Curated playlist
Historical regions of Asia
- GalileeGalilee's name appears in Egyptian inscriptions from the 15th century BC. Scholars still debate their meaning.
- LevantThe Levant gets its name from a word meaning "rising," as in where the sun rises.
- TibetTibet's army once seized the Chinese capital Chang'an for fifteen days. Tang forces and Uyghur allies then drove it out.
- OrientThe word Orient once described Moscow and the Aztec court. Its meaning kept shifting east over centuries.
- East IndiesColumbus's mistake helped create the name East Indies. He thought he reached Asia, so his find became the West Indies.
- ChamparanGandhi was arrested in Champaran in 1917 after he came to investigate farmers' complaints.
- Fertile CrescentThe Fertile Crescent, known in Arabic as al-hilāl al-ḵaṣīb, struck one archaeologist as a military formation. James Henry Breasted wrote that the region "lies like an army facing south, with one wing stretching along the eastern shore of…
- KashmirKashmir's maharaja hesitated in 1947, though most observers expected him to join Pakistan.
- Syria PalaestinaRome once stripped a rebellious province of its name as punishment. Judaea became Syria Palaestina after 132-136 AD.
- ColchisAccording to Greek and Roman sources, between 70 and 300 languages were spoken in one city of ancient Colchis.
- Palestine (region)After crushing a revolt around 135 CE, Rome renamed Judaea as Syria Palaestina.