What are some lesser known natural geographic strong points or areas of strategic importance that have changed history?

What are some lesser known natural geographic strong points or areas of strategic importance that have changed history?

Things like the gates of Thermopylae or Strait of Gibraltar.

The Bosphorus or Bosporus

The Alps

There's a pass through the Judean hills that's mentioned in the Bible in the context of the Israelite-Philistine Wars, that one of the British generals later exploited against the Ottomans in WWI.

Strait of Hormuz (trade)
English Channel (Saves England's ass every time)
Sicily (trade)
Singapore (trade)
Suez and Panama Canals (trade)
Volga River (linchpin in the defense of Stalingrad)
Dardanelles/Bosporus (trade and regional control)
Crimea/Sevastopol (control of the Black Sea)
Gibraltar (controls entry into the mediterranean)
Kyoto (sits on an isthmus separating north and south Japan, ensuring control of both regions)
Danube River (natural defense)
Pyrenees Mountains (natural defense)
Fertile crescent (food)
among many others of course

Eurasian Funnel

Naming something and putting a word beside it dosnt make it lesser known

Stop

>thread about lesser known geographic strong points
>filled with mostly basic shit
Veeky Forums was a mistake

The Golan Heights

Interested in this, is it like the Fulda Gap in Germany, the route through which the Soviets were expected to invade Western Europe?

Another Cold War one;
the GIUK Gap (Greenland, Iceland, UK gap) control of which was necessary to keep tabs on Soviet subs in the Atlantic

nice line up, you know your geographical determinism

English channel.

>the route through which the Soviets were expected to invade Western Europe?
Sort of, its just a visulazation of the density change.
E.g. a 100 divisions with occupy a 10th of the area in Northern France compared to Western Russia.
Or why the Mongols had trouble in Hungary.

>Lesser known

Is density change referring to population or geographic features? Both would play a part i guess, most of the Mongol's empire was pretty flat and sparse.

The Fulda Gap was more specifically the expected route of a major Soviet invasion as it was the primary East-West land route which could support very large armoured divisions. NATO had many watchtowers and other intelligence gathering equipment watching the gap in case of surprise attack.

>Is density change referring to population or geographic features?
Yeah, both. The Mongol example was referring to the number of castles, it steadily increased at you move west, due to both reasons.

Southern China. All of it. Rivers, mountains, swamps and jungles galore. For example: Sichuan is literally ringed with heavily forested mountains and the middle of the province is riddled with swamps and rivers.
>This stops Imperial authorities.
>This stops the Steppe Nomad.
>This stops the Jap.

>Strait of Gibraltar.
To normies, yes. But i serouisly doubt many people who freqent Veeky Forums don't know what that is. How obscure are we going with this? Most people are geographically illiterate (I myself could do much better).

I gave obvious examples in OP to clarify I was interested in both strategic points created by natural geography (Strait of Gibraltar) as well as geography made strategic in its application (Thermopylae) but I guess I wasn't very clear.

Appreciate the replies though.

There's the Khyber Pass, which has been one of the oldest and most traveled trade and invasion routes in history, and home today to some silly walks and hats.

Nearby is the Fergana Valley, a practical oasis straddling the wide open steppe, deserts, and mountains dividing India, the Middle East, and China. It was home to a lot of interesting cultures and also a major thoroughfare for the Silk Road.

The Rub' al Khali, or Arabia's Empty Quarter, is an inhospitable stretch of desert not even the Arabs can stand, but was supposedly fertile long ago and possible home to a few lost cities buried in the sand.

Southern Iraq used to have extensive marshlands and swamps which dried up due to recent construction of dams.

source? sounds coolio

The thing is, the most important strategic geogrpahics are known because they're, well, important. When one says "lesser known" do they mean only used by some random tribe? That isn't very important to history desu.

Europe looks like it was made by a shitty game dev.
>OK guys the engine can only handle so many objects, let's go west to east
>great job everyone Europe is kickass so--what do you mean we can't spawn anymore props?
>ah fuck
>let's take half the features in Poland and just spread them across the last few thousand miles
>add a river or two
>bam done, if anyone asks this is called a "steppe" and was totally supposed to be empty

He who controls Eastern Europe controls the Heartland. He who controls the Heartland controls the World Island. He who controls the World Island controls the World.

>english channel(saves england's ass every time)
didn't save em in 1066 but you're mostly right

>suez and panama canals
>lesser known

>gibraltar
how's this not known?

Darien Gap
Only overland route from south america to central
Not a single road through, and even if you managed to get an army through you're funnelled into the Panamanian Isthmus

The Myeongryang Strait

If it didn't exist, it's likely Korea as a nation and culture would not have survived when the Japanese invaded.

Bering Land Bridge

Denmark, in particular Oresund.

Because Normans brought the naval tradition england needed to utilize the straights to england. Before that it was meme raid and saxon cunts chimping out over peat

I found this rather fascinating. Kudos for mentioning it.

>Before that it was meme raid and saxon cunts chimping out over peat

i don't really think you're doing the saxons justice here, they understandably diverted more attention to dealing with scandinavians than with the french

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