Asia is the largest continent in the world in both, area and population, constituting nearly one-third of the landmass, lying entirely north of the equator except for some Southeast Asian islands. It is connected to Africa by the Isthmus of Suez and borders Europe (part of the same landmass) along the Ural Mountains and across the Caspian Sea.
Area: about 49 700 000 km2 (19 189 277 mi2) it covers about 60 percent of Earth’s total land area.
Population: more than 4 billion human inhabitants (4,157 million), about 60 percent of the world’s population. Seven out of ten of the most populated countries are in Asia (2010).
Highest Point: Sagarmatha (Chomolungma; known as Mount Everest) 8848m (29 028 ft) Nepal.
Largest Lake: Caspian Sea (salt lake) 371 000 km2 (143 250 mi2),
Ozero Baykal, Lake Baikal 31 500 km2 in Siberia is the world’s largest freshwater lake by volume.
Longest River: Yangtze (Yángzî Jiang, or Chang Jiang (simplified Chinese: 长江) China, 6380 km (3 964 mi).
Languages of Asia: Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Russian, Thai, Turkic, Vietnamese and other.
