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Asia
Largest continent on earth. It is bounded by the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean; the W boundary, with Europe, runs roughly north-south along the E Ural Mtns.; the Caspian, Black, Aegean, and Mediterranean seas; the Suez Canal; and the Red Sea. The islands of Sri Lanka and Taiwan and the archipelagoes of Indonesia, the Philippines, and Japan also form part of Asia. Area: 17,139,445 sq mi (44,391,162 sq km). Population, excluding Asian Russia and the countries of former Soviet Central Asia (1996 est.): 3,499,626,000. Mountains and plateaus predominate on the continent, with the highest mountains located in Central Asia. Asia's elevations include the earth's highest (Mt. Everest) and the lowest (the Dead Sea). The largest of its many desert regions are the Thar and Gobi deserts. Its hydrology is dominated by some of the longest rivers in the world, incl. the Euphrates, Tigris, Indus, Ganges, Chang (Yangtze), Huang (Yellow), Ob, Yenisey, and Lena. The Caspian, Aral, and Dead seas are major saltwater lakes. More than 15% of Asia's landmass is arable. Asia's principal language groups and languages include Sino-Tibetan, Indo-Aryan, Japanese, Austronesian, Austroasiatic, Semitic, and Korean. E. Asia contains three main ethnic groups: Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The Indian subcontinent contains a vast diversity of peoples, most of whom speak languages from the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European family. Because of the influence of China and the former Soviet Union, Mandarin and Russian are widespread. Asia is the birthplace of all the world's major religions and hundreds of minor ones. Hinduism is the oldest religion to have originated in S Asia; Jainism and Buddhism emerged in the 6th and 5th cent. BC, respectively. SW Asia was the cradle of Judaism and its offshoots, Christianity and Islam. Taoism and Confucianism, both of which originated in the 6th or 5th cent. BC, have profoundly influenced Chinese and Chinese-driven culture. Asia is marked by great disparities in wealth, both between and within its countries. A few countries, notably Japan, Singapore, and the oil-rich nations of Arabia, have achieved high standards of living; others, such as Bangladesh and Myanmar, are very poor. Between these two extremes lie Russia, China, and India. Asia's culture is the result of the interaction of five main influences: Chinese, Indian, Islamic, European (incl. Russia), and Central Asian. China has had great influence in E. Asia as the source of Confucianism, a style of art, and the Chinese script. Indian influence has been expressed through Hinduism and Buddhism, affecting Tibet, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Central Asia. Islam spread from its original Arabian home to become important in the Middle East, SW Asia, and elsewhere, accompanied by the use of the Arabic alphabet. Homo erectus hominids migrated from Africa to E. Asia at least 1 million years ago. One of the earliest civilizations to use writing ...
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