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Since the beginning of the last century, there has been an increase in the number of Bedouins who prefer a settled way of life. As a result, their daily life is gradually changing, and clan and tribal ties are slowly being broken. Settled Bedouins born into a nomadic family strive to continue to apply the principles of Bedouin ethics and viable old traditions in the new environment, as they are deeply rooted in them from an early age. However, some traditions of their ancestors are gradually changing and being modified due to new socio-cultural and economic conditions. On the other hand, there are traditions that continue to survive, although Bedouins now must cope with rapid technological progress. Bedouin families tend to settle and adapt their lifestyles to the conditions of the 21st century. Bedouins are proud of their origins and even in the conditions of a settled way of life they try to keep their traditions. This study analyzes the way of life and the identity of Arab nomads in the process of social and cultural changes. It focuses on Bedouin communities living in the Syrian Desert. In the last decade, however, it has been the wars in the Middle East that have pushed the Bedouins out of their natural environment, restricting the application of their cultural traditions in everyday life. This study builds on previous findings of repeated field research stays in the Syrian Desert where the first author lived among Bedouin families with whom he currently maintains virtual contact as the war situation interrupted further planned research stays.

A scored lithological map including 10 radiometric units is established through applying factor analysis approach to aerial spectrometric data of Area-1, Syrian desert, which includes Ur, eU, eTh, K%, eU/eTh, eU/K%, and eTh/K%. A model of four rotated factors F1, F2, F3, and F4 is adapted for representing 234,829 data measured points in Area-1, where 86% of total data variance is interpreted. A geological scored pseudo-section derived from the lithological scored map is established and analyzed in order to show the possible stratigraphic and structural traps for uranium occurrences associated with phosphate deposits in the studied Area-1. These identified traps presented in this paper need detailed investigation and must be necessarily followed and checked by ground validations and subsurface well logging, in order to locate the anomalous uranium occurrences and explore with more confidence and certitude their characteristics as a function of depth.

Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, the Ottoman authorities in Syria incorporated parts of the desert into the territory under their direct rule. An important element of this policy was the government's integration of the leaders of powerful tribal confederacies into its administrative structures in return for material gains. The article argues that this policy changed the nature of tribal leadership and injected greater stability into a power structure that had been precarious. As a result, Ottoman tribal policy created stronger sheikhs with a new measure of authority and a more secure position of leadership within the confederacy, which allowed them to form more enduring hereditary lines of succession.

The paper describes the discovery, survey and testing of a concentration of small Pre-Pottery campsites located in a strategic place around a pass between the Douara Basin and the steppic arid lands to the North of Syria. Results develop a better understanding of the Neolithic period ofthat region and new insights concerning the heterogeneity of the Neolithisation process. They have also contributed to develop a growing picture of variability in the technologies and toolkits in Neolithic of Central Syria. The existence of two techno-complexes is stated and the chronology of the first Neolithic settlement in central Syrian Desert debated. L'article expose la découverte, la prospection et le sondage d'une concentration de petits sites (campsites) précéramiques placés dans une situation stratégique autour d'un passage entre le bassin de Douara et la steppe aride du Nord de la Syrie. Les résultats apportent une meilleure connaissance de la période néolithique dans cette région, ainsi que de nouvelles perspectives sur l'hétérogénéité des processus de néolithisation. Ils contribuent également à affiner une image plus complète de la variabilité dans les technologies et les outillages néolithiques de la Syrie centrale. Cet article propose l'existence de deux « techno-complexes » et il ouvre une discussion sur la chronologie des premières occupations néolithiques dans les régions désertiques de la Syrie centrale.

Three Paleocene–Eocene (P-E) stratigraphic transect sections namely, from the north to south, Ain Maqfi, Farafra-Ain Dalla road, and El-Quess Abu Said in the northern Farafra Oasis, Western Desert (Egypt) are described and interpreted based upon field observations, microfacies analysis, chronostratigraphy and foraminiferal paleobathymetry, to detect the effect of the Syrian Arc Fold System (SAFS) on the lateral and vertical facies changes, various stratigraphic breaks and to reconstruct the depositional paleoenvironments. Lithostratigraphically, the P-E successions are composed of the upper part of the Dakhla Formation, Tarawan Chalk and Esna Shale Formation. Vertical and lateral facies changes are noted between tectonic paleo-highs and paleo-lows in the Farafra Oasis. Eight microfacies types are recognized. The larger benthic and planktonic foraminiferal zones are here used to correlate the shallow and deeper facies. Two larger benthic (SBZ4 and SBZ6), six planktonic foraminiferal (P4–E4) and one calcareous nannofossil (NP9b) biozones are identified. The recorded basal Eocene Dababiya Quarry Member (DQM) within the Esna Shale Formation in the central Farafra Oasis is represented by units 4 and 5 of the DQM at its GSSP with a neritic facies types. Towards the northern part of the Farafra Oasis, the P-E interval occurs within the base of the Maqfi Limestone Member that contains the larger benthic foraminiferal SBZ6 Zone and is correlated with the DQM. A major sea-level fall near the upper part of P5 Zone, followed by a prominent sea-level rise with a minor hiatus across the P-E interval in the Farafra Oasis reflects the complex interplay between sea level changes and tectonic signatures. Two inferred paleoenvironments, namely inner neritic and mid-outer neritic shelf have been identified.

Pres Trump has done the right thing with regard to America's troop deployment in Syria. Trump ordered the 2,000 US troops based in Syria to get out and come home. Neocons and the US war party are having apoplexy, even though there are some 50,000 US troops spread across the rest of the Mideast. The US troops parked in the Syrian desert were doing next to nothing. Their avowed role was to fight the remnants of the ISIS movement and block any advances by Iranian forces. Trump's abrupt pullout from Syria has shocked and mortified Washington's war party and neocon fifth column. They were hoping reinforced US forces would go on to attack Damascus and move against Iranian forces. What really mattered was not a chunk of the Syrian desert. Mattis' resignation may have been much more about Afghanistan, America's longest war. The US has been defeated in Afghanistan, rightly known as the Graveyard of Empires.

False color Landsat ETM+ (bands 7, 4, 2 in RGB) and SRTM images of the El-Faiyum depression, Egypt, highlights major NE-SW faults and other lineaments trending NW-SE and N-S. Airborne magnetic data reveal some E-W subsurface faults which are not recognized on Landsat ETM+ and SRTM images. Ratio images (5/7, 3/1, 4/3) and (5/7, 5/1, 4) were used for lithological discrimination of different rock types. The El-Faiyum area is occupied by sedimentary rocks of Middle Eocene, Upper Eocene, Oligocene, Lower Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene and Holocene. Understanding the structural regime of El-Faiyum depression in the Western Desert of Egypt is significant in relation to the neotectonics of the Nile Delta and to the development of new communities west of the delta. The area is covered by Late Cretaceous, Middle to Late Eocene deposits, Oligocene deposits (comprising fluviatile sediments and basalt sheets) and Pliocene and Quaternary alluvium and sand deposits. New geological and structural maps were prepared at a scale of 1: 100 000 using Landsat ETM+ and SRTM images coupled with extensive field work. The major structural trends are E-W, ENE, NS and NW—the same trends observed elsewhere in North Africa from NW Sudan to NE Egypt including north and central Sinai. El-Faiyum depression is a structurally-controlled tectonic basin, marked by northeast-striking faults along its northern margin. These faults are parallel to similar faults of the Syrian arc fold belt, which includes a group of related faults, folds, push-up structures, and basins. Qarun Lake is located in the northern part of El-Faiyum depression, at a right-step between two strands of the NE striking fault system. We have suggested elsewhere that El-Faiyum depression is a pull-apart basin related to extension between these mismatched strands of strike-slip faults. The E-W structures are probably related to the relative motion between south Europe and north Egypt and closure of the Neotethys. The continuation of these faults in the present area is only detected from magnetic and seismic studies. The question that needs to be raised is why these old structural features have been reactivated in recent times. Thus, the presence of these fault zones must be heeded in all development plans for El-Faiyum region.