10 Interesting facts about Asia

Asia - the largest continent on Earth is home to a plethora of varied cultures, environments and nationalities, having two of the most populous countries in the world in China and India. There's a lot of history, nature and intriguing wildlife spread across the continent but we'll be touching on just a few interesting facts that stand out about it.

At an estimated 4.7 billion people, Half of the world's population lives in Asia alone - with India and China both having populations over 1 billion respectively. At present the world's population is currently marching towards 8 billion.

Asia is home to the 100 highest mountains in the world, along with outright highest mountain in Mount Everest - located in the Himalayas. With a high peak of 29,035 ft, people still regularly make expeditions to summit the mountain.

Asia is one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse places on the planet, with over 2,300 languages spoken across the content. Most of this is Mandarin Chinese, spoken by 51% of the population, meanwhile Hindi, English, Russian and Indonesian make up some of the other most spoken languages.

Asia may just have the secret to longevity, as the top 3 countries with the highest life expectancy can all be found there, with those nations being Macau, Japan and Hong Kong.

The continent also has a bit of an upper hand when it comes to vertical buildings, laying claim to 9/10 of the tallest buildings in the world, including the famous Burj Khalifa in Dubai and Shanghai tower in China.

The largest cave in the world - Son Doong, is located in Phong Nha Ke Bang national park in Vietnam, it's hundreds of millions of years old and was discovered completely by accident. 

Singapore is famous for it's laws on chewing gum, with the sweet being outlawed completely - in fact it's the only country in the world that has such a law. Chewing gum was banned in the city-nation in 1992 in efforts to keep the city clean and hygienic. 

The lowest point on Earth's surface is actually at the Dead Sea, located by Israel and Jordan, with the area being a whopping 427 metres below sea level. The Dead Sea is also approximately 30-31 per cent mineral salts, also making it the saltiest body of water on the planet.

Lakes aren't always known for being particularly deep, at least not in this case with Lake Baikal located in Siberia in Russia, it has a maximum depth of 1,642 metres. 

The largest lizard in the world and part of the monitor lizard family is the carnivorous Komodo Dragon which resides on a few islands in Indonesia. They can grow up to a three metres and are known for their voracious appetites and aggression. 

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