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Asia, the largest of the earth's seven continents, lying almost entirely in the northern hemisphere. With
outlying islands, it covers an estimated 44,936,000 sq km (17,350,000 sq mi), or about one-third of the world's total land area. Its peoples account for three-fifths of the world's population; in the
mid-1990s Asia had an estimated 3.46 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 about 8500 km (about 5300 mi). In Asia are found both the
lowest and highest points on the earth's surface, namely, the shore of the Dead Sea (408 m/1339 ft below sea level in 1996) and Mount Everest (8848 m/29,028 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 as part of Asia. In this encyclopedia, however, it is treated as a part of Oceania. 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. These are as follows: East Asia, including China, Mongolia, 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, Nepal, and Bhutan; and Southwest Asia, including Afghanistan,
Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the other states of the Arabian Peninsula. Most of the countries of Southwest Asia are also considered part of the Middle East, a
loosely defined region that includes Turkey, Cyprus, and 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 Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan |