A world map is a map of most or all of the surface of the Earth. World maps form a distinctive category of maps due to the problem of projection.

List • Asia ( ( )) is 's largest and most populous, located primarily in the and. It shares the continental landmass of with the continent of and the continental landmass of with both Europe and Africa. Asia covers an area of 44,579,000 square kilometres (17,212,000 sq mi), about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the, was the site of many of the. Asia is notable for not only its overall large size and population, but also dense and large settlements, as well as vast barely populated regions. Its 4.5 billion people constitute roughly 60% of the world's population. In general terms, Asia is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean and on the north by the Arctic Ocean.

The western boundary with Europe is a historical and, as there is no clear physical and geographical separation between them. The most commonly accepted boundaries place Asia to the east of the, the, and the, and south of the and the and. China and India alternated in being the from 1 to 1800 CE. China was a major economic power and attracted many to the east, and for many the legendary wealth and prosperity of the ancient culture of India personified Asia, attracting European commerce, exploration and colonialism. The accidental discovery of America by Columbus in search for India demonstrates this deep fascination. The became the main East-West trading route in the Asian hinterlands while the stood as a major sea route.

Asia has exhibited economic dynamism (particularly East Asia) as well as robust population growth during the 20th century, but overall population growth has since fallen. Asia was the birthplace of most of the world's mainstream religions including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism,, Taoism (or Daoism),,,, as well as many other religions. Given its size and diversity, the concept of Asia—a dating back to —may actually have more to do with than. Asia varies greatly across and within with regard to ethnic groups, cultures, environments, economics, historical ties and government systems. It also has a mix of many different climates ranging from the equatorial south via the hot desert in the Middle East, temperate areas in the east and the continental centre to vast subarctic and polar areas in. Statue representing Asia at, in, The border between Asia and Europe was historically defined by European academics.

The became unsatisfactory to northern Europeans when, king of the, defeating rival claims of and the to the eastern lands, and armed resistance by the tribes of, synthesized a new extending to the and beyond, founded in 1721. The major geographical theorist of the empire was actually a former Swedish prisoner-of-war, taken at the in 1709 and assigned to, where he associated with Peter's Siberian official,, and was allowed freedom to conduct geographical and anthropological studies in preparation for a future book. [ ] In Sweden, five years after Peter's death, in 1730 published a new atlas proposing the Urals as the border of Asia. The Russians were enthusiastic about the concept, which allowed them to keep their European identity in geography. Tatishchev announced that he had proposed the idea to von Strahlenberg. The latter had suggested the as the lower boundary.

Over the next century various proposals were made until the prevailed in the mid-19th century. The border had been moved perforce from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea into which the Ural River projects. The border between the Black Sea and the Caspian is usually placed along the crest of the, although it is sometimes placed further north. Asia–Oceania boundary The border between Asia and the region of is usually placed somewhere in the. The in Indonesia are often considered to lie on the border of southeast Asia, with, to the east of the islands, being wholly part of Oceania. The terms Southeast Asia and Oceania, devised in the 19th century, have had several vastly different geographic meanings since their inception.

The chief factor in determining which islands of the Malay Archipelago are Asian has been the location of the colonial possessions of the various empires there (not all European). Lewis and Wigen assert, 'The narrowing of 'Southeast Asia' to its present boundaries was thus a gradual process.' Ongoing definition. Shown in green Geographical Asia is a cultural artifact of European conceptions of the world, beginning with the, being imposed onto other cultures, an imprecise concept causing endemic contention about what it means. Asia is larger and more culturally diverse than Europe.

It does not exactly correspond to the cultural borders of its various types of constituents. From the time of a minority of geographers have rejected the three-continent system (Europe, Africa, Asia) on the grounds that there is no or is no substantial physical separation between them.

