Asia

Asia

Asia

Asia with more than 3,800,000,000 inhabitants (60% of world's population) and 43,810,000 sq km (29% of world's land area) is the largest and most populated continent of the world.

Located in the northern and eastern hemispheres, is joined to,Africa by the Isthmus of Suez (transected by the, Suez Canal which,separate these landmasses); and joined to Europe at the east by the Ural Mountains, and at the south by the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian and Black Seas.

In the early,third century BC, Eratosthenes noted that,geographers had set the border between,continents by rivers or isthmuses, calling them "peninsulas". These geographers divided Europe and Asia by,the isthmus of,the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, and divided,Asia and Africa by,the isthmus of the Red Sea and the,Lake Bardawil.But in the fifth century BC, Herodotus moved the border with Africa form the Nile River to the western border of Egypt, in order to mantain the unity of Egypt.

Etimology of Asia

The origin of the toponym "Asia",comes from the Ancient Greek "Ασία", in reference to,the wife of Prometheus or the son of Cotys (Asias). And this name can be even older, from the,14th century BC to be exact; because grek term, may be derived from Assuwa, a confederation of states in Western Anatolia. But there are also other possible origins for this name:,from the Akkadian word (w)aṣû(m) ("to go outside"), from the Phoenician word asa (east), or even from the,ancient Teutons' name Asaheim or Asaland.

History of,Asia

Aisa's,coast the basement of,some of the world's earliest known civilizations, like,Mesopotamia and the Huanghe, who created great empires and cities.

But the central steppe region was allways,inhabited by horse-mounted nomads who travelled around the whole continent. The earliest central region civilization was the Indo-Europeans, who brought their languages,to the Middle East, South,and the borders of China.

The natural barriers formed by,,mountains and deserts like the Caucasus and Himalaya mountains and the Karakum and Gobi deserts,,kept separated the nomads from the coastal civilizations. And even more, the lowlands didn't have enough,grasslands to support the,horsebound,of the nomads; that's why when, nomads,conquered some lowland states often got adapted to the local life syle.

Languages in Asia

Asia with more than a thousand of languages and even more dialects spoken in it's countries, divided in several language families and,language isolates, is the most diversed,continent. Most Asian countries have more than one language that is natively spoken.

Some of this languages are: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Chinese (Cantonese), English,,Malay, Indonesia, Japanese, Persian, Russia and Turkish.

Cities in Asia

Asia being the most populated continent has also some of the most populated cities of the world like: Tokyo, Shanghai, Bombay, Karachi, New Delhi, Manila, Istanbul, Jakarta or Peking.

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