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Asia (/ˈeɪʒə/ ^ⓘ AY-zhə, UK also /ˈeɪʃə/ AY-shə) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometers, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the human population, was the site of many of the first civilizations. Its 4.7 billion people constitute roughly 60% of the world's population.

Asia shares the landmass of Eurasia with Europe, and of Afro-Eurasia with both Europe and Africa. In general terms, it is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. The border of Asia with Europe is a historical and cultural construct, as there is no clear physical and geographical separation between them. A commonly accepted division places Asia to the east of the Suez Canal separating it from Africa; and to the east of the Turkish straits, the Ural Mountains and Ural River, and to the south of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian and Black seas, separating it from Europe.

Since the concept of Asia derives from the term for the eastern region from a European perspective, Asia is the remaining vast area of Eurasia minus Europe. Therefore, Asia is a region where various independent cultures coexist rather than sharing a single culture, and the boundary between Europe is somewhat arbitrary and has moved since its first conception in classical antiquity. The division of Eurasia into two continents reflects East–West cultural differences, some of which vary on a spectrum. (Full article...)

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Featured article

The Anbar campaign consisted of fighting between the United States military, together with Iraqi security forces, and Sunni insurgents in the western Iraqi governorate of Al Anbar. The Iraq War lasted from 2003 to 2011, but the majority of the fighting and counterinsurgency campaign in Anbar took place between April 2004 and September 2007. Although the fighting initially featured heavy urban warfare primarily between insurgents and U.S. Marines, insurgents in later years focused on ambushing the American and Iraqi security forces with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), large scale attacks on combat outposts, and car bombings. Almost 9,000 Iraqis and 1,335 Americans were killed in the campaign, many in the Euphrates River Valley and the Sunni Triangle around the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.

Al Anbar, the only Sunni-dominated province in Iraq, saw little fighting in the initial invasion. Following the fall of Baghdad it was occupied by the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division. Violence began on 28 April 2003 when 17 Iraqis were killed in Fallujah by U.S. soldiers during an anti-American demonstration. In early 2004 the U.S. Army relinquished command of the governorate to the Marines. By April 2004 the governorate was in full-scale revolt. Savage fighting occurred in both Fallujah and Ramadi by the end of 2004, including the Second Battle of Fallujah. Violence escalated throughout 2005 and 2006 as the two sides struggled to secure the Western Euphrates River Valley. During this time, Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) became the governorate's main Sunni insurgent group and turned the provincial capital of Ramadi into its stronghold. The Marine Corps issued an intelligence report in late 2006 declaring that the governorate would be lost without a significant additional commitment of troops. (Full article...)

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Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it is one of the countries situated in the Gulf region. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about 2,150,000 km² (830,000 sq mi), making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the largest in the Middle East, and the 12th-largest in the world. It is bordered by the Red Sea to the west; Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait to the north; the Persian Gulf, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to the east; Oman to the southeast; and Yemen to the south. The Gulf of Aqaba in the northwest separates Saudi Arabia from Egypt and Israel. Saudi Arabia is the only country with a coastline along both the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and most of its terrain consists of arid desert, lowland, steppe, and mountains. The capital and largest city is Riyadh; other major cities include Jeddah and the two holiest cities in Islam, Mecca and Medina. With a population of almost 32.2 million, Saudi Arabia is the fourth most populous country in the Arab world.

Pre-Islamic Arabia, the territory that constitutes modern-day Saudi Arabia, was the site of several ancient cultures and civilizations; the prehistory of Saudi Arabia shows some of the earliest traces of human activity outside Africa. Islam, the world's second-largest religion, emerged in what is now Saudi Arabia in the early seventh century. Islamic prophet Muhammad united the population of the Arabian Peninsula and created a single Islamic religious polity. Following his death in 632, his followers expanded Muslim rule beyond Arabia, conquering territories in North Africa, Central, South Asia and Iberia within decades. Arab dynasties originating from modern-day Saudi Arabia founded the Rashidun (632–661), Umayyad (661–750), Abbasid (750–1517), and Fatimid (909–1171) caliphates, as well as numerous other dynasties in Asia, Africa, and Europe. (Full article...)

