The word Asia originated from the Ancient Greek word Ασία, 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” (Ἀσία) or “Asie” (Ἀσίη) was the name of a Nymph or Titan goddess of Lydia

Here are fifteen interesting fact on Asia

1. Asia is the largest continent by landmass and human population. The area of Asia is larger than the land area of the moon.  (44.6K sq km – 37k sq km respectively.)

2. Asia has a population of over 4 billion people or better than 60% of the world’s population. This many people standing side by side holding hands would reach around the world at the equator more than 100 times.

3. More than half of Asia’s population is in two countries in Asia – China (1.3 billion) and India (1.1 billion). India is guestimated to take over China in about 20 years or so.



4. Asia’s boundaries extend from the Suez Canal and Ural Mountains in the west, to the south of the Caucasus Mountains and Caspian and Black Seas. Also to the South is the Indian Ocean, to the North the Arctic Ocean and to the Far East the Pacific Ocean.



5. Asia can be divided into 6 subcontinents -

Central Asia – Kazakhstan Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
East Asia – China, Japan, Mongolia, Taiwan, North and South Korea.
North Asia – Russia.
India Subcontinent – India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka.
Southeast Asia – Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar [Burma], Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Southwest Asia – The Middle East including Turkey, Iran, Cyprus, Israel, and Lebanon.
Here is my List of Countries in Asia.

6.  Three of the top four economies in the world are in Asia – China, Japan and India. They are numbers 2, 3 and 4 respectively. However, tiny Japan has less than 1/10th of the population of China or India. Yet Asia’s economy as a continent trails North America and Europe.

7. Asia’s three dominant financial centers are Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore.


Tokyo Financial Center
8. Asia’s dominant religions are Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucian/Taoism and Islam.

9. Asia’s western most point is Cape Baba in Northwestern Turkey.


Cape Baba Turkey
10. Asia’s eastern most point is Cape Chelyuskin in Siberia.


Cape Chelyuskin
11. Asia is 5,300 miles wide

12. Asia is home to the highest (Mount Everest 8,848m) and lowest Dead Sea (-395m) points on Earth.

13. Asia is home to the birth of the human species and civilization. Somewhere near where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers meet.

14. The Ten longest rivers in Asia -

Yangtze (Chang Jiang) – 6,300 km – 3,915 miles

Yangtze (Chang Jiang)
Yellow River (Huang He) – 5,464 km – 3,395 miles
Lena River – 4,400 km – 2,734 miles
Mekong River – 4,350 km – 2,703 miles
Irtysh River – 4,248 km – 2,640 miles
Yenisei River – 4,090 km – 2,540 miles
Ob River – 3,650 km – 2,268 miles
Nizhnyaya Tunguska River – 2,989 km – 1,857 miles
Indus River – 2,900 km – 1,800 miles
Brahmaputra River – 2,900 km – 1,800 miles
if linked end tn end would reach around the world at the equator.

15. The ten tallest mountains in Asia -

1.  Everest (8,848 m), Nepal-Tibet

2.  K2 (8,611 m), Pakistan-China

3.  Kangchenjunga (8,586 m), Nepal-Sikkim, India

4.  Lhotse (8,516 m), Nepal-Tibet, China

5.  Makalu (8,462 m), Nepal-Tibet, China

6.  Cho Oyu (8,201 m), Nepal-Tibet, China

7.  Dhaulagiri (8,167 m), Nepal

8.  Manaslu (8,156 m), Nepal

9.  Nanga Parbat (8,125 m), Pakistan

10.  Annapurna (8,091 m), Nepal

if stacked one on top of the other would reach into space. By contrast Mount Fuji at 3.776 is less than half as tall as the shortest in this list.