East of Southwest Asia are two regions: the dry grasslands and mountains of Central Asia, and South Asia, the land south of the Himalayas, often called the Indian subcontinent.
Key idea
Central Asia has five countries whose names end in "-stan" (Persian for "land of"): Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. South Asia has Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and the island countries Sri Lanka and the Maldives. (The UN puts Iran and Afghanistan in South Asia.)
Why it works
The five "-stans" are landlocked and far from any ocean, so they are dry: steppe grassland, deserts and high mountains. South Asia is shaped by the Himalayas, which wall it off from the rest of Asia, and by the summer monsoon, whose rains feed the great river plains of the Indus and the Ganges. Kashmir, in the north, is divided among India, Pakistan and China, and India and Pakistan each claim all of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Worked example: The five "-stans" by size
Put them in order from largest to smallest.
- Kazakhstan is by far the largest; it is the largest landlocked country in the world.
- Then Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, close in size.
- Then the two small mountain countries, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Answer: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan.
Worked example: Countries in the mountains
Which two small countries lie in the Himalayas between India and China?
- Nepal is the larger one, to the west.
- Bhutan is the smaller one, to the east.
Answer: Nepal and Bhutan.
Common mistake
The Central Asian "-stans" blur together. Learn them by size and place: Kazakhstan (huge, in the north), Turkmenistan (on the Caspian Sea, north of Iran), Uzbekistan (in the middle), Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (small and mountainous, next to China).