Asia

=== Ongoing definition ===
[[File:Afro-Eurasia (orthographic projection).svg|thumb|left|[[Afro-Eurasia]] shown in green]]

Geographical Asia is a cultural artifact of European conceptions of the world, beginning with the [[Ancient Greece|Ancient Greeks]], being imposed onto other cultures, an imprecise concept causing endemic contention about what it means. Asia does not exactly correspond to the cultural borders of its various types of constituents.<ref>{{harvnb|Lewis|Wigen|1997|pp=7–9}}</ref>

From the time of [[Herodotus]] a minority of geographers have rejected the three-continent system (Europe, Africa, Asia) on the grounds that there is no substantial physical separation between them.<ref name=McG-H>{{cite web |title=Asia |url=http://accessscience.com/abstract.aspx?id=054800&referURL=http%3a%2f%2faccessscience.com%2fcontent.aspx%3fid%3d054800 |work=AccessScience |publisher=McGraw-Hill |access-date=26 July 2011 |archive-date=27 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111127141127/http://accessscience.com/abstract.aspx?id=054800&referURL=http%3A%2F%2Faccessscience.com%2Fcontent.aspx%3Fid%3D054800 |url-status=dead }}</ref> For example, Sir [[Barry Cunliffe]], the emeritus professor of European archeology at Oxford, argues that Europe has been geographically and culturally merely "the western excrescence of the continent of Asia".<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200812/editors-choice |title=Geography Is Destiny |first=Benjamin |last=Schwartz |journal=The Atlantic |date=December 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090930211221/http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200812/editors-choice |archive-date=30 September 2009}}</ref>

Geographically, Asia is the major eastern constituent of the continent of [[Eurasia]] with Europe being a northwestern [[peninsula]] of the landmass. Asia, Europe and Africa make up a single continuous landmass—[[Afro-Eurasia]] (except for the Suez Canal)—and share a common [[continental shelf]]. Almost all of Europe and a major part of Asia sit atop the [[Eurasian Plate]], adjoined on the south by the [[Arabian Plate|Arabian]] and [[Indian Plate]] and with the easternmost part of Siberia (east of the [[Chersky Range]]) on the [[North American Plate]].
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