The answer begins high above the earth, in the invisible belt of air that circles the globe.
Much of the middle east sits between 20 to 30 degrees North of the equator.
Here part of global air circulation system comes into play.
Warm air raises near the equator. Travels northward high in atmosphere, sinks back down over subtropics.
When air sinks rather than rising, it gets compressed, warms and dries out.
Warm air holds moisture instead of releasing it. This makes cloud formation difficult.
Without clouds, there is no rain !!!
This phenomena happened for thousands of years.
This turned Arabian peninsula into one of world's greatest deserts.
The same dry belt is responsible for Sahara in Africa and northern desert parts of Australia.
But near Iran and Turkey, geography changes !!!
The mountains found here acts like walls. When moist air from near by seas move inland, these mountains force it to go upwards.
As the air climbs, it gets cooler. Cooler air releases moisture as rain and snow.
Suddenly valley turns green and rivers start to flow !!!
Deserts dominate large part of Arabian peninsula because of global wind patterns, whereas Iran and Turkey look different because mountain catches the rain and softens the climate.
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