For example, Sir, the emeritus professor of European archeology at Oxford, argues that Europe has been geographically and culturally merely 'the western excrescence of the continent of Asia'. Geographically, Asia is the major eastern constituent of the continent of with Europe being a northwestern of the landmass. Asia, Europe and Africa make up a single continuous landmass - (except for the Suez Canal) and share a common. Almost all of Europe and the better part of Asia sit atop the, adjoined on the south by the and and with the easternmost part of Siberia (east of the ) on the. The province of highlighted (in red) within the Roman Empire. Latin Asia and Greek Ἀσία appear to be the same word. Roman authors translated Ἀσία as Asia.

The Romans named a province, which roughly corresponds with modern-day central-western Turkey. There was an Asia Minor and an Asia Major located in modern-day. As the earliest evidence of the name is Greek, it is likely circumstantially that Asia came from Ἀσία, but ancient transitions, due to the lack of literary contexts, are difficult to catch in the act. The most likely vehicles were the ancient geographers and historians, such as, who were all Greek.

Certainly evidences early and rich uses of the name. The first continental use of Asia is attributed to Herodotus (about 440 BCE), not because he innovated it, but because his Histories are the earliest surviving prose to describe it in any detail. He defines it carefully, mentioning the previous geographers whom he had read, but whose works are now missing. By it he means and the, in contrast to and. Herodotus comments that he is puzzled as to why three women's names were 'given to a tract which is in reality one' (,, and, referring to Africa), stating that most Greeks assumed that Asia was named after the wife of (i.e. ), but that the say it was named after Asies, son of Cotys, who passed the name on to a tribe.

In, ' ( Ἀσία) or 'Asie' ( Ἀσίη) was the name of a ' or goddess of Lydia.' In ancient Greek religion, places were under the care of female divinities, parallel to guardian angels. The poets detailed their doings and generations in allegoric language salted with entertaining stories, which subsequently playwrights transformed into classical Greek drama and became 'Greek mythology.' For example, mentions the daughters of and, among whom are a 'holy company', 'who with the Lord and the Rivers have youths in their keeping.' Many of these are geographic: Doris, Rhodea, Europa, Asia.

Hesiod explains: 'For there are three-thousand neat-ankled daughters of Ocean who are dispersed far and wide, and in every place alike serve the earth and the deep waters.' The (attributed by the ancient Greeks to ) mentions two Phrygians (the tribe that replaced the in Lydia) in the named (an adjective meaning 'Asian'); and also a marsh or lowland containing a marsh in Lydia as ασιος. Map of western, southern, and central Asia in 1885 The history of Asia can be seen as the distinct histories of several peripheral coastal regions: East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, linked by the interior mass of the Central Asian. The coastal periphery was home to some of the world's earliest known civilizations, each of them developing around fertile river valleys. The civilizations in, the and the shared many similarities.

These civilizations may well have exchanged technologies and ideas such as and the wheel. Other innovations, such as writing, seem to have been developed individually in each area. Cities, states and empires developed in these lowlands. The central steppe region had long been inhabited by horse-mounted nomads who could reach all areas of Asia from the.

The earliest postulated expansion out of the steppe is that of the, who spread their languages into the Middle East, South Asia, and the borders of China, where the resided. The northernmost part of Asia, including much of, was largely inaccessible to the steppe nomads, owing to the dense forests, climate and. These areas remained very sparsely populated. The connected many civilizations across Asia The center and the peripheries were mostly kept separated by mountains and deserts. The and mountains and the and deserts formed barriers that the steppe horsemen could cross only with difficulty. While the urban city dwellers were more advanced technologically and socially, in many cases they could do little in a military aspect to defend against the mounted hordes of the steppe. However, the lowlands did not have enough open grasslands to support a large horsebound force; for this and other reasons, the who conquered states in China, India, and the Middle East often found themselves adapting to the local, more affluent societies.

The Islamic took over the Middle East and Central Asia during the of the 7th century. The conquered a large part of Asia in the 13th century, an area extending from China to Europe. Before the Mongol invasion, reportedly had approximately 120 million citizens; the 1300 census which followed the invasion reported roughly 60 million people. The, one of the most devastating in human history, is thought to have originated in the arid plains of central Asia, where it then travelled along the.

