Story behind the name: The word Asia originated from the Ancient Greek word

, first attributed to Herodotus (about 440 BC) in reference to Anatolia, or for the
purposes of describing the Persian Wars, to the Persian Empire, in contrast to
Greece and Egypt.
originally referred to the east bank of the Aegean Sea, an area known to the Hittites
as Assuwa
could have originated from the Aegean root Asis which means muddy and silty
derived from the borrowed Semitic root Asu, which means rising or light, which
refers to the sunrise, Asia thus meaning Eastern Land
In Greek mythology, Asia () or Asie () was the name of a Nymph or
Titan goddess of Lydia
Ancient continent name: Assuwa has been suggested as the origin for the name
of the continent Asia.
Area: 17,139,445 square miles or 44,391,162 square kilometers
Population: Most populous continent, approximately 4 billion people ( 60% of the
worlds current human population)
Location: Asia is the worlds largest continent and is traditionally defined as part of
the landmass of Eurasiawith the western portion of Eurasia occupied by Europe.
Asia occupies the eastern part of the Eurasian landmass and the adjacent islands,
and is separated from Europe by the Ural Mountains.
located to the east of the Suez Canal, east of the Ural Mountains and south of the
Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian and Black Seas.
bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on
the north by the Arctic Ocean
Economy and Currencies: Asia has the second largest nominal GDP of all
continents, after Europe, but the largest when measured in PPP.
The largest economies in Asia are China, Japan, India, South Korea and Indonesia.
Speaking of currency, there are different kinds of currencies used across Asia.
The continent of Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent with over 4
billion people calling Asia home. Asia also contains the world's most populous
country, China, and the world's largest country, Russia. Asia borders Africa and
Europe to the west and the Pacific Ocean to the east.
Major cities:
Tokyo, Japan
Jakarta, Indonesia
Seoul, South Korea
Delhi, India
Mumbai, India
Manila, Philippines
Shanghai, China
Osaka, Japan
Kolkata, India
Karachi, Pakistan
Bordering Bodies of Water: Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Arctic Ocean, Arabian Sea,
Bay of Bengal, South China Sea, Yellow Sea, Bering Sea
Major Rivers and Lakes: Caspian Sea, Lake Baikal, Aral Sea, Qinghai Lake, Yangtze
River, Yellow River, Ganges River, Indus River
Major Geographical Features: Himalayas, Ural Mountains, Kunlun Mountains, Arabian

Desert, Gobi Desert, Takla Makan Desert, Thar Desert, Island of Japan, Mount
Everest, Siberia

Asia largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and
northern hemispheres. Though it covers only 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area,
it comprises 30% of Earth's land area, and has historically been home to the bulk of
the planet's human population (currently roughly 60%). Asia is notable for not only
overall large size and population, but unusually dense and large settlements as well
as vast barely populated regions within the continent of 4.4 billion people. 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 to
world average levels.[3]
The boundaries of Asia are culturally determined, as there is no clear geographical
separation between it and Europe, which together form one continuous landmass
called Eurasia. The most commonly accepted boundaries place Asia to the east of
the Suez Canal, the Ural River, and the Ural Mountains, and south of the Caucasus
Mountains (or the KumaManych Depression) and the Caspian and Black Seas.[4][5] 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.
Given its size and diversity, the concept of Asiaa name dating back to classical
antiquitymay actually have more to do with human geography than physical
geography.[6] Asia varies greatly across and within its regions with regard to ethnic
groups, cultures, environments, economics, historical ties and government systems.

Geographical Asia is a cultural artifact of European conceptions of the world being imposed onto
other cultures, an imprecise concept causing endemic contention about what it means. Asia is
larger and more culturally diverse than Europe.[9] It does not exactly correspond to the cultural
borders of its various types of constituents.[10]
From the time of Herodotus 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.[6] For example, Sir Barry Cunliffe, 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".[11] Geographically, Asia is the major eastern constituent of
the continent of Eurasia with Europe being a northwestern peninsula of the landmass or of
Afro-Eurasia; geologically, Asia, Europe and Africa make up a single continuous landmass
(except for the Suez Canal) and share a common continental shelf. Almost all of Europe and the
better part of Asia sit atop the Eurasian Plate, adjoined on the south by the Arabian and Indian
Plate and with the easternmost part of Siberia (east of the Chersky Range) on the North
American Plate.