Rasputin: Russia’s Mad Monk
Text by Max Lovell-Hoare (Illustration by Justin Ong)The animated fairy tale Anastasia is an imaginary story inspired by the possible survival of Grand Duchess...
Reflections: The Most Spoken Languages* in the World
Of the 7,000-plus living languages today, Chinese tops the list with over one billion speakers, while English comes in second, with 942 million speakers....
Reflections: Chess – An Asian Game Well Played
The origins of the ubiquitous game of strategy, chess, lie in an instructional military model used in ancient India to plan battles. This model...
UNESCO Heritage Sites of Asia
Spectacular landforms, splendid architecture, historical cities, natural wonders and spiritual centres: Asia has them all. Asian Geographic looks at the spectacular UNESCO Heritage Sites...
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
(Photo: Graphicaartis/Corbis)
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon has captured the imagination of historians worldwide for centuries. Yet, its existence remains a debate as years of...
Casting Light
Born in the golden age of Muslim civilisation as Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Haitham – often called Alhazen by Western theorists –...
Zheng He: Leader of the Ming Dynasty’s Treasure Voyages
The Ming Dynasty’s treasure voyages consisted of seven maritime expeditions made by Ming China’s treasure fleet between 1405 to 1433. The expedition was commanded...
The Mothers of Invention: Explore the History of Asian Innovation
From pottery, farming to weaving and writing, some of the most fundamental innovations of civilisation were created by Asians. Asian Geographic uncovers some of...
Popular articles
Asia’s Sweet Success: The History of Ice Cream in Asia
by Selina Tan
The concept of a frozen dessert is one that goes back thousands of years. By pouring a mixture of salt and ice over containers of liquid syrup, the Chinese were creating a rudimentary form of ice cream as long ago as 2000 BC. The resulting frozen product...
The Pyramid of Gunung Padang
Megalithic site in Indonesia could be the oldest in the world
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PeruGunung Padang is once again making headlines as the first pyramid in Southeast Asia and the oldest megalithic site in the world.Recent discoveries as deep as 90 feet found the hill-pyramid to contain...
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
(Photo: Graphicaartis/Corbis)
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon has captured the imagination of historians worldwide for centuries. Yet, its existence remains a debate as years of digging have turned up nothing about the lost Gardens.First described in a book called Babyloniaca by a Chaldean priest named Berossus in 280 BC, the...