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Featured biography

Soegijapranata in 1960

Albertus Soegijapranata, SJ (Indonesian: [alˈbərtʊs suˈɡijapraˈnata]; Perfected Spelling: Albertus Sugiyapranata; 25 November 1896 – 22 July 1963), better known by his birth name Soegija, was a Jesuit priest who became the Apostolic Vicar of Semarang and later its archbishop. He was the first native Indonesian bishop and known for his pro-nationalistic stance, often expressed as "100% Catholic 100% Indonesian".

Soegija was born in Surakarta, Dutch East Indies, to a Muslim courtier and his wife. The family moved to nearby Yogyakarta when Soegija was still young; there he began his education. Known as a bright child, around 1909 he was asked by Father Frans van Lith to enter Xaverius College, a Jesuit school in Muntilan, where Soegija slowly became interested in Catholicism. He was baptised on 24 December 1910. After graduating from Xaverius in 1915 and spending a year as a teacher there, Soegija spent two years at the on-site seminary before going to the Netherlands in 1919. He began his two-year novitiate with the Society of Jesus in September 1920 in Grave, and finished his juniorate there in 1923. After three years studying philosophy at Berchmann College in Oudenbosch, he was sent back to Muntilan as a teacher for a further two years. In 1928, he returned to the Netherlands to study theology at Maastricht, where he was ordained by Bishop of Roermond Laurentius Schrijnen on 15 August 1931; Soegija then added the word "pranata" to the back of his name. He was then sent back to the Indies to preach and became a parochial vicar at the parish in Kidul Loji, Yogyakarta, and in 1934 he was given his own parish in Bintaran. There he focused on creating a sense of Catholicism within the native community, emphasising the need for strong bonds between Catholic families. Soegijapranata was consecrated as the vicar apostolic of the newly established Apostolic Vicariate of Semarang in 1940. (Full article...)

