Asia: World Champion
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From Turkey to the eastern tip of Russia, Asia sprawls across nearly 180 degrees of longitude - almost half the globe! It boasts the highest (the Himalaya and the lowest (the Dead Sea) places on Earth's surface. Then there are Asia's people - more than four billion of them. That's more people than live on all the other continents put together. Asia has the most farmers and the most million-plus cities. The world's first civilizations arose in Sumer, in what is now southern Iraq. Rich cultures also emerged along rivers in present-day India and China, strongly influencing the world ever since.
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Central Asia
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Mongolia and five stans - "homelands" - make up Central Asia. Kazakhs, Turkmen, Uzbeks, Tajiks, and Kyrgyz outnumber others in their largely Muslim countries. Russians are still present in each, a result of decades of Soviet efforts to control these lands. Sparsely settled, largely Buddhist Mongolia consists of valley grasslands and dry basins beneath towering peaks. Kazakhstan's short-grass steeps give way to deserts, arid plateaus, and rugged mountains to the south. Irrigation provides water for wheat, cotton, and fruit crops. Though far from any ocean, this region possesses several inland seas, including the salty Caspian. Beneath its floor lie huge oil deposits, both tapped and undeveloped, which will add to the region's future importance.
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