The Levant-Anatolia-Regions (LAR), between the Black Sea and the Red Sea, encompass the subtropical climate zone in the north and the Sahara-Arabia deserts in the south. During the Quaternary these regions were affected by varying atmospheric systems that controlled the regional hydrology, the transport of dust as well as the overall climate evolution. Tectonic events along the Dead Sea Transform, the east and north Anatolian faults and ongoing volcanism simultaneously impacted the area. Moreover the region became the cradle of human civilization. These climatic, environmental, tectonic and later anthropogenic forces interacted and varied in the LAR throughout the Quaternary. New scientific results have recently been acquired in continental sedimentary basins (e.g. Lake Van, Dead Sea) and other geologic archives, such as from speleothems and with marine cores from the Eastern Mediterranean. They provided long, continuous and high-resolution records that allow the assessment of magnitudes and rates of change of these interactive processes. Within this context, we encourage contributors to use this session to present their research results on various temporal and spatial scales that document paleoclimatic, paleoenvironmental and geodynamic processes and their interrelations.