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Asia.
Africa
Asia, largest of the Earth’s seven continents,
lying almost entirely in the Northern Hemisphere. With outlying islands, it
covers an estimated 44,391,000 sq km (17,139,000 sq mi), or about 30 percent of
the world’s total land area. Its peoples account for three-fifths of the world’s
population; in 2000 Asia had an estimated 3.73 billion inhabitants.
Most geographers regard Asia as bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the
east by the Bering Strait and the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian
Ocean, and on the southwest by the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea.
On the west, the conventional boundary between
Europe and Asia is drawn at the Ural Mountains, continuing south along the Ural
River to the Caspian Sea, then west along the Caucasus Mountains to the Black
Sea. Some geographers include Europe and Asia together in a larger Eurasian
region, noting that western Asian countries, such as Turkey, merge almost
imperceptibly into Europe.
The continental mainland stretches from the southern end of the Malay Peninsula
to Cape Chelyuskin in Siberia. Its westernmost point is Cape Baba in
northwestern Turkey, and its easternmost point is Cape Dezhnyov in northeastern
Siberia. The continent’s greatest width from east to west is 8,500 km (5,300
mi). The lowest and highest points on the Earth’s surface are in Asia, namely,
the shore of the Dead Sea (408 m/1,340 ft below sea level in 1996) and Mount
Everest (8,850 m/29,035 ft above sea level).
South of the mainland in the Indian Ocean are Sri Lanka and smaller island
groups, such as the Maldives and the Andaman and Nicobar islands. To the
southeast is an array of archipelagoes and islands that extend east to the
Oceanic and Australian realms. Among these islands are those of Indonesia,
including Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Borneo. The western end of the island of
New Guinea is within Indonesia and for that reason geographers occasionally
consider it part of Asia.
The Philippine Islands, which include Luzon and
Mindanao, are also among the Southeast Asian islands. To their north lie Taiwan,
the Chinese island of Hainan, the islands of Japan, and the Russian island of
Sakhalin.
Because of its vast size and diverse character, Asia is divided into five major
realms: East Asia, including China, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and
Japan; Southeast Asia, including Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), Thailand,
Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, and the
Philippines; South Asia, including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka,
Maldives, Nepal, and Bhutan; and Southwest Asia, including Afghanistan, Iran,
Iraq, Turkey, Cyprus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Syria, Lebanon, Israel,
Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and
Kuwait.
Most of the countries of Southwest Asia are also
considered part of the Middle East, a loosely defined region that includes
Egypt. Afghanistan and Myanmar are sometimes considered part of South Asia, but
most geographers place Afghanistan in Southwest Asia and Myanmar in Southeast
Asia.
The fifth realm consists of the area of Russia
that lies east of the Ural Mountains (Russian Asia) and the states of Central
Asia that were formerly part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
These states are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.
The continent may also be divided into two broad cultural realms: that which is
predominantly Asian in culture (East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia) and
that which is not (Southwest Asia, Central Asia, and Russian Asia). There is
enormous cultural diversity within both regions, however.
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