According to Countryaah, the largest country in Asia is China, followed by India. And the smallest is the Maldives.
Nomads time ca. 500-C. 1500
The larger interconnected areas of Asia, particularly suitable for agriculture, are found along the coasts of the west, east and south. In the centuries surrounding the birth of Christ, all the most suitable areas were home to densely populated agricultural crops. To this was added parts of Central Asia, where, despite uncertain rainfall, there could be a basis for fairly dense agricultural communities around natural oases, rivers or irrigated areas.
Communication between the densely populated agricultural areas was made difficult until the 1900s. of natural barriers, mountains, deserts and seas, and therefore the world’s population has lived throughout most of its history in ignorance of the continent’s extent and population. Every single cultural area, every “human ant nest” lived its own life. Nevertheless, cultural links between the most remote parts of the continent, albeit indirect and slow, have continued. There are clear examples of spontaneous development of vastly different solutions to the same problem in different cultures, but equally clear examples exist that material or intangible cultural features have migrated over long distances and have been adapted or recorded in distant areas.
Throughout history, two possibilities have been open to contact between Asia’s cultures: the Central Asian steppe land and the sea. The period from approx. 500 to approx. 1500 was, for any other period, the time of the steppes and nomads in the history of the continent, when man – especially after the introduction of the stirrup in the second half of 1000-t. – learned to take advantage of all the horse’s opportunities both in war and in peace.
Country | Highest mountain |
Afghanistan | Nowshak (approx. 7,490 masl ) |
Bahrain | Jabal al-Dukhan (135 m asl) |
Bangladesh | Keokradong (1,231 masl) |
Bhutan | Gangkhar Puensum (7,561 masl) |
Brunei | Bukit Pagon (1,850 m asl ) |
Burma | Hkakabo Razi (5,881 masl) |
Philippines | Mount Apo (2954 masl) |
United Arab Emirates | Jebel Hafit (1166 masl) |
India | Kanchenjunga ( 8,598 masl ) |
Indonesia | Puncak Jaya (Papua, 5,030 m asl) |
Iraq | Rawanduz (3,658 masl) |
Iran | Damavand (5671 masl) |
Israel | Meron (1208 m asl) |
Japan | Fuji / Fujisan Volcano (3776 m asl) |
Yemen | Nabi Shuayb (3760 m asl) |
Jordan | Jabal Ramm (1754 masl) |
Cambodia | Phnom Aural (in the Cardamom Mountains, 1,813 m above sea level) |
Kazakhstan | Khan Tengri (southeast, 7,010 masl) |
China | Qomolangma (Mount Everest on the border with Nepal, 8848 m above sea level) |
Kyrgyzstan | Jengish Chokusu (in Tien Shan Mountains) ( 7,439 m above sea level ) |
Kuwait | – |
Laos | Phou Bia (2,817 m asl) |
Lebanon | al-Qurnat al-Sawda (3,087 masl) |
Malaysia | Kinabalu (in Sabah; 4,101 m above sea level) |
Maldives | the highest point is 2.4 m above sea level on the island of Wilingili in the Addu Atoll |
Mongolia | Chöjten (4374 m above sea level) |
Nepal | Mount Everest (8,848 masl) |
North Korea | Paektu (2744 m asl) |
Oman | Jabal shams (3,018 m asl) |
Pakistan | K2 (Mount Godwin Austen) (8,611 masl) |
Qatar | – |
Saudi Arabia | Jabal al-Sawda (3,133 m asl) |
Singapore | Bukit Timah (165 m asl) |
Sri Lanka | Pidurutalagala (2,524 masl) |
South Korea | Halla-san (1950 masl) |
Syria | Jabal al-Shaykh (or Hermon 2,814 m above sea level) |
Tajikistan | Pik Ismoil Somoni (7,495 masl) |
Taiwan | Yu Shan (Mount Morrison, 3952 masl) |
Thailand | Doi Inthanon (2,576 masl) |
Turkmenistan | Airibaba (3,139 masl) |
Uzbekistan | Khazret Sultan (4,643 m asl) |
Vietnam | Fan Si Pan (3,143 masl) |
East Timor | Foho Tata Mailau (2,963 m asl) |
The Central Asian steppe country
According to Abbreviationfinder, the Central Asian steppe country is, for climatic reasons, only to a limited extent suitable for agricultural cultivation and thus for closer settlement; on the other hand, it is suitable for cattle breeding and has from a very early date been home to nomads. To the north and northwest, the steppe country is bounded by a forest belt, to the south by mountains or desert, and only in the east and southwest does the steppe land pass without natural barriers into the densely populated agricultural areas of China, Iran and southern Europe.
Between the cattle-farming nomads and the peasants, there was largely a symbiotic relationship; the nomads made use of land not suitable for arable land and gladly traded their products for the farmer’s. The nomads understood the cargo and riding animals that allowed communication between distant areas. In addition to the symbiotic, however, there also existed a contradiction that reflected the vastly different conditions of life. Especially in areas with irrigation, the field farmer was bound to a specific location and depended on peace and security. The nomad depended on freedom and movement, and on still walking he had to follow his pasture with his animals, and had to be prepared to fight for the best pastures.
Exactly when the nomads learned to use the horse as a riding animal, you do not know. In 1000-tfKr. the horse was used militarily, biased tanks, and it is a military technique that is first and foremost linked to the more developed agricultural areas. First from 800-tfKr. we meet more extensive use of the horse as a riding animal – yet without stirrups. From 600-tfKr. the Middle East was attacked by prepared nomads and from 300 AD. China. For the history of China, these early nomadic attacks became crucial, as it was with the use of nomadic fighting techniques that China rallied during the Qind Dynasty in 221 BC.
