Asia

If, for some bizarre reason, all other continents sank over night, and Asia was the only one left standing - not much would be lost. World's biggest continent is the home to more than 60% of humans and it comprises almost one third of Earth's surface (excluding water). Moreover, it the birth place of all the major religions in existance today as well as the home of the four out of five oldest civilisations of the Ancient World (Mesopothamia, Persia, India and China). Due to its impressive size and history its impossible to think of Asia as one continent - it's rather an agglomeration of vastly different civilisations who happen to be sharing the same landmass. Actually, one could argue that Asia as a whole doesn't even exist, for where are its borders? Geographic or cultural? The Suez canal, the Bosphorus and the Uralus, all three traditionally considered as the western border of Asia actually lie fully withing the territory of their respective contries. Why should the Russians west of Uralus think of themselves as Eruopean and those to the east as Asian? Yet another western border of Asia is the Caucasus, but this is probably the most porous of all Asia's dividing lines. The resons why its still so difficult to say precisely where Europe ends and where Asia begins is that Asia is an artificial historic and cultural construct rather than a natural geographic whole.