Places and Landscape
Asia Reviewer
 Asia is the world largest
continent in the world.
 The most populous continent
 The most diverse continent
 Asia has highest and lowest
point in the earth
 Has the longest coastline
among all the continent
 The worlds widest climatic
extremes, produce varied forms
of vegetation and animal life on
earth.
 Peoples of Asia establish
variety of human adaptation.
 Asia is divided into five major
physical regions:
o Mountain systems
o Plateaus
o Plains, steppes, and
desert
o Freshwater environments
o Saltwater environments.
Mountain System
 Himalaya mountains separates
the Indian subcontinent from the
rest of Asia.
 The Himalayas are so vast that
they are composed of three
different mountain belts.
 The northernmost belt, is known
as the “the great Himalayas”
which has the highest mountain
belt.
 The belt contains the nine of the
highest peaks in the world.
 This belt includes the highest
mountain summit in the world,
Mount Everest.
 Tien Shan Mountain system
means “celestial mountains” In
Chinese.
 Ural Mountains are some of
the world’s oldest mountains.
 Over the years due to erosion, it
lowered the mountains
significantly.
Plateaus
 Asian is the home of many
plateaus.
 The highest mountain peak is
Damavand
 The Deccan Plateau makes up
most of the southern India.
 It is bordered by three mountain
ranges:
o Satpura Range in the
north
o Easter and Western
Ghats on either side.
 Plateau and its waterways are
Godavari and Krishna rivers
gently slope towards the
eastern Ghast and the Bay of
Bengal.
 The Tibetan Plateau is usually
considered the largest and the
highest areas ever to exist in
the history of earth.
 This is known as the “Rooftop
of the World”
 The Tibetan Plateau is
extremely important to the
world’s water cycle because of
its tremendous number of
glaciers. These glaciers contain
the largest volume of ice
outside the poles. The ice and
snow from these glaciers feed
Asia’s largest rivers.
Plains, Steppes, and Deserts
 The West Siberian Plain
located in central Russia is
considered the worlds largest
areas of continuous flatland.
  Central is dominated by steppe two rivers, known as
landscape, large area of Mesopotamia, was the center of
flatland, and unforested the earliest civilizations,
grassland. including Sumer and the
 Mongolia can be divided into Akkadian Empire.
different steppe zones:
Saltwater
o Mountain forest steppe
o Arid steppe  The Persian Gulf
o Desert steppe o The gulf is subject to
 These zones were transitions high rates of
from the country’s mountainous evaporation, making it
region in the north Gobi Desert shallow and
 The Rub’ al Khali desert, extremely salty.
considered the world’s largest o The seabed beneath
sand sea. the Persian Gulf
 The desert is well-known as the contains an estimated
Empty Quarter because it is 50 percent of the
virtually inhospitable to humans world’s oil reserves.
except for Bedouin tribes that o The countries that
live on its edges. border the gulf have
engaged in a number
Freshwater of disputes over this
 Lake Baikal located in southern rich resource.
Russia, is the deepest lake in  Sea of Okhotsk the sea is
the world. largely frozen between
o The lake contains 20 October and March. Large
percent of the world’s ice floes make winter
unfrozen freshwater, navigation almost
making it the largest impossible.
reservoir on Earth. It is  Bay of Bengal the largest
also the world’s oldest bay in the world.
lake. o Many large rivers,
 The Yangtze is the longest including the Ganges
river in Asia and the third and Brahmaputra,
longest in the world. empty into the bay.
o The Yangtze is o The briny wetlands
considered the lifeblood formed by the
of China. It drains one- Ganges-Brahmaputra
fifth of the country’s land on the Bay of Bengal
area, is home to one- is the largest delta in
third of its population, the world.
and contributes greatly to Terrestrial Flora and Fauna
China’s economy.
 The Tigris and Euphrates  Botanists nickname China the
Rivers- the land between the “Mother of Gardens.” It has
more flowering plant species
 than North and South America
combined.
 China has such diverse
landscapes, from the arid Gobi
Desert to the tropical rain
forests of Yunnan Province,
many flowers can adapt to
climates all over the world.
 From roses to peonies, many
familiar flowers most likely
originated in northern China.
China is the likely origin of such
fruit trees as peaches and
oranges.
 China is also home to the dawn
redwood, the only redwood tree
found outside North America.
 Asia’s diverse physical and
cultural landscape has dictated
the way animals have been
domesticated.
 In Himalayas-communities use
yaks as beasts of burden.
 Yaks are large animals related
to cattle, but with a thick fiber
coat and the ability to survive in
the oxygen-poor high altitude of
the mountains.
 Yaks are not only used for
transportation and for pulling
plows, but their coats are
sources of warm, hardy fiber.
Yak milk is used for butter and
cheese.
Aquatic Fauna and Flora
The freshwater and marine habitats of
Asia offer incredible biodiversity.
 Lake Baikal’s age and isolation
make it a unique biological site.
 Aquatic life has been able to
evolve for millions of years
relatively undisturbed,
producing a rich variety of flora
and fauna.
 The lake is known as the
“Galápagos of Russia” because
of its importance to the study of
evolutionary science. It has
1,340 species of animals and
570 species of plants.
 Hundreds of Lake Baikal’s
species are endemic, meaning
they are found nowhere else on
Earth.
 The Baikal seal, for instance, is
one of the few freshwater seal
species in the world.
 The Baikal seal feeds primarily
on the Baikal oil fish and the
omul. Both fishes are similar to
salmon, and provide fisheries
for the communities on the lake.
 The Bay of Bengal, on the
Indian Ocean, is one of the
world’s largest tropical marine
ecosystems.
 The bay is home to dozens of
marine mammals, including the
bottlenose dolphin, spinner
dolphin, spotted dolphin, and
Bryde’s whale.
 The bay also supports healthy
tuna, jack, and marlin fisheries.
 Some of the bay’s most diverse
array of organisms exist along
its coasts and wetlands. Many
wildlife reserves in and around
the bay aim to protect its
biological diversity.
 The Sundarbans is a wetland
area that forms at the delta of
the Ganges and Brahamaputra
rivers.
 The Sundarbans is a huge
mangrove forest. Mangroves
 are hardy trees that are able to
withstand the powerful, salty
tides of the Bay of Bengal as
well as the freshwater flows
from the Ganges and
Brahamaputra. In addition to
mangroves, the Sundarbans is
forested by palm trees and
swamp grasses.
 The swampy jungle of the
Sundarbans supports a rich
animal community.
 Hundreds of species of fish,
shrimp, crabs, and snails live in
the exposed root system of the
mangrove trees.
 The Sundarbans supports more
than 200 species of aquatic and
wading birds.
 These small animals are part of
a food web that includes wild
boar, macaque monkeys,
monitor lizards, and a healthy
population of Bengal tigers.
Maps and Picture Interpretation
The picture shows the physiographic
features of Asia. In the legend above it
shows that Asia is divided into four
physical features: the mountains,
plateaus, basins and depressions,
plains and lowlands. However, it is
mostly surrounded by mountains such
as Himalayas Mountain Ranges, Ural
mountain, and various mountains.
Plateaus such as Plateau of Tibet,
Deccan Plateau and Siberian Plateau.
Plains and lowlands include Indo-
gangetic plains, Mesopotamia, and
west Siberian Plain. Lastly, basins and
depressions such as tarim basin.
The picture above shows the major
climate in the regions of Asia. Asia
receives varied types of climate such
as, tropical, subtropical, temperate,
polar, and highland climates among all
of the continent. Countries belongs
near in the equator has tropical
climate, northern parts experience
polar climate, Eastern Asia experience
temperate climate and interior part of it
experience subtropical climate.
However, highland parts will receive
climate that varies with altitude.
The picture above shows the
distribution of soil in the countries of
Asia. This were classified by FAO or
the Food and Soil Organization. The
various type of soil in Asia as shown in
the legend above were factors of
climate that affects the soil formation,
also Asia is the continent that receives
various types of climate because of the
widespread area of the continent.
The picture above is an economic map
of Asia, that shows the Asian countries
export products to USA. Largely part of
it are the minerals such as crude
petroleum, refined petroleum from the
central and western Asian countries.
Countries in eastern Asia are
producing machines such as
computers in China and cars in Japan
and South Korea, as well as some
countries in southeast Asia. In the
southern Asia they export diamonds
and precious stones/metals. Some
countries produce textiles, arts and
antiques, vegetable products, metals,
chemical products.
The map above shows economic
resources of the countries in Middle
East and Central Asia. Most of the
countries in these regions produce oil
such as petroleum, chemicals, energy,
crude products. Next to it are apparels
and foodstuffs, Opium, Metals and
menials such as aluminum, precious
metals and minerals like gold,
electronics and machinery for
transportation.
CULTURE
Fossil evidence indicates that
Asia has been under occupation by
human species for at least one million
years and most likely longer. The first
humans in Asia may have descended
from groups of the extinct species
Homo erectus that migrated to the
continent from Africa. There is much
debate as to whether modern Asian
peoples evolved from those early
humans or represent the descendants
of anatomically modern peoples who
migrated out of Africa beginning about
100,000 years ago.

