Central Asia

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Ürümqi or Ürümchi (English pronunciation: /uːˈruːmtʃi/; Uyghur: ئۈرۈمچی‎, Ürümchi; simplified Chinese: 乌鲁木齐; traditional Chinese: 烏魯木齊; pinyin: Wūlǔmùqí), formerly Dihua (simplified Chinese: 迪化), is the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, in the northwest of the country.

Afghan Turkestan

Afghan Turkestan is a region in northern Afghanistan, on the border with the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. It was the name of a former province in this area,^[when?] which was centred on Mazari Sharif and included territory in the modern provinces of Balkh, Jowzjan, Faryab and Sar-e Pol. The whole territory, from the junction of the Kokcha river with the Amu Darya on the north-east to the province of Herat on the south-west, was some 500 miles in length, with an average width from the Russian frontier to the Hindu Kush of 114 miles (183 km). It thus comprised about 57,000 square miles (148,000 km²) or roughly two-ninths of the former kingdom of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan

The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in South-Central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia,^[5][6] South Asia,^[7][8] or the Middle East.^[9] It is bordered by Iran in the west, Pakistan in the south and east, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the far northeast.

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² (11.7 million sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area.^[2] With a billion people (as of 2009, see table) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.72% of the World's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Not counting the disputed territory of Western Sahara, there are 53 countries, including Madagascar and various island groups, associated with the continent.

Agriculture in Central Asia

Agriculture in Central Asia provides a brief regional overview of agriculture in the five contiguous states of former Soviet Central Asia – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Two other countries that are sometimes classified as Central Asian – Afghanistan and Mongolia – are not included in this overview because of their substantially different background.

Alans

The Alans or Alani (occasionally termed Alauni or Halani) were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.^[1][2][3]

Alexander von Humboldt

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt (help·info) (September 14, 1769 – May 6, 1859) was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist, Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835). Humboldt's quantitative work on botanical geography was foundational to the field of biogeography.

Almaty

Almaty(Kazakh: Алматы, Almatı, الماتى; formerly known as Alma-Ata, Verniy (Верный)) is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of 1,348,500 (as of 1 September 2008),^[2] which represents 9% of the population of the country.

Americas

The Americas, or America,^[1][2] are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, comprising the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. America may be ambiguous in English, as it is more commonly used to refer to the United States of America.^[3][2] The Americas cover 8.3% of the Earth's total surface area (28.4% of its land area) and contain about 13.5% of the human population (about 900 million people).

Amu Darya

The Amu Darya (from Persian: آمودریا - Āmūdaryā, lit. "Amu River"), in antiquity known as Oxus (Ὦξος) to Greeks and Romans or Vaksu to Indo-Aryans, is a major river in Central Asia. It is formed by the junction of the Vakhsh and Panj rivers. In ancient times, the river was regarded as the boundary between Irān and Tūrān.^[2]

Ancient India and Central Asia

Ancient India and Central Asia have long traditions of social-cultural, religious, political and economic contact since remote antiquity^[1]. The two regions have common and contiguous borders, climatic continuity, similar geographical features and geo-cultural affinity. There has always been uninterrupted flow of people, material and the ideas between the two. So much so, some ancient literary sources trace common lineage for Indians, Pakistanis, Afghans, Iranians and other nationalities of Central Asia ^[2].

Anglo-America

Anglo-America is a region in the Americas in which English is a main language,^[1] or one which has significant British historical, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural links. Anglo-America is distinct from Latin America, a region of the Americas where Romance languages (namely, Spanish, Portuguese, and variably French) are prevalent.^[1]

Antarctic

The Antarctic (pronounced /ænˈtɑrktɪk/) is the region around the Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica and the ice shelves, waters and island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence.^[1] The region covers some 20% of the Southern Hemisphere, of which 5.5% (14 million km²) is the surface area of the continent itself.

Aral Sea

The Aral Sea (Kazakh: Арал Теңізі Aral Teñizi; Uzbek: Orol Dengizi; Russian: Аральскοе Мοре Aral'skoye More; Tajik: Баҳри Арал Bahri Aral; Persian: دریاچه خوارزم Daryocha-i Khorazm) is an endorheic basin in Central Asia; it lies between Kazakhstan (Aktobe and Kyzylorda provinces) in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south. The name roughly translates as "Sea of Islands", referring to more than 1,500 islands of one hectare or more that once dotted its waters. The maximum depth of the sea is 102 feet (31 m).^[when?]