The began to expand into Asia from the 17th century, and would eventually take control of all of Siberia and most of Central Asia by the end of the 19th century. The controlled Anatolia, most of the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans from the mid 16th century onwards. In the 17th century, the conquered China and established the. The Islamic and the Hindu controlled much of India in the 16th and 18th centuries respectively. Geography and climate. The range is home to some of the planet's highest peaks. Asia is the largest on Earth.

It covers 8.8% of the Earth's total surface area (or 30% of its land area), and has the largest coastline, at 62,800 kilometres (39,022 mi). Asia is generally defined as comprising the eastern four-fifths of. It is located to the east of the and the, and south of the (or the ) and the and. It is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. Asia is subdivided into 48 countries, three of them (Russia, and ) having part of their land in Europe.

Asia has extremely diverse climates and geographic features. Climates range from arctic and subarctic in Siberia to tropical in southern India and Southeast Asia. It is moist across southeast sections, and dry across much of the interior. Some of the largest daily temperature ranges on Earth occur in western sections of Asia. The monsoon circulation dominates across southern and eastern sections, due to the presence of the Himalayas forcing the formation of a thermal low which draws in moisture during the summer. Southwestern sections of the continent are hot.

Siberia is one of the coldest places in the Northern Hemisphere, and can act as a source of arctic air masses for North America. The most active place on Earth for tropical cyclone activity lies northeast of the Philippines and south of Japan.

The is in and the stretches across much of the Middle East. The in China is the longest river in the continent. The between Nepal and China is the tallest mountain range in the world. Tropical rainforests stretch across much of southern Asia and coniferous and deciduous forests lie farther north. Climate change A survey carried out in 2010 by global risk analysis farm identified 16 countries that are extremely vulnerable to climate change.

Each nation's vulnerability was calculated using 42 socio, economic and environmental indicators, which identified the likely climate change impacts during the next 30 years. The Asian countries of, India,, Thailand, Pakistan and were among the 16 countries facing extreme risk from climate change.

Some shifts are already occurring. For example, in tropical parts of India with a, the temperature increased by 0.4 °C between 1901 and 2003.

A 2013 study by the () aimed to find science-based, pro-poor approaches and techniques that would enable Asia's agricultural systems to cope with climate change, while benefitting poor and vulnerable farmers. The study's recommendations ranged from improving the use of climate information in local planning and strengthening weather-based agro-advisory services, to stimulating diversification of rural household incomes and providing incentives to farmers to adopt natural resource conservation measures to enhance forest cover, replenish groundwater and use. Singapore has one of the and is the world's fourth largest trading center. Rank Country (PPP, Peak Year) millions of Peak Year 1 23,122,027 2017 2 9,446,789 2017 3 5,405,072 2017 4 4,000,096 2017 5 3,242,966 2017 6 2,132,717 2017 7 2,026,651 2017 8 1,789,264 2017 9 1,630,859 2017 10 1,228,941 2017 Rank Country (nominal, Peak Year) millions of Peak Year 1 11,937,562 2017 2 6,203,213 2012 3 2,439,008 2017 4 2,297,125 2013 5 1,529,743 2017 6 1,010,937 2017 7 950,328 2013 8 756,350 2014 9 577,214 2011 10 571,453 2017 Asia has the second largest GDP of all continents, after Europe, but the largest when measured in.

As of 2011, the largest economies in Asia are China, Japan, India, South Korea and Indonesia. Based on Global Office Locations 2011, Asia dominated the office locations with 4 of the top 5 being in Asia: Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, and Shanghai.

Crate Gxt 212 Manual High School. Around 68 percent of international firms have office in Hong Kong. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the economies of China and India have been growing rapidly, both with an average annual growth rate of more than 8%.

Other recent very-high-growth nations in Asia include,, Indonesia,, Pakistan, Thailand,,,, and the Philippines, and mineral-rich nations such as,, Iran,, the,,, Saudi Arabia, and. According to in his book The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective, India had the world's largest economy during 0 BCE and 1000 BCE. China was the on earth for much of recorded history, until the (excluding ) overtook it in the mid-19th century. For several decades in the late twentieth century Japan was the largest economy in Asia and second-largest of any single nation in the world, after surpassing the (measured in net material product) in 1986 and Germany in 1968. (NB: A number of supernational economies are larger, such as the (EU), the (NAFTA) or ).

