YEMEN, NO MATTER how it is defined or what its current political structure, has always controlled the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula—the Bab el Mandeb choke point to and from the Red Sea.
THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC of Vietnam was formed into a single country in 1976 when the North and South Vietnam states were united after the withdrawal of American military, which had been engaged in an anticommunist war since the early 1960s.
THE REPUBLIC OF Uzbekistan, the most populous Central Asian republic of the former Soviet Union, is one of the world’s only countries that is landlocked and bordered entirely by other landlocked states (Liechtenstein is the other).
THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (UAE) is a federation of seven emirates in the Arabian Peninsula, established in 1971 (formerly six, the seventh acceded to the federation in 1972).
TURKMENISTAN, KNOWN for its deserts, oil potential, and strong authoritarian government, achieved its independence in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
TURKEY IS A NEAR Middle Eastern country located in northwestern Asia with a toehold in extreme southeastern Europe. It is about the size of Texas and Louisiana combined.
LOCATED IN THE southern part of western China, this huge (900,000 square mi or 2,500,000 square km wide) and mostly barren tableland represents onefourth of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
THE TIBESTI MASSIF is a giant triangular massif located in southern Libya and northern Chad. It lifts abruptly out of the Sahara Desert and is visually impressive.
THE THAR DESERT, often called the Indian Desert, extends for about 400 mi (644 km) from southwest to northeast and has a maximum width of about 225 mi (362 km).
THE KINGDOM OF Thailand, a Southeast Asian country, is bordered by Myanmar (Burma) to the west, Laos to the north and northeast, and Cambodia to the southeast.
THE TARIM BASIN designates a major river and great basin located in the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang of extreme northwestern China, north of the Tibetan Plateau.
TAIWAN IS A mountainous island in the South China Sea, with the Philippine Sea to the southeast, Luzon Strait to the south, the Taiwan Strait to the west, and the East China Sea to the north.
THE SYRIAN ARAB Republic (“Al-Jumhria Al-Arabia Al-Suria” in Arabic) is a Middle Eastern country located at the southwestern edge of the Asian continent.
THE REPUBLIC OF Singapore consists of a main island and a group of 58 islets. It is situated in Southeast Asia, only 85 mi (136.8 km) north of the equator.
THE SINAI PENINSULA (in Arabic, the Shibh Jazirat Sina) is the eastern extension of Egypt onto the continent of Asia (Egypt being mainly in Africa), bordering on the country of Israel.
SIBERIA, INCLUDING the Russian Far East, covers 4.9 million square mi (12.8 million square km), an area that is three-fourths of the Russian Federation or onethird larger than the United States and one-fourth larger than Canada.
THE RUB’ AL-KHALI (Arabic for “Empty Quarter”) is located in the southern part of the Arabian Desert. The Al-Murrah Bedouin, who roam its southern edges call it the ar-Ramlah, the “sand.”
OFF THE SOUTHEAST COAST of mainland Asia lies the Philippines, a southeast Asian country that consists of an archipelago in which there are over 7,100 islands and islets.
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE was one of the first of the world empires to emerge in the ancient Middle East, the first to unify several different peoples and cultures into one large heterogeneous state.