Bahasa Indonesia. And various

languages, as Asia is the most diverse
continent among others.

The map above shows the

The map above shows the various
ethnic groups in Asia. The Han is the
largest ethnic group in Asia that
occupies most of the country of China.
Followed by the Arab in the western
Asia, Bengali, Japanese, Punjabi,
Vietnamese, Korean, Marathi, Telugu,
Tamil, Turkish, Gujarati, Thai, and
Persian Ethnic groups.
demography of Asia. This show that
countries like China and India has
reach over billion or billions of
populations. Countries like Philippines,
Japan, Russia, Indonesia, Bangladesh
Pakistan has reached over 100 million
of population. Some countries in
Southeast Asia, Western Asia, Central
Asia and countries like Taiwan and
North and South Korea has a total
population between 10 million to 100
million. And some countries like Oman,

The map above shows the various

spoken languages in the continent of
Asia. Arabic was largely spoken in the
region of western Asia. Chinese
however there are various native
languages of Chinese. Filipino in the
Philippines, Bahasa Malaysia and
Mongolia Turkmenistan population
were below 10 million.

The map above shows the realms of

political influence in Asia. The legend
tells us that counties belong to the
shade of green were communist
influence by Chinese. Those that
belong to the blue shade were
influence by the Common Law by
English and Muslims. Countries belong
to the shade of red were influence of
the Civil Law of Dutch, French, and
Russian. Lastly, countries belong to
the shade of violet were core
influence.