The purpose of this study was to unveil the tectonics and seismicity, S-wave velocity structure and inelastic behaviour with depth of the earth's crust in the continental Near East. To this end, we have analyzed body wave phases and surface-wave signals from 47 earthquakes in the magnitude range 3.5–6.5 that were originated and recorded in (or close to the margins of) the Near East during 1927–1974. First motions, P- and S-wave forms, radiation patterns of crustal Love and Rayleigh waves, spectral amplitudes, dispersion and travel-time data as well as geologic, morphologic and historical data were used in unison to provide information on tectonic patterns, slip rates and the inelastic properties of the crust. Most of the numerical algorithms and inversion routines that have been generated during the computer era were utilized. In this sense, this is the first experimental effort in which both amplitude and phase data were simultaneously inverted over a broad frequency range to yield information on both source and structural parameters in one stroke. We found a rather sharp Moho discontinuity with average thickness of 32–35 km underlying the continental crust. The crust contains cracks and pressurized water to a depth of about 20 km. Below this depth the rock becomes ductile. This accounts for a confinement of seismic activity in the upper crust, the low values of the Poisson ratio (0.18–0.21) at 20–25 km and the low Q values there. Crustal shear velocities in Sinai and the Levant fracture zone are significantly higher than the corresponding velocities in the eastbound section Elat-Zagros foothills. Fault-plane solutions and kinematic source parameters of 15 earthquakes since 1927 together with a critical examination of historical seismicity during the last 4,000 years, were used to unveil the major tectonic features of the junction zone. The main results are: 1. (1) The fault systems in the Afro-Eurasian junction (apart from its northern end) have a dominantly left-lateral strike-slip component, transforming the opening motion of the ridge-like Red Sea into a collision zone of the Alpine mountain belt. In this region the edges of the coherent Arabia and Africa plates break up in the neighbourhood of their boundary as they approach the region of continental collision with the Eurasian plate. This breakup consists of gradual loss of coherency and deterioration of its rigidity as more and more deformation is taken up by the branching faults. 2. (2) The Sinai region should not be considered a separate plate, but rather a splinter of the Africa plate, which is breaking up incoherently as it approaches the zone of collision. It is probably useless to try to find its western boundary. 3. (3) The Dead Sea fault — a source for many biblical and post-biblical earthquakes in the last four millenia — was definitely outlined. It has an estimated mean rate of activity of two events per century at magnitudes from 6 to 7. An aseismic slip rate of at least 3 mm/year is taking place along this fault.