Interesting Facts about Asia
By Robert Smith
Here are some facts about Asia that you should find interesting.
The largest continent in the world is home to many different
cultures, religions and the earliest civilizations.
Every climate imaginable is found in one of the regions, from
the frozen tundra of Russia, to the burning temperatures in the
Gobi desert to the tropical paradises of Indonesia.
It’s doubtful that anyone knows everything that there
is to know about the Asian continent, but the information here
is a good place to begin your quest for knowledge. Let’s
start at the beginning.
Whether you believe in evolution or creationism, the birthplace
of man was on the Asian continent, somewhere near the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers. From that spot, man spread around the continent,
moving along the southern coastlines, at first walking into Africa.
The earliest people were hunter-gatherers. They followed herds
of animals from one place to another. But, eventually they settled
down and began to build communities. Once that happened, populations
were separated from each other by mountains, deserts and other
obstacles. Although there was trading between different groups,
the isolation led to great cultural diversity, some of which
still exists today.
One of the facts about Asia with which many people are familiar,
is the large percentage of the earth’s population that lives
on the continent. About 60% of the people in the world live there,
with many of them in India and China. Sparsely populated regions
include Northern Russia and, of course, the deserts.
There are a total of six different Asian regions or sub-continents.
Within those regions are 53 different countries. Thousands of
languages and dialects are spoken. In India alone over 800 different
languages are spoken. Almost every country has more than one
native language.
Other interesting facts about Asia include the geography.
The highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest, is located
on the continent, but the lowest elevation in the world, the
Dead Sea, is found there too.
About 40 different active volcanoes can be found on the continent.
Many are located in Indonesia, but Russia is home to at least
5 different ones. So, the geography of that part of the world
is still changing.
There is more seismic activity in the Eastern Region, near
the Pacific Ocean, but earthquakes happen in all regions on a
regular basis. Massive earthquakes tend to occur near the location
of plate boundaries, such as is found in the Himalayan Mountains.
There are many other interesting facts about Asia. The ones
above are just a few of my favorites.
|