Plant Life
Farthest in the north, the Arctic tundra rules with giants and marshes (see also the Arctic). A little further south there is a mosaic of forest tundra that gradually turns into taiga. The forest boundary is formed in Western Siberia by an eastern subspecies of spruce, further east by Siberian larch and Dahuric larch (Laʹrix gmeliʹnii). In central Siberia, at the mouth of the Chatanga River, lies the tree line at 72 ° 37 ′ north latitude, the northernmost in the world.
The tajgan, with spruces, pine trees, larches and fir trees, and deciduous trees such as birch, alar and willow, form a wide belt, in central Siberia from about 45 to 70 ° north latitude. The area is characterized by very cold winters with prolonged snow cover and relatively warm but short summers. The vegetation period is 3–5 months and the annual rainfall is 350–700 mm. Pod oil soils dominate, and about 2/3 of the zone is in the area of permafrost. As in the tundra zone, large areas are swamped with marshes. The flora is uniform and fairly poor in species. Coniferous forest also occurs on mountain ranges further south, for example in Altaj.
Summer green deciduous forests occur in Western Siberia as a mosaic between the coniferous forest in the north and the steppe in the south, but especially in the temperate parts of East Asia, that is, in central and northeastern China and in most of Japan. They are richer than deciduous forests in Europe and North America, but they are often the same genus as there, including oaks, chestnuts, elm, ashes, walnut, maples and lime trees. In addition, East Asian genera such as cork trees (Phellodeʹndron), goddess trees (Ailaʹnthus) and pagoda trees (Soʹphora).
Some genera, such as hickory, catkins and tulip trees (Liriodeʹndron), occur in East Asia and North America but disappeared from Europe during the ice ages. Many of our ornamental plants come from the East Asian deciduous forest area, such as roses, cherries, lilacs, forsythias and sprouts. To the north and in the mountains, there is a significant element of conifers, in Japan, for example, the endemic species of cryptomeria and solar spring (Sciadopiʹtys verticiʹllata). Above the forest border in Japan and especially in China there are rich alps.
In southern Japan and southeastern and south-central China, the summer-green deciduous forests gradually change into evergreen forests, with many species of oaks and related families, as well as representatives of the families stock plants, tea plants, magnolia plants, witch hazel plants. Among the conifers are strange living fossils such as ginkgo and Chinese sequoia. Bamboo plays a big role and can be dominant locally. China is believed to have about 30,000 species of seed plants, or almost three times as many as Europe. In the lowland area, natural vegetation has to a large extent been replaced by cultivated land.
The Pontic-Central Asian region encompasses vast areas of steppe, peninsula and desert, from the southern Russian Federation and the countries east of the Caspian Sea to Pamir, Tibet and Gobi. In the loose soil areas of the southern Russian Federation there are grass steppes, often dominated by spring grass and with rich spring flowering of, among other things, onion plants. Iranian highlands and adjacent areas largely dominated by steppes and semi-deserts with thorny kuddväxter in among other genera vedlar, Cousi’nia and tuvrispar (Acantho’limon). Despite the arid touch, it is a rich area (about 9,000 species of seed plants in Iran). The high plateaus Pamir, Tibet and Gobi are largely desert-rich and very poor in species, with sparse vegetation of grasses, amaranth plants and moths, among others. Salt-affected areas, such as the lowlands north of the Caspian Sea, are characterized by species that in Europe only appear as beach plants, such as glaze, soda and saltmold.
In the eastern Himalayas (Sikkim), between 900 and 2,000 meters in height, dense mountain rainforests grow with both tropical elements such as bamboo and palm trees and temperate genera such as walnut, Castanoʹpsis and Lithocaʹrpus. The flora is rich in often epiphytic ferns and orchids.
Higher up follows a coniferous forest zone with, among other things, the Hemlock species Tsuʹga dumoʹsa. In the cloud zone (approximately 2,600–4,000 m above sea level) rhododendrons predominate. Above the tree line are rich alps with vivas, spiers and mountain poppies, or mountain heaths with low bushes of rhododendrons, barberry and juniper. On the alpine level grows pillowforming species including philistines and Draba. The vegetation limit is approximately 5 700 m above sea level.
In large parts of Southeast Asia there are rainforests and monsoon forests, which are among the world’s richest ecosystems. Important families are screw palms, ginger plants, mulberries and dipterocarp plants. Among the epiphytes are many orchids (in Thailand more than 1,000 species) and the insect- trapping pitchers. Pepper, cinnamon, mango and breadfruit originate from the area, probably also sugar cane and coconut palm. In drier parts, for example in the interior of Thailand, the forests are scarier and leafless during part of the dry season and here growsteak.
In the Philippines, Sulawesi (Celebes) and New Guinea there are some Australian elements such as eucalyptus, on mountain tops representatives of northern, temperate genera such as buttercups and starlings.
Along the Malabar coast in Ancient India there is tropical rainforest with a large element of palm trees and bamboo species. Large parts of the Indian peninsula have savanna-like vegetation, including acacias and other trees in the pea family. Here there is a certain floristic relationship with tropical Africa. In the northwest there are desert areas. Most important among the tropical plants in tropical Asia are rice, in drier areas also millet and dry.