As a Levantine Arab, I was wondering why there's such diversity

>>1321984
I mean it's the fertile crescent, people from all sides came to trade, grow food and potentially conquer it. And for the second part it depends on how far you go back :^)

Remember that it were the Macedonians and Greeks that civilized the primitive Asians. The Seleucids turned Syria from a Semitic shithole wasteland into a thriving cosmopolitan center of commerce.

>>1322224
Who are the 'primitive Asians?'

>>1322224
Lol, come on... I am an American Christian of European descent and I know this is bullshit. Fucking Phoenicia, Byblos and Ugarit.

>>1322224
Go away troll

>>1321984
Some kind of Caucasoid. We know this for 100% certain.

>>1321984
>Who are the indigenous people of the Levant?

The Levantines, as you can see from your image. They are their own distinct people, some of whom had ancestors who migrated across the Mediterranean some thousands of years ago, others who converted to Islam and thus began to mix with Iranian, Turkic, Arab, and African people, and others who just stayed as they were and kept to themselves as much as they could.

>those central Asians who cluster with Africans
What's up with that?

>>1322287
>>1322295
>>1322280
Just shitposting but it is true that the Seleucids made the middle east wealthier by building many cities and introducing a coinage economy. Syria was a wasteland with nearly no cities but that changed when the Macedonians arrived. They turned a poor province into one of the wealthiest areas in the world.

>>1322498
Might that have something to do with the opening up of the Silk Road? IIRC Syria was the western terminus.

>>1322813
The Seleucids heavily urbanised Asia and I don't believe the Silk Road did much to help that.

>Lebanese christians
Did they take the BCC?
Big Crusader Cock