This ended in 2010 when China overtook Japan to become the world's second largest economy. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Japan's GDP was almost as large (current exchange rate method) as that of the rest of Asia combined. [ ] In 1995, Japan's economy nearly equaled that of the USA as the largest economy in the world for a day, after the Japanese currency reached a record high of 79 /US$. Economic growth in Asia since World War II to the 1990s had been concentrated in Japan as well as the four regions of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore located in the, known as the, which have now all received developed country status, having the highest in Asia. Mumbai is one of the most populous cities on the continent. The city is an infrastructure and tourism hub, and plays a crucial role in the.

It is forecasted that India will overtake Japan in terms of nominal GDP by 2020. By 2027, according to, China will have the largest economy in the world. Several trade blocs exist, with the most developed being the. Asia is the largest continent in the world by a considerable margin, and it is rich in natural resources, such as petroleum, forests, fish, water, rice, copper and silver. Manufacturing in Asia has traditionally been strongest in East and Southeast Asia, particularly in China,, South Korea, Japan, India, the Philippines, and Singapore. Japan and South Korea continue to dominate in the area of, but increasingly the PRC and India are making significant inroads.

Many companies from Europe, North America, South Korea and Japan have operations in Asia's developing countries to take advantage of its abundant supply of cheap labour and relatively developed infrastructure. According to 9 of 11 countries came from Asia driven by population and income growth. They are, China, India, Indonesia,, Mongolia, Philippines, and Vietnam. Asia has four main financial centers: Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai.

And (BPOs) are becoming major employers in India and the Philippines due to the availability of a large pool of highly skilled, English-speaking workers. The increased use of outsourcing has assisted the rise of India and the China as financial centers. Due to its large and extremely competitive information technology industry, India has become a major hub for outsourcing. In 2010, Asia had 3.3 million millionaires (people with net worth over US$1 million excluding their homes), slightly below North America with 3.4 million millionaires.

Last year Asia had toppled Europe. Citigroup in The Wealth Report 2012 stated that Asian centa-millionaire overtook North America's wealth for the first time as the world's 'economic center of gravity' continued moving east. At the end of 2011, there were 18,000 Asian people mainly in Southeast Asia, China and Japan who have at least $100 million in disposable assets, while North America with 17,000 people and Western Europe with 14,000 people. Graph showing population by continent as a percentage of (1750 - 2005) East Asia had by far the strongest overall (HDI) improvement of any region in the world, nearly doubling average HDI attainment over the past 40 years, according to the report's analysis of health, education and income data. China, the second highest achiever in the world in terms of HDI improvement since 1970, is the only country on the 'Top 10 Movers' list due to income rather than health or education achievements. Its per capita income increased a stunning 21-fold over the last four decades, also lifting hundreds of millions out of income poverty. Yet it was not among the region's top performers in improving school enrollment and life expectancy., a South Asian country, emerges as one of the world's fastest movers since 1970 mainly due to health and education achievements.

Its present is 25 years longer than in the 1970s. More than four of every five children of school age in Nepal now attend primary school, compared to just one in five 40 years ago. Japan and South Korea ranked highest among the countries grouped on the HDI (number 11 and 12 in the world, which are in the 'very high human development' category), followed by Hong Kong (21) and Singapore (27). (155) ranked lowest amongst Asian countries out of the 169 countries assessed.

The in, according to the is the World's Largest Comprehensive Hindu Temple Almost all Asian religions have philosophical character and Asian philosophical traditions cover a large spectrum of philosophical thoughts and writings. Includes and.

They include elements of nonmaterial pursuits, whereas another school of thought from India,, preached the enjoyment of the material world. The religions of,, and originated in India, South Asia. In East Asia, particularly in China and Japan,, and took shape. As of 2012, Hinduism has around 1.1 billion adherents. The faith represents around 25% of Asia's population and is the second largest religion in Asia. However, it is mostly concentrated in South Asia.

