Asia

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Asia has been traditionally described as the lands of the east surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and to its west is Europe, as well as part of Russia’s east of the Ural Mountains and the Middle East from Saudi Arabia north to Turkey.

Historical, political, and culturally, Russia is normally consider to be part of Europe. The countries west of Asia have come to be considered different part from Asia. Base on that, the countries from west of Iran to the Mediterranean Sea are considered as Middle East and Africa. In this section, Asia will be discussed in the area of south Russia and east of Iran to the Pacific and Indian oceans.

Asia population in 1990’s was estimated to be almost 2.9 billion, or about 55 percent of the entire world’s total population at that time. The area of Asia ranges from tropical island paradises to the cold rocky wastelands to the flourishing rain forests to the enormous dry deserts. The large human population and the geographical diversity of the region have promoted the progress of many different types of cultures.

The continent of Asia usually divides into four main sub regions, each of its sub regions tends to be joined geographically, climatically, and culturally. The South Asia regions are Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal. Southeast Asia are Indochinese peninsula, Indonesia, and the Philippines. East Asia are the eastern third of China, Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. Lastly, Central Asia are the western two-thirds of China, Mongolia, Tibet, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

The Pacific islands are commonly separate into three groups. Melanesia is one of the group of islands north and east of Australia, from New Guinea southeast to Fiji. The group of islands north of the equator and east of the Philippines is called Micronesia.

Asia Mountains

Asia is dominated by large mountains at the center. Starting at the Pamir Knot, a rocky plateau region in the north of the Indian subcontinent, at the borders of China, India, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

To the Pamir plateau at the west, which is occasionally referred to as the roof of the world, the mountains of the Hindu Kush expand west through Afghanistan to the Plateau of Iran.

The Tien Shan range stretches north starting at Pamirs into northern China and Mongolia. To the northeast the Tien Shan merge into the Altai range, this stretches from Mongolia into southern Kazakhstan.

The Karakorum range stretches east of the Pamirs into the Kunlun range, and then arcs toward the central China around the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. In the middle of Tien Shan and Altai ranges in the north and the Kunlun Mountains are immense, the great Mongolian Plains and the dry Gobi and Taklamakan deserts.

Over at the Himalayas, to the south and southeast of the Pamirs, starting at the giant east-to-west arc measured about 1500 miles (2400 km.) next to the northern border of India, starting from the Indus River in the northwest to the Brahmaputra River in the southeast.

In the middle of the Himalayan and Kunlun ranges is the massive Tibetan Plateau. This area is approximately 471,000 square miles (1,220,207 sq. km.) with an average altitude of about 16,000 feet (4875 m).

The Himalayan mountains and its associated plateau are thought to be shaped by the merging of the Indian subcontinent with the Asian mainland. The energy use to form the two enormous landmasses created the unique folding of the continental crust and shape of the Himalayas as we know today. It was believed the forces of lift formed by the dipping of the northern border of the Indian landmass underneath the Asian landmass that pushed up the Tibetan Plateau. From a geological point in time, the Himalayas mountains are considered young.

Mt. Everest is one of the tallest mountains in the world located in the Himalayas, standing at 29,028 feet (8845 m). For the reason of their immense height, the Himalayas is a dreadful wall, separating the northern and southern part Asia.

On the eastern end of the Himalayas are a number of mountains that spread like fingers southward toward the Southeast Asia. Some of these mountains are Annam Cordillera in Vietnam and Laos. The Tanen Taungghi in Thailand, Myanmar and Arakan Yoma in Myanmar are the most significant.