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*I was unable to open the link from here, but I'll assume you are correct. Does it just show vegetation by color?*
Yes, it does.
It shows that there are three kinds of vegetation that grows in the region; shrubland, grassland, and cropland.
The map shows quite a bit of cropland in Israel, which I can only imagine is due to irrigation and human intervention to reclaim the desert.
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1. Personal observations. I have been to Egypt, Isreal, Jordon, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
2. The vegetation on the ground around the rivers/lakes of arab countries consists mostly of Palm trees. Grass has a very hard time getting rooted anywhere unless that area is cultivated and foot traffic is blocked.
Right.
However, quite a lot of the north of Iraq is completely covered in shrubland, along with the river valley that runs south east to the sea.
I also found this interesting bit:
Biodiversity
Although Iraq has a generally arid climate, locally it is rich in water resources and wetlands. The many wetlands in Iraq, fed primarily by the Tigris-Euphrates, were until recently of outstanding regional and global importance. Besides supporting distinctive human communities (the Ma'dan or 'Marsh Arabs') these wetlands are crucially important for breeding and migratory waterbirds. Many bird species that migrate between Eurasia and Africa or southern Asia rely on Iraq wetlands for rest and feeding.
and:
The country is central to the 'Fertile Crescent', one of the world's core areas of crop development and probably the first region to use crops and livestock in an integrated system of agricultural production, more than 10,000 years before present. Reflecting this heritage, Iraq has agricultural genetic resources (plant varieties and livestock breeds) of particular value in dryland farming, but the distribution of wild relatives and local varieties within the country is not well documented.
Now, if Iraq was just a desert, why on earth would it be an important migratory stop for waterbirds?
Maybe you haven't been to the north of Iraq?
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I am currently in the Tigris river valley, which I'm sure is going to be the most "green" spot Iraq has to offer. There are a great many trees here, but most (guessing 90%) are Palm trees. There is a couple of orange trees here at the Palace, but they were planted here. I don't think Iraq is known for its oranges.
OK, but if they irrigated and kept people from walking on the ground, grass would grow, along with olive and citrus trees?
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3. The vegetation around the rivers/lakes of Isreal (minus the dead sea)is what you would expect. Everything grows there, to include grass. I believe the valley of meggido is one of the most productive agricultural plains in the world.
The point is, over half of Israel is
desert, which, in looking at the map, is about the same amount of desert that Iraq has.
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4. All of the fish we ate in Sharm El Sheik (Egypt, southern tip if the Sinai) all came from the sea of Galilee, even though we were right on the Red Sea (Gulf of Aquaba).
OK, but this is irrelevant to if Israel is largely desert and belongs in the sandbox.
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5. The difference when crossing the borders in southern Isreal from Egypt or Jordon is night and day. Sand on one side, grass on the other.
I'll bet.
The difference when travelling in most of Egypt and then being in the Nile delta is probably pretty dramatic, too, as this area has what looks like more acres of cropland in cultivation than the entire acreage of Israel, desert and all.
Why not exclude the Nile delta from the sandbox, too, for that reason?
This message has been edited by schrafinator, 01-03-2005 07:17 AM
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