Over 80% of the populations of both India and Nepal adhere to Hinduism, alongside significant communities in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and, Indonesia. Many overseas Indians in countries such as Burma, Singapore and Malaysia also adhere to Hinduism. Buddhism has a great following in mainland Southeast Asia and East Asia. Buddhism is the religion of the majority of the populations of (96%), (95%), (80%–89%), Japan (36%–96%), (75%–84%), (70%), (60%–67%) and (53%–93%). Large Buddhist populations also exist in Singapore (33%–51%), (35%–93%), South Korea (23%–50%), (19%–21%), (9%–11%), (10%–75%), China (20%–50%), (1.5%–14%), and small communities in India and. In many Chinese communities, Mahayana Buddhism is easily syncretized with Taoism, thus exact religious statistics is difficult to obtain and may be understated or overstated. The Communist-governed countries of China, Vietnam and North Korea are officially atheist, thus the number of Buddhists and other religious adherents may be under-reported.

Is found mainly in India and in oversea Indian communities such as the United States and Malaysia. Is found in Northern India and amongst overseas Indian communities in other parts of Asia, especially Southeast Asia. Is found predominantly in Mainland China, South Korea, Taiwan and in overseas Chinese populations. Urban Chaos Ps2 Rapidshare Search on this page. Taoism is found mainly in Mainland China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. Taoism is easily syncretized with for many Chinese, thus exact religious statistics is difficult to obtain and may be understated or overstated.

Bengali polymath was awarded the in 1913, and became Asia's first Nobel laureate The, a poet, dramatist, and writer from, now in, India, became in 1913 the first Asian. He won his for notable impact his prose works and poetic thought had on English, French, and other national literatures of Europe and the Americas. He is also the writer of the national anthems of and India. Other Asian writers who won Nobel Prize for literature include (Japan, 1968), (Japan, 1994), (China, 2000), (Turkey, 2006), and (China, 2012).

Some may consider the American writer,, an honorary Asian Nobel laureate, having spent considerable time in China as the daughter of missionaries, and based many of her novels, namely (1931) and (1933), as well as the biographies of her parents of their time in China, and, all of which earned her the Literature prize in 1938. Also, of India and of Iran were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially for the rights of women and children. Ebadi is the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to receive the prize. Another Nobel Peace Prize winner is from for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under a military dictatorship in Burma. She is a nonviolent pro-democracy activist and leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma (Myanmar) and a noted prisoner of conscience. She is a and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. Chinese dissident was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 'his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China' on 8 October 2010.

He is the first Chinese citizen to be awarded a Nobel Prize of any kind while residing in China. In 2014, from India and from Pakistan were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 'for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education'. Sir is the first Asian to get a Nobel prize in Sciences. He won the 'for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the '. Japan has won the most Nobel Prizes of any Asian nation with 24 followed by India which has won 13.

Amartya Sen, (born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members. Other Asian Nobel Prize winners include,,,,,,,,,,,, and Bishop of,, and 13 Japanese scientists. Most of the said awardees are from Japan and except for Chandrasekhar and Raman (India), Abdus Salam and Malala yousafzai, (Pakistan), Arafat (Palestinian Territories), Kim (South Korea), and Horta and Belo (Timor Leste). Of was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the establishment of, a community development bank that lends money to poor people, especially women in Bangladesh.

Yunus received his PhD in economics from Vanderbilt University, United States. He is internationally known for the concept of micro credit which allows poor and destitute people with little or no collateral to borrow money.

The borrowers typically pay back money within the specified period and the incidence of default is very low. The Dalai Lama has received approximately eighty-four awards over his spiritual and political career. On 22 June 2006, he became one of only four people ever to be recognized with Honorary Citizenship by the Governor General of Canada. On 28 May 2005, he received the Christmas Humphreys Award from the Buddhist Society in the United Kingdom. Most notable was the Nobel Peace Prize, presented in on 10 December 1989. Political geography.