler.
And, once oil became a world-wide top necessity, the Gulf of Hormuz.
In 2026:The Middle East remains one of the most strategically important regions world-wide with military experts convinced that WWIII has already been ignited.
