Real Madrid's French forward Karim Benzema celebrates after scoring a goal during the Club World Cup semi-final football match between Club America of Mexico and Real Madrid of Spain at Yokohama International stadium in Yokohama on December 15, 2016. Behrouz MEHRI / AFP

Afghan boy Murtaza Ahmadi stands with the FC Barcelona team on the pitch before the start of a friendly football match against Saudi Arabia's Al-Ahli FC on December 13, 2016 in the Qatari capital Doha. Barcelona play Saudi champions Al-Ahli in a friendly in Doha, the Spanish club's last major obligation of its four year shirt sponsorship deal with Qatar Airways. KARIM JAAFAR / AFP

As skies turn a miserable grey , Saudi Arabia experiences deadly floods and people across the Middle East huddle around the “sooba” to keep warm, it’s time to start planning your winter getaway. The MENA region has plenty to offer in terms of winter activities, if you know where to look. Here is your perfect guide to where to head this cold season:

Paris Saint-Germain's French forward Hatem Ben Arfa (L) vies Nice's Morocco striker Younès Belhanda during the French L1 football match between Paris Saint-Germain and Nice at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris on Deecmber 11, 2016. A MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP

Over the last few decades, the Kurds have had an increasingly influence over regional developments in the Middle East. They are the fourth-largest ethnic group in the region, with between 25 and 35 million Kurds inhabiting a mountainous region overlapping the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia. However, the Kurds have never obtained a permanent nation state of their own. As they fight for autonomy in Turkey, and play a major role in the resistance against Daesh in Iraq and Syria , the Kurds have established themselves as ...

Slumped oil hasn't dampened the Gulf nations' appetite for all things shiny and new and outrageously expensive. Have you heard of Big Boys Toys (BBT)? Self-billed as the Middle East's premiere luxury, innovation and technology expo, it's held in Dubai each November to promote high-end lifestyle products . T here's also Arab Luxury World, an annual Dubai conference "on the business of luxury in the Middle East" , and 2Luxury2.com, an international luxury lifestyle magazine "for an affluent audience". BBT states that one in every 80 Emiratis is a USD ...

Perhaps you’re familiar by now with Cairo’s gritty persona, you’ve met the historic yet tense alleyways of Jerusalem, been dazzled by Dubai’s glitzy surface, and witnessed a number of war-zone-meets-nightlife cliches in Beirut. But what about Amman - Jordan’s traffic-clogged capital of over 4 million people? If you’re planning a trip to this vibrant, historic city, these are the things you need to prepare yourself for that TripAdvisor won’t add to your travel itinerary!

Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa (L), President of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and Sheikh Nahyan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan (C), Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, present Omar Abdulrahman (R) with a trophy after being named the AFC Men's Footballer of the Year during the Asian Football Confederation's Annual Awards ceremony on December 1, 2016 in Abu Dhabi. NEZAR BALOUT / AFP

Sociologists have long claimed that civilization has used fear, shame and guilt as the social building blocks for societies worldwide. In the Middle East in particular, leading sociologists describe countries of the region as ‘honor/shame societies’ as opposed to the ‘guilt based’ cultures in their Western counterparts. In such social paradigms, behaviour and reputation is everything as it plays a key role in upholding the honor of the family or tribe. On the other hand, not living up to the standards set for maintaining one’s honor is what brings shame ...

Xenophobia seems to be everywhere these days: Brexit in the UK, Trump is headed to the White House, and too many countries in the Middle East are embroiled in sectarian conflict. Jordan, home to a sizeable Christian population, and which plays host to millions of refugees, has its points of tension - and the needle swings both ways on this - but for the most part, the tiny Kingdom shows the rest of the world how to get along. And luckily, Jordan isn’t the only place this is happening. In ...

The Middle East is known these days as the home of an Islamic civilization which developed in the sixth century in Arabia, and which spread incredibly quickly through military conquest to reach between India and Morocco. It is easy to forget that the region was once home to a plethora of other incredible ancient civilizations and cultures. In fact, Daesh would rather we overlook the pre-Islamic history of the region. But destroying the ancient sites of Nimrud in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria will not erase the rich ancient heritage ...