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General images

The following are images from various Asia-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Map of Marco Polo's travels (from History of Asia)
Image 2A view of the Fort St George in 18th-century Madras. (from History of Asia)
Image 3Map of Vietnam showing the conquest of the south (the Nam tiến, 1069–1757). (from History of Asia)
Image 4The Syriac Orthodox Saint Ahoadamah Church was a 7th-century church building in the city of Tikrit, one of the oldest in the world until its destruction by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on 25 September 2014. (from Culture of Asia)
Image 5Political map of Asia in 1860 (from History of Asia)
Image 6India's middle-class population of 300 million is growing at an annual rate of 5%. Shown here is an upmarket area in South Mumbai. (from Asian Century)
Image 7Tang dynasty Chinese poet Li Bai, in a 13th-century depiction by Liang Kai (from Culture of Asia)
Image 8Ancient ziggurat, Iraq (from Culture of Asia)
Image 9Hinduism expansion in Asia, from its heartland in Indian Subcontinent, to the rest of Asia, especially Southeast Asia, started circa 1st century marked with the establishment of early Hindu settlements and polities in Southeast Asia. (from History of Asia)
Image 10The Qing conquest of the Ming and expansion of the empire (from History of Asia)
Image 11Machiya in Heian period (from History of Asia)
Image 12The Russian Znamensky Cathedral in Tyumen built in 1768 (from Culture of Asia)
Image 13The Qing Empire in 1832. (from History of Asia)
Image 14Korean peninsula in 476 AD. There are three kingdoms and Gaya Union in the picture. This picture shows the heyday of Goguryeo (from History of Asia)
Image 15Some henges at Göbekli Tepe in Turkey were erected as far back as 9600 BC, predating those of Stonehenge, by over seven millennia. (from History of Asia)
Image 16The early Muslim conquests, 622–750 (from History of Asia)
Image 17Population concentration and boundaries of the Western Zhou dynasty in China (from History of Asia)
Image 18Detail of the Dragon Throne used by the Qianlong Emperor of China, Forbidden City, Qing dynasty. Artifact circulating in U.S. museums on loan from Beijing (from Culture of Asia)
Image 19Sun temple at Konarka, Odisha, India (from Culture of Asia)
Image 20The Delhi Sultanate. (from History of Asia)
Image 21Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine in Jerusalem. (from Culture of Asia)
Image 22The First Persian Empire at its greatest extent, c. 500 BC (from History of Asia)
Image 23The Great Wall of China at Jinshanling (from Culture of Asia)
Image 24Language families in South Asia (from Culture of Asia)
Image 25Kabsa also called Majboos, famous in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, and United Arab Emirates (from Culture of Asia)
Image 26East Asian cultural sphere (from Culture of Asia)
Image 27Detail of Chinese silk from the 4th century BCE. The characteristic trade of silk through the Silk Road connected various regions from China, India, Central Asia, and the Middle East to Europe and Africa. (from History of Asia)
Image 28Projected shares of global GDP by region to 2050 (from Asian Century)
Image 29Borobudur, a Buddhist temple in Indonesia (from Culture of Asia)
Image 30Philippine cuisine (from Culture of Asia)
Image 31A stone image of the Buddha (from Culture of Asia)
Image 32Daian-ji temple at Nara, Japan (from Culture of Asia)
Image 33the Goryeo ware, which shows splendid culture of Goryeo in mediaeval Korea. (from History of Asia)
Image 34A typical example of Dravidian architecture (from Culture of Asia)
Image 35The Mughal ambassador Khan’Alam in 1618 negotiating with Shah Abbas the Great of Iran. (from History of Asia)
Image 36Balhae in the north, Later Silla in the south (from History of Asia)
Image 37Indonesian Balinese cuisine (from Culture of Asia)
Image 38Byzantine and Sassanian Empires in 600 AD (from History of Asia)
Image 39Sculpture of Prince Shōtoku (from History of Asia)
Image 40The Taj Mahal, Agra, India (from Culture of Asia)
Image 41Invasions, destruction and possible population movements during the Late Bronze Age collapse, beginning c. 1200 BC (from History of Asia)
Image 42Robert Clive and Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey, 1757 by Francis Hayman (from History of Asia)
Image 43The Grand Mosque in Kuwait City, one of the largest mosques in the region (from Culture of Asia)
Image 44Battle of Talas between Tang dynasty and Abbasid Caliphate c. 751 (from History of Asia)
Image 45The Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taipei, Taiwan, which was the tallest building in the world from 2004 to 2010 (from Asian Century)
Image 46Daily life of people from the Song period at the capital, Bianjing, today's Kaifeng (from History of Asia)
Image 47Eunpyeong Hanok Village in Seoul, South Korea (from Culture of Asia)
Image 48Deoksugung, the palace where Emperor Gojong established Korean Empire. (from History of Asia)
Image 49Traditional Rajasthani garments from Jaipur, Rajasthan (from Culture of Asia)
Image 50Political cartoon depicting the Afghan Emir Sher Ali with the rival "friends" the Russian Bear and British Lion (1878) (from History of Asia)
Image 51British troops taking Zhenjiang from Qing troops (from History of Asia)
Image 52The Great Wave off Kanagawa, c. 1830 by Hokusai, an example of art flourishing in the Edo Period (from History of Asia)
Image 53A Confucian ritual ceremony in Jeju, South Korea (from Culture of Asia)
Image 54Here a Jesuit, Adam Schall von Bell (1592–1666), is dressed as an official of the Chinese Department of Astronomy. (from History of Asia)
Image 55Chicken tikka, a well-known dish across the globe, reflects the South Asian cooking style. (from Culture of Asia)
Image 56The Hindu-Buddhist temple of Angkor Wat. (from History of Asia)
Image 57The third Inter-Korean Summit, which was held in 2018, between South Korean president Moon Jae-in and North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un. It was a historical event that symbolized the peace of Asia. (from History of Asia)
Image 58The Song dynasty and main polities in Asia c. 1200 (from History of Asia)
Image 59Angkor Wat, Khmer Empire (from Culture of Asia)
Image 60The global contribution to world's GDP by major economies from 1 AD to 2003 AD according to Angus Maddison's estimates. Before 18th century, China and India were the two largest economies by GDP output. (from Asian Century)
Image 61Map of Asia for early 20th century (from History of Asia)
Image 62Gyeonghoeru of Gyeongbokgung, the Joseon dynasty's royal palace. (from History of Asia)
Image 63Badshahi Mosque built under the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in Lahore, Pakistan (from Culture of Asia)
Image 64Gojong (1852–1919), the 26th king of Joseon dynasty and the first emperor of Korean Empire. (from History of Asia)
Image 65Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jeruslam (from Culture of Asia)
Image 66The Silk Road in Asia (from History of Asia)
Image 67Map of Asia (from Culture of Asia)
Image 68Đại Việt, Champa, Angkor Empire and their neighbours, late 13th century (from History of Asia)
Image 69The Han dynasty and main polities in Asia c. 200 BC (from History of Asia)

