Middle East and North Africa
Also known as North Africa and the Middle East, WANA, NAWA, West Asia and North Africa, North Africa-West Asia, MENA, Middle East, North Africa
Middle East and North Africa region
Key facts
- Area
- 12,251,418 km (4,730,299 sq mi)
- Population
- 589,303,895
- Demonym
- Middle Easterner and North African , West Asian and North African
- Countries
- List Algeria Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Cyprus Egypt Georgia Iran Iraq Israel Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Libya Morocco Oman Palestine Qatar Saudi Arabia Syria Tunisia Turkey United Arab Emirates Yemen
- Languages
- Arabic , Persian , Turkish , Kurdish , Hebrew , Berber , Coptic , Azerbaijani , Georgian , Armenian
- Time zones
- UTC+01:00 to UTC+04:00
- Largest cities
- Largest cities Cairo Tehran Istanbul Baghdad Riyadh Ankara Alexandria Dubai Jeddah Amman
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Population
- 0
- Image
- MENA or WANA according to various definitions.svg
Show 1 more fact
~21 min read
Article
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), also referred to as West Asia and North Africa (WANA) or South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA), is a geographic region which comprises the Middle East (also called West Asia) and North Africa together. It exists as an alternative to the concept of the Greater Middle East, which comprises the bulk of the Muslim world. The region has no standardized definition and groupings may vary, but the term typically includes countries like Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine , Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
As a regional identifier, the term "MENA" is often used in academia, military planning, disaster relief, media planning (as a broadcast region), and business writing. Moreover, it shares a number of cultural, economic, and environmental similarities across the countries that it spans; for example, some of the most extreme impacts of climate change will be felt in MENA.