The area around the eastern Mediterranean; from Turkey to North Africa and eastward to Iran; the site of such ancient civilizations as Phoenicia, Babylon, Egypt and the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity and Islam.
Indeterminate area now usually taken to include the Balkan States, Egypt, and SW Asia. Until the 1940s, this area was generally called the Near East, and the term Middle East referred to the area from Iran to Burma (now Myanmar).