The Middle East - Syria and Turkey in particular - is the cradle of 'civilization' with perhaps the greatest intensity of cultural history on the planet - much of it contained in still-unexcavated antiquities. It's world-historical importance is beyond question. (North America, by contrast, is a slab of fairly artifact-free post-glacial sediment that hosted an oil-based culture for a century or two before it collapsed under its own stupidity.)
The Middle East - Syria and Turkey in particular - is the cradle of 'civilization' with perhaps the greatest intensity of cultural history on the planet - much of it contained in still-unexcavated antiquities. It's world-historical importance is beyond question. (North America, by contrast, is a slab of fairly artifact-free post-glacial sediment that hosted an oil-based culture for a century or two before it collapsed under its own stupidity.)