What was the great arc from the eastern shore of the mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf?

Question

Since this is not my area of expertise, I searched Google under the key words "great arc Persian Gulf" to get these possible sources:

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9028539/ad-Dahna
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/196308/persian.gulf.land.htm
http://www.jiskha.com/display.cgi?id=1157689180
http://www.bible-history.com/geography/israel_the_center_of_the_world.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Saudi_Arabia

I hope this helps. Thanks for asking.

As you can see from this site and accompanying map, that area is called the Fertile Crescent. It includes the northern Nile River in Egypt, and the modern countries of Israel, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertile_Crescent