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Featured picture

History of coffee

Credit: Keystone View Company

The earliest credible evidence of either coffee drinking or knowledge of the coffee tree appears in the late 15th century, by Sufi Imam Muhammad Ibn Said Al Dhabhani who is known to have imported goods from Ethiopia to Yemen. From the Arabian peninsula its use spread across the globe. The picture shows Palestinian women grinding coffee beans.

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Did you know...

... that although he was a former Indonesian prime minister, Soekiman Wirjosandjojo was not arrested during a political purge as he was considered a non-threat?
... that Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, India's second Muslim president, was also the second Indian president to die in office?
... that the Empire of Japan turned a Korean royal cemetery at what is now Hyochang Park into a golf course?
... that Ein Samiya, which provides the water for Taybeh, the first beer brewed in Palestine, was depopulated in 2023 after genocide and displacement by Israeli settlers?
... that the popularity of "10 Minutes" by Korean singer Lee Hyori led to 2003 being dubbed the "year of Hyori" by domestic media?
... that Sun Haiyan is the first Chinese ambassador to Singapore who was not a member of the Foreign Ministry of China?
... that University of Nebraska alumnus M. Khalid Roashan helped draft the 1964 Constitution of Afghanistan?
... that the Pakistani film Shehr e Tabassum was the first animated cyberpunk film to be made by an Urdu development team?
... that the Mughâret Umm et-Tûeimîn Caves in Filistin (or Palestine) was home to a Bronze Age alabaster quarry, a refuge cave during the Jewish–Roman wars, and a possible center for necromantic activity in late antiquity?

Updated: 6:33, 14 February 2024

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In the news

15 November 2024 – 2024 Sri Lankan parliamentary election: Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's National People's Power coalition wins a supermajority in the snap election for the 17th Parliament of Sri Lanka. (Reuters)
14 November 2024 – Israel–Hezbollah conflict: 2024 Israeli invasion of Lebanon; Fifteen rescue workers are killed during an Israeli airstrike against the Regional Civil Defence Centre's headquarters in Baalbek, Lebanon. (Al Jazeera)
14 November 2024 – Syrian civil war: Israel's role in the Syrian civil war; Sixteen people are killed and 15 others are injured in Israeli airstrikes against residential buildings in Damascus, Syria, that Israel claims are associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The PIJ announces that a number of its militants are among the fatalities of the Damascus' attacks. (Al Mayadeen) (Al Jazeera)
14 November 2024 – Insurgency in Balochistan: Seven people, including two soldiers, are killed in explosions in Harnai and Ziarat Districts, Balochistan, Pakistan. (TRT World)

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Major Religions in Asia

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Central Asia and Caucasus

Indian Subcontinent

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Selected panorama

Credit: David Iliff

The night skyline of Hong Kong, Victoria Harbour and Kowloon, as seen from Victoria Peak, the tallest mountain on Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong is located on China's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders Guangdong province in the north and faces the South China Sea in the east, west and south. It has a population of 6.9 million people, and is one of the most densely populated areas in the world.