Asia

Asia is the central and eastern part of Eurasia and world's largest continent. Defined by subtracting Europe from Eurasia, Asia is either regarded as a landmass of its own or as part of Eurasia.

Related Topics:
Eurasia - Continent - Europe

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The demarcation between Asia and Africa is the isthmus of Suez (though the Sinai Peninsula, being a part of Egypt east of the canal, is often geopolitically considered a part of Africa). The boundary between Asia and Europe runs via the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus, to the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, the Caspian Sea, the Ural River to its source, and the Ural Mountains to the Kara Sea at Kara, Russia. About 60 percent of the world's human population lives in Asia.

Related Topics:
Africa - Isthmus - Suez - Sinai Peninsula - Egypt - Dardanelles - Sea of Marmara - Bosphorus - Black Sea - Caucasus - Caspian Sea - Ural River - Ural Mountains - Kara Sea - Russia - The world - Human population

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Asia as a political division consists of the part of Eurasia and nearby islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, often excluding Russia.

Related Topics:
Island - Indian - Pacific Ocean - Russia

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The word Asia entered English via Latin from Ancient Greek ???? (Asia; see also List of traditional Greek place names), first attested in Herodotus, where it refers to Asia Minor, or for the purposes of the Persian Wars, to the Persian Empire as opposed to Greece and Egypt. Homer knows a Trojan ally named Asios, son of Hyrtacus, a ruler over several towns, and also describes a marsh as 461).

Related Topics:
Latin - Ancient Greek - List of traditional Greek place names - Herodotus - Asia Minor - Persian Wars - Persian Empire - Greece - Egypt - Homer - Trojan - Asios - Hyrtacus

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The Greek term was likely from Assuwa, a 14th century BC confederation of states in ancient Anatolia. Hittite assu- "good" is a likely element in that name. Alternatively, the ultimate etymology of the term may be from the Akkadian word asu, which means "to go out" or "to rise", referring to the direction of the sun at sunrise in the Middle East. Compare to this the suggestion for the etymology of Europe from Semitic erebu "to set". The motives for the names of Asia and Europe would thus mirror each other, much like the terms orient and occident (the names Anatolia and Levant likewise signify "sunrise"). This suggestion is widely quoted, but it suffers from the fact that Anatolia from an Akkadian or generally Semitic perspective does not lie in the east.

Related Topics:
Assuwa - 14th century BC - Hittite - Akkadian - Middle East - Europe - Semitic - Orient - Occident - Anatolia - Levant

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See also Geography of Asia.

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As already mentioned, Asia is a subregion of Eurasia. For further subdivisions based on that term, see North Eurasia and Central Eurasia.

Related Topics:
Eurasia - North Eurasia - Central Eurasia

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Some Asian countries stretch beyond Asia. See Bicontinental country for details about the borderline cases between Asia and Europe, Asia and Africa and Asia and Oceania.

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Asia itself is often divided in the following subregions:

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• North Asia
• Central Asia
• East Asia (or Far East)
• Southeast Asia
• South Asia (or Indian Subcontinent)
• Southwest Asia (or West Asia)
 
Asia: North Asia ►