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The Ural Mountains form a huge natural boundary between European and Asian Russia. East of
the Urals, vast areas of windswept grassland stretch as far as the Pacific Ocean. The central Asian
republics lie along the ancient Silk Road between Asia and Europe, where traditional nomadic
lifestyles are being replaced by agriculture and mineral prospecting. China lies at the end of the
Silk Road - home to one-fifth of the world's population, it includes the plateau of Tibet, the
world's highest region. To the west of China, on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, lie the
mountainous and heavily forested islands of Japan, where most of the population lives along the
coastal fringes. In the far south lies the Indian subcontinent, isolated from the rest of Asia by the
Himalayas. Its climate and topography range from the mountains of Kashmir in the north to coral
beaches in the south. Much of mainland southeast Asia is mountainous and forested, the people
living in the river valleys and fertile coastal plains. Between the Indian and Pacific Oceans lie the
Philippines and Indonesia, the latter forming a huge arc of over 13,000 volcanic islands. The
lands to the west of India and China are known as the Middle East, as they lie at the meeting
point of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The world's first towns and cities were built in the Fertile
Crescent, which extended from the Mediterranean to the land between the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers. The region has long been a centre of religious and ethnic strife - a situation
exacerbated by the presence of some of the world's richest oil fields.
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