The Northeast and Central Asia

The raising of animals for food and other products

• Pastoralism

• Cuneiform

• Sheikdom

• Desalination

A border created by a physical feature, such as a mountain, river, or strait

• Natural Boundary

• Culture Hearth

• Ziggurat

• Rift Valley

A center where cultures developed and from which ideas and traditions spread outward

• Culture Hearth

• Natural Boundary

• Qanat

• Ziggurat

A system of writing that used wedge-shaped symbols pressed into clay tablets

• Cuneiform

• Ziggurat

• Moshav

• Zionism

An underground canal first built by the ancient Persians

• Qanat

• Ziggurat

• Shamal

• Kibbutz

Large, pyramid-shaped temples made of mud-brick, created by the Sumerians

• Ziggurat

• Mujahideen

• Exclave

• Enclave

A ban on trade

• Embargo

• Cereal

• Hajj

• Simoom

A tributary that leads to a larger river

• Feeder Stream

• Steppe

• Desalination

• Levant

A wetland typically covered with grasses

• Marsh

• Swamp

• Monsoon

• Culture Hearth

Wide, grassy plains of Central Asia

• Steppe

• Dune

• Oases

• Hamas