Keep a little mystery in your trip planning: Explorer Picture Mode shows a stylized version of every place instead of the real photo, so you can go by the description and reviews first and picture it your own way -- reveal the real photo any time by flipping the switch off, or just for one place at a time from its own page.
Create a free account to pick your own style (Vintage, Oil Painting, Black & White) and have it remembered next time you visit.
A region where deep antiquity meets rapid modern reinvention — from Petra's rock-cut tombs and Persepolis's ancient columns, to Dubai's skyline and Doha's waterfront, with Jerusalem's layered religious history and Istanbul's straddling of two continents in between.
This site's own Middle East grouping spans a wide and genuinely varied slice of the region — the Gulf states, the Levant, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey — each offering a very different kind of trip, from a long weekend in a modern Gulf city to weeks tracing millennia of continuous civilization.
The Middle East, as grouped on this site, spans the Gulf states (United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman), the Levant (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Israel), Iran, Iraq, Yemen, and Turkey — a region whose modern borders span an extraordinary depth of continuous human civilization, from some of the world's earliest cities to today's newest skylines.
Few regions on Earth hold this much layered history: Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq) is often called the cradle of civilization, ancient Persia (modern Iran) built one of history's great empires, and the Levant carries millennia of Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic heritage still visible today. Alongside this depth, the Gulf states have transformed themselves within a single generation into some of the world's most modern, rapidly developing cities.
This is also one of the world's most religiously significant regions — the birthplace of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam alike, with sites across Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, and beyond holding central importance to billions of people worldwide.
The Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Yemen) is dominated by vast desert, including the Rub' al Khali (Empty Quarter), one of the largest continuous sand deserts on Earth, ringed by a long Gulf and Red Sea coastline and, in Oman specifically, dramatic mountains and fjord-like coastal inlets.
The Levant (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Israel) is geographically compact but varied — Lebanon's own mountains rise directly from the Mediterranean coast, Jordan's desert holds Petra's rock-cut city and the otherworldly landscape of Wadi Rum, and the Dead Sea (bordering Jordan and Israel) is the lowest point on Earth's land surface.
Iran is a large, geographically diverse country spanning the Zagros and Alborz mountain ranges, the Caspian Sea coast, and a substantial arid central plateau. Iraq is defined by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the fertile plain between them. Turkey spans both European and Asian territory across the Bosphorus, ranging from Istanbul's straits to Anatolia's central plateau and Cappadocia's distinctive volcanic rock formations.
Most of the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Yemen) has a hot desert climate with extreme summer heat (often exceeding 40°C/104°F) and mild, far more comfortable winters; Oman's own mountainous regions offer some relief from the coastal heat.
The Levant (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Israel) has a Mediterranean climate along the coast — mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers — transitioning to desert conditions further inland and east.
Iran and Iraq both have significant continental climate variation: hot, dry summers and cold winters across much of the interior, with Iran's own mountain regions considerably cooler than its arid plateau and coastal areas.
Turkey has a genuine four-season climate, Mediterranean along its southern and western coasts and increasingly continental (colder winters, hot summers) moving into its central Anatolian interior.