Curated category
Regions of Asia
- Southeast AsiaThe Sunda plate anchors the geological heart of Southeast Asia, yet it stops short of Myanmar and northern Thailand. This tectonic boundary creates a…
- East AsiaEast Asia stretches from the Pacific Ocean to the western borders of Central Asia. This region includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and…
- Central AsiaAlexander von Humboldt drew the first modern map of Central Asia in 1843, placing its borders between 5 degrees north and south of latitude 44.5 degrees…
- South AsiaThe Indian Plate began its northward journey from ancient Gondwana roughly 50 to 55 million years ago. This massive landmass eventually collided with the…
- Middle EastIn September 1902, a United States naval strategist named Alfred Thayer Mahan published an article titled "The Persian Gulf and International Relations" in…
- North AsiaNorth Asia covers an area of 13,132,900 square kilometers. This vast territory represents 8.8% of Earth's total land area.
- MesopotamiaThe Tigris and Euphrates rivers rise in the Armenian highlands, flowing southward to empty into the Persian Gulf. Their waters fed a semi-arid landscape that…
- LevantThe word Levant appears in English texts from 1497. It originally meant the East or Mediterranean lands east of Italy. This term derives from the French word…
- South CaucasusThe South Caucasus stretches from the Black Sea in the west to the Caspian Sea coast of Iran in the east. This region spans the southern portion of the…
- Near EastIn 1855, a letter to The Times by Thomas Taylor Meadows introduced the phrase Near East to describe Ottoman territories.
- Islamic worldIn 610 CE, a merchant named Muhammad received his first revelation in the city of Mecca. This event marked the beginning of Islam as both a religion and a…
- East IndiesA 1606 map of the East Indies shows a vast expanse of islands and coastlines stretching from India to New Guinea. Portuguese explorers coined the term Indies…
- KashmirThe word Kashmir appears in the Sanskrit text Ashtadhyayi, written by the grammarian Pānini during the 5th century BC. Pānini called the people of that…
- AnatoliaThe westernmost protrusion of Asia extends into the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Aegean Sea to the west. The Turkish Straits mark the northwestern…
- Indian subcontinentThe Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and…
- Palestine (region)The earliest written record referring to Palestine as a geographical region appears in the Histories of Herodotus, published during the 5th century BCE.
- BengalPottery with processional scenes from the Chandraketugarh region of West Bengal dates back to 100 BC. Archaeological evidence shows that rice-cultivating…