Asia

Asia is the largest continent, but is actually only a part of the largest landmass Eurasia. The definition of continents is culturally based, there are neither geographical nor geological rules for defining a continent. In the end, it is based on political boundaries and historical events as much as geographical boundaries. Asia is usually divided into six parts, North Asia, Central Asia, West Asia (also Middle East), South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. One possible definition of Asia is North Asia, Central Asia, plus East Asia. Middle East is also called Near East, while Iran together with South Asia (India) is called Middle East. There are so many interpretations, that institutions like National Geographic define the term before they use it. And Southeast Asia is sometimes included and sometimes not.

The area we describe as Asia on showcaves.com is all that, but without the Middle East. The Middle East is on this website a separate section, even though it is not a continent in the true sense of the word. This has no political background, it was just easier to draw the maps.

This part of the world has many and extraordinary caves and such extreme karst areas as the tower karst in China and in Thailand. Unfortunately, there are not as many caves accessible to tourists as one would expect. However, the list we have at the moment is extremely incomplete, especially in China where there are claims that there are more than 400 show caves, but we have only 124 [2022] listed. There are certainly many more sites, but information about them is not available in English. In Southeast Asia, many caves are in use as cave temples, like churches they are free to visit, a donation is expected, and you should respect the religious sensitivities of the believers. Even if they are not show caves, they usually have electric light and paths.

• Additional Information about Asia
• Search Google for "Asia geology"
• Asia - Wikipedia