The continent of Asia is almost entirely located in the Northern Hemisphere, only some islands of the Maldives and of Indonesia are located in the Southern Hemisphere. With an area of approximately 43,820,000 km2, Asia is the largest continent on Earth, which is 8.6% of the Earth's surface and just over 29% of the total land area.
Asia borders the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Indian Ocean to the south, the Arctic Ocean to the north and Africa and Europe to the west. The exact borders of Asia are not easy to determine. Asia and Africa are actually tied together, but are separated by the Suez Canal. The border between Asia and Europe runs approximately through the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, the Black Sea, the Caucasus, the Caspian Sea, the Uralriver, the Ural Mountains to the archipelago of Nova Zembla, located north of the Asian mainland.
The westernmost point of Asia is Cape Baba Burnu in Anatolia, Turkey, the northernmost point is Cape Fligely on Prince Rudolf Island (on the mainland Cape Chelyuskin in Russia), the most southern point is Pulau Dana in Indonesia (on the mainland Cape Piai in Malaysia), and the easternmost point is Big Diomede in Russia (on the mainland Cape Dezhnev in Russia). Russia is the largest country in Asia (17,098,242 km2), the Maldives the smallest (300 km2).
The destination pages contain extensive chapters on the plants and animals of Asia. It is a continent with a great biodiversity. Special and imaginative animals that only occur in Asia include orang utans, pandas and tigers. Special plants and trees are, for example, the three-leaf maple, the banana plant and the wedding flower.Below are the links to all the destinations so far included in Asia: