26o 



The National Geographic Magazine 



valley of the Indus to the coasts of Asia 

 Minor — a region decreasing in elevation 

 as it passes from the mountainous up- 

 lift looking down upon the Indus to the 

 plateau of Iranistan, and so on to the 

 broken ranges in which the Tigris and 

 Euphrates have their mountain origin — 

 furnishes continuous climatic condi- 

 tions. In its culture, the mountainous 

 region has varied yet it has kept some- 

 what similar culture conditions, while 

 the plain and rivers below, toward the 

 Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, 

 have as constantly furnished the devel- 

 opment of commerce and cultivation. 



Considered with reference to climate, 

 therefore, the region which we are con- 

 sidering again appears as a link region, 

 lying between the climatic conditions 

 which exist over the Sahara and Arabia 

 and those which obtain in the Eurasian 

 plains from the Vistula to the Asian 

 uplift. Nor is it without its close con- 

 nection with the various history that 

 has there appeared that this region has 

 in Asia Minor a climate at so many 

 points closely resembling that of the 

 high interior of Asia, so that from west- 

 ern Asia Minor to the north of eastern 

 Tibet the same Turkish language may 



