text: The eastern Mediterranean seaboard â `` the Levant â `` stretches 400 miles north to south from the Taurus Mountains to the Sinai desert , and 70 to 100 miles east to west between the sea and the Arabian desert .
simplified: The eastern Mediterranean seaboard - the Levant - goes 400 miles north to south from the Taurus Mountains to the Sinai desert , and 70 to 100 miles east to west between the sea and the Arabian desert .