Asia has the highest mountains, the highest plateau and some of the longest rivers on Earth. You met them briefly in Mountains of the World and Great Rivers of the World; here is how they fit together.
Key idea
The Himalayas, with Mount Everest (about 8,849 m), wall off South Asia. North of them is the Plateau of Tibet, the largest high plateau on Earth. Cold Siberia covers the north, and dry lands stretch from the Arabian Peninsula to the Gobi. Great rivers: the Yangtze and Yellow in China, the Ganges and Indus in South Asia, the Mekong in Southeast Asia, and the Tigris and Euphrates in the southwest.
Why it works
The Plateau of Tibet averages more than 4,500 m high and holds a huge store of snow and glacier ice. Water runs off it in every direction, so many of Asia's great rivers begin on or near it: the Yangtze and Yellow flow east, the Mekong south, and the Indus and Brahmaputra west and east around the Himalayas; the Ganges begins nearby on the Himalayas' southern side. Hundreds of millions of people depend on those rivers.
Worked example: Where do the rivers start?
The Yangtze reaches the sea at Shanghai. Where does it begin?
- Trace it upstream, west across China.
- It begins high on the Plateau of Tibet.
Answer: On the Plateau of Tibet.
Worked example: A cold desert
Is the Gobi hot like the Sahara?
- The Gobi lies far north, in Mongolia and northern China, and is high up.
- Its winters are bitterly cold.
- It is a cold desert, mostly gravel and rock.
Answer: No; it is a cold desert.
Common mistake
People imagine Asia's great rivers starting in many different places. Many of them, including the Yangtze, Mekong and Indus, begin on or near the same high land: the Plateau of Tibet.