the largest of the continents, bordering on the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean and Red Seas in the west. It includes the large peninsulas of Asia Minor, India, Arabia, and Indochina and the island groups of Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka; contains the mountain ranges of the Hindu Kush, Himalayas, Pamirs, Tian Shan, Urals, and Caucasus, the great plateaus of India, Iran, and Tibet, vast plains and deserts, and the valleys of many large rivers including the Mekong, Irrawaddy, Indus, Ganges, Tigris, and Euphrates. Pop: 4 164 252 000 (2011 est). Area: 44 391 162 sq km (17 139 445 sq miles)

largest continent, situated in the Eastern Hemisphere, bounded by the Arctic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, and separated from N Europe by the Ural Mountains: it includes, in addition to the nations on the land mass, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, & Indonesia: c. 17,400,000 sq mi (45,066,000 sq km); pop. c. 3,451,000,000