INTRODUCTION

It is easy for someone accustomed to the small-scale landscapes of Europe to be mesmerised by the immensity, grandeur, and extremes of Asia. It is the largest continent, covering 17 million square miles, or an area larger than Africa and Europe combined. It has the fifty-six highest mountains in the world, but also the two lowest places on the earth's surface: the Dead Sea (−405 m) and the Turfan Depression, North China (−154 m). Tibet, with an average altitude of 5,000 m and an area half that of the United States, is the world's highest and largest plateau, and also has the world's deepest valleys, such as the 5-km-deep Yarlung Zangbo. The Caspian Sea, one-and-a-half times the size of Britain, is the world's largest inland sea, and Lake Baikal is the world's oldest, deepest, and largest (by volume) lake, with one-fifth of the world's fresh water (Chapter 3). Asia contains six of the ten longest rivers in the world, and most of those with the largest sediment discharge. Cherrapunji in Northeast India, where a ridiculous 26,461 mm (86.75 feet) of rain fell in 1860–61, including 9,300 mm (30 feet) in one month (Guinness World Records 2004:68), qualifies as the wettest place ever recorded, yet several of Asia's deserts – such as the Rub⼹al Khali of Arabia and the Taklamakan of North China – are among the most arid and hottest parts of the world.