Ancient Near East continents (Europe, Asia, and Africa), including apart from its core in modern-day Iran, the territories of modern Iraq, the Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Dagestan, Abkhazia), Asia Minor (Turkey), Thrace, Bulgaria, Greece, many of the Black Sea coastal regions, northern Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan, Central Asia, parts of Pakistan, and all significant population centers of ancient Egypt as far west as Libya. It is noted in western history as the foe of the Greek city states in the Greco-Persian Wars, for freeing the Israelites from their Babylonian captivity, and for instituting Aramaic as the empire's official language. Ancient
Little League World Series (Asia-Pacific and Middle East Region) Little League World Series (Asia-Pacific and Middle East Region) The Asia–Pacific and Middle East Region is a region that competes in the Little League World Series. Asian teams first competed in the LLWS in , when Japanese teams competed in the original Pacific Region (which included Hawaii). In , Japanese teams began competing in the newly created Far East Region. In , the Little League World Series was expanded to sixteen teams, and East Asia was split into two regions – the Pacific (consisting of teams from the Pacific Islands, Indonesia, and Oceania) and Asia (consisting of teams from mainland