Asia [3]

For other uses, see Asia (disambiguation).

World map showing Asia.

Asia is the largest and most populous of the Earth's continents. It is traditionally defined as part of the landmass of Africa-Eurasia lying east of the Suez Canal, east of the Ural Mountains, and southeast of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian and Black Seas. About 60 percent of the world's human population lives in Asia.

Satellite view of Asia

Continents are concepts of human geography (i.e., landscapes and landforms as interpreted by humans), not of geology or physical geography, and definitions may vary. The concept of the three continents of the Old World goes back to classical antiquity with the etymology of the word also having roots in the ancient Near and Middle East. The demarcation between Asia and Africa is the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea. The boundary between Asia and Europe is commonly believed to run via the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, through the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, the Caspian Sea, the Ural River to its source, and the Ural Mountains to the Kara Sea near Kara, Russia.

It is sometimes unclear what Asia precisely consists of. In some definitions, it may exclude Turkey, the Middle East and/or Russia. Asia is sometimes used more strictly in reference to Asia Pacific, which does not include the Middle East or Russia, and does include islands in the Pacific Ocean — a number of which may also be considered part of Australasia and/or Oceania. The world's only subcontinent, the Indian Subcontinent, lies in Asia.

Etymology

The word Asia entered English, via Latin, from Ancient Greek Ασία (Asia; see also List of traditional Greek place names). This name is first attested in Herodotus (c. 440 BC), where it refers to Asia Minor; or, for the purposes of describing the Persian Wars, to the Persian Empire, as opposed to Greece and Egypt. Even before Herodotus, Homer knew of a