Arctic

The Arctic (pronounced /ˈɑrktɪk/ or /ˈɑrtɪk/) is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. The Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean (which overlies the North Pole) and parts of Canada, Greenland (a territory of Denmark), Russia, the United States (Alaska), Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest, and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions.^[1] The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, although some oceanographers call it the Arctic Mediterranean Sea or simply the Arctic Sea, classifying it as one of the mediterranean seas of the Atlantic Ocean.^[2] Alternatively, the Arctic Ocean can be seen as the northernmost lobe of the all-encompassing World Ocean.

Ashgabat

Ashgabat (Turkmen: Aşgabat, Persian: عشق آباد, Russian: Ашхабад, also Ashkhabad in transliteration from Russian or formerly Poltoratsk between 1919-1927) is the capital and largest city of Turkmenistan, a country in Central Asia. It has a population of 695,300 (2001 census estimate), 2009 estimates around 1 million people in Ashgabat, and is situated between the Kara Kum desert and the Kopet Dag mountain range. Ashgabat has a primarily Turkmen population, with minorities of ethnic Russians, Armenians, and Azeris. It is 250 km from the second largest city in Iran, Mashhad.

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area (or 29.9% of its land area) and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.

Astana

Astana (Kazakh: Астана,Astana, استانا; former names include Akmola, Akmolinsk and Tselinograd), is the capital and second largest city (after Almaty) of Kazakhstan, with an officially estimated population of 750,700 as of November 2008. ^[2] It is located in the north-central portion of Kazakhstan, within Akmola Province, though politically separate from the rest of the province.

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres (41.1 million square miles), it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek mythology, making the Atlantic the "Sea of Atlas". The oldest known mention of this name is contained in The Histories of Herodotus around 450 BCE (I 202); see also: Atlas Mountains. Another name historically used was the ancient term Ethiopic Ocean, derived from Ethiopia, whose name was sometimes used as a synonym for all of Africa and thus for the ocean. Before Europeans discovered other oceans, the term "ocean" itself was to them synonymous with the waters beyond Western Europe that we now know as the Atlantic and which the Greeks had believed to be a gigantic river encircling the world; see Oceanus.

Attar Neyshapuri

Abū Hamīd bin Abū Bakr Ibrāhīm(Persian: ابو حمید ابن ابوبکر ابراهیم) (born 1145-46 in Nishapur Iran – died c. 1221), much better known by his pen-names Farīd ud-Dīn (فریدالدین) and ‘Attār (عطار - the pharmacist), was a Persian Muslim poet, theoretician of Sufism, and hagiographer from Nīshāpūr who left an everlasting influence on Persian poetry and Sufism.

Australasia

Australasia is a region of Oceania: Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes (1756). He derived it from the Latin for "south of Asia" and differentiated the area from Polynesia (to the east) and the southeast Pacific (Magellanica). It is also distinct from Micronesia (to the northeast).

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan (pronounced /ˌæzərbaɪˈdʒɑːn/ ( listen); Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan), formally the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Respublikası), is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia,^[4] it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhichevan is bounded by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, while having a short borderline with Turkey to the northwest. The Nagorno-Karabakh region in the southwest of Azerbaijan proper declared itself independent from Azerbaijan in 1991, but it is not recognized by any nation and considered a legal part of Azerbaijan.

BBC News

BBC News is the department of the BBC responsible for news and current affairs output. The world's largest broadcast news organisation,^[1] it generates each day about 120 hours of radio and television, as well as online news coverage.^[2] The service maintains 44 foreign news bureaux and has correspondents in almost all the world's 240 countries.

BCE

Common Era, abbreviated as CE, is one name used for the most widespread calendrical year numbering system.^[1][2] There are many names in many languages for the same year numbering scheme. The numbering of years using Common Era notation is identical to the numbering used with Anno Domini (BC/AD) notation, 2010 being the current year in both notations and neither using a year zero.^[3] Common Era is also known as Christian Era^[4] and Current Era,^[5] with all three expressions abbreviated as CE.^[6] (Christian Era is, however, also abbreviated AD, for Anno Domini.^[7]) Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for "Before the Common Era", "Before the Christian Era", or "Before the Current Era".^[8] Both the BCE/CE and BC/AD notations are based on a sixth-century estimate for the year in which Jesus was conceived or born, with the common era designation originating among Christians in Europe at least as early as 1615 (at first in Latin).^[9]

Bactrian language

The Bactrian language is an extinct Eastern Iranian language which was spoken in the Central Asian region of Bactria. Linguistically, it is classified as belonging to the middle period of the East Iranian branch, and is related to medieval Sogdian and Khwarezmian languages.