The continent of Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent with over 4 billion people calling Asia home. Asia also contains the world's most populous country, China, and the world's largest country, Russia. Asia borders Africa and Europe to the west and the Pacific Ocean to the east. ASIA covers one third of the land-surface of the globe, and half the world's population is packed into the Indo-Pacific hinterland, the territories between the Indus and the Amur. An author attempting to sketch its bewildering varieties of relief, climate and natural resources, and, at the same time, to summarise coherently the effects of geographical control on its products and the activities of its peoples, must be equipped with an immense detailed knowledge and possess literary ability of an exceptional kind. The land mass of Asia is not the sum of the land masses of each of its regions, which have been defined independently of the whole. For example, the borders of Central Asia and the Middle East depend on who is defining them and for what purpose. These varying definitions are not generally reflected in the map of Asia as a whole; for example, Egypt is typically included in the Middle East, but not in Asia, even though the Middle East is a division of Asia. Intended primarily for the general, all-purpose beginning course on Asian geography, the book would prove of value to the students and lay persons alike.