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North Africa and Southwest Asia (Middle East) — High School World Geography practice questions

10 multiple-choice questions on North Africa and Southwest Asia (Middle East), about 6% of the High School World Geography bank. Every one carries a written rationale.

Written and maintained by the CoStudy team · last updated 2026-09-29 · how we write and review questions

What this chapter covers

North Africa and Southwest Asia (Middle East) is one of 16 chapters in CoStudy's High School World Geography bank, and it holds 10 of the bank's 170 multiple-choice questions — roughly 6% of the total. That proportion is not arbitrary: chapters follow the certifying body's published exam outline, and the number of questions in each is set by that domain's published weight, so the share of your practice time this chapter takes matches the share of the real exam it accounts for.

Studying by chapter is worth doing once you have a diagnostic score. A single overall percentage tells you whether you are close; it does not tell you which domain is dragging. Working a weak chapter in isolation, and re-testing it in isolation, is the fastest way to move a score that has stalled — and it is why the mock exams in CoStudy report by domain rather than as one number.

Free North Africa and Southwest Asia (Middle East) practice questions

5 questions drawn from this chapter, with the full rationale shown — the controlling principle behind the right answer, and why each wrong option tempts and fails.

The Maghreb refers to which subregion?

  1. The Arabian Peninsula
  2. Northwest Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania)
  3. The Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel/Palestine)
  4. The Horn of Africa

Answer: B — Northwest Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania)

Maghreb = 'west' in Arabic; refers to NW Africa. C is the Levant — the eastern Mediterranean subregion — a common regional-terminology confusion.

The Nile River flows in which general direction?

  1. North to south, from Cairo to Sudan
  2. South to north, from East Africa through Sudan and Egypt to the Mediterranean
  3. East to west, into the Atlantic
  4. West to east, into the Red Sea

Answer: B — South to north, from East Africa through Sudan and Egypt to the Mediterranean

The Nile flows south to north, ending at the Mediterranean delta near Alexandria. A is the classic flow-direction reversal.

The Sahel is best described as:

  1. The largest desert in the world
  2. A semi-arid transition zone on the southern edge of the Sahara, prone to drought and desertification
  3. A tropical rainforest belt in central Africa
  4. The mountainous region of Ethiopia

Answer: B — A semi-arid transition zone on the southern edge of the Sahara, prone to drought and desertification

Sahel = 'shore' of the Sahara — semi-arid strip across countries like Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan. A is the classic Sahel/Sahara confusion.

Which of the following is the world's largest oil-exporting nation as of the mid-2020s (by volume in most years)?

  1. Iran
  2. Saudi Arabia
  3. Iraq
  4. Yemen

Answer: B — Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has been the swing exporter of OPEC for decades. Rankings shift year to year between Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the US — but Saudi Arabia leads on exports.

The Strait of Hormuz is strategically important because:

  1. It is the main outlet of the Nile River
  2. It is the narrow passage through which ~20% of the world's oil passes, connecting the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea
  3. It links the Mediterranean to the Black Sea
  4. It divides Africa from Europe

Answer: B — It is the narrow passage through which ~20% of the world's oil passes, connecting the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea

Hormuz is the world's most important oil chokepoint, only ~33 km wide at its narrowest. C describes the Bosporus/Dardanelles; D describes Gibraltar.

Practise the full chapter

These are a sample. The full North Africa and Southwest Asia (Middle East) chapter runs 10 items with per-chapter progress tracking, on the web and in the iOS app.

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