The largest continent on our planet - Eurasia - occupies a little more than a third of all land, about 54 million square meters. km Moreover, Asia accounts for most of it, about 4/5, and only 1/5 - to Europe. The continent itself is located in the Northern Hemisphere, although some of the islands belonging to the mainland are in the southern half of the globe.
Eurasia unites Europe and Asia - two parts of the world, the border between which on the territory of Russia lies along the Ural Mountains, on their eastern side. This continent is the only one on the planets
e, which is washed by all the oceans: in the north by the Arctic, Indian in the south, in the west by the Atlantic and Pacific in the east. The length of Eurasia from west to east is approximately 16 thousand kilometers, and from north to south is half that, 8 thousand kilometers.
The extreme points of Eurasia: the southern one is Cape Piai, the northern one is Cape Chelyuskin, the western point is Cape Roka, and the eastern one is Cape Dezhnev.
The development of the mainland in ancient times began civilizations living in Africa, with the aim of establishing trade relations with peoples living north of them. A little later, somewhere in the III century BC, the first trade route was formed inside the continent, which passed through the Middle East, Europe, China, India. In turn, the Norman raids helped to develop new territories of the continent. The main territorial discoveries were made during the era of the great geographical discoveries. Russian expeditions of the twentieth century helped to correctly describe the position of the mainland using a coordinate system. It was at this time that the extreme points of Eurasia were identified.
In the north, the Eurasian continent extends beyond the Arctic Circle, not reaching the North Pole by about 10 0 . It is here, from Cape Chelyuskin (77 ° 34 'N), located on the Taimyr Peninsula, that the mainland originates. The cape was discovered by the navigator Semyon Chelyuskin in 1741 during a geographic expedition to the far north, which was equipped to describe the northern coast of the Taimyr Peninsula.
Cape Chelyuskin is quite elevated and rocky, covered with snow and ice. Visited him in 1878
On the heaps of stones, N. Nordensheld, a tel of the Arctic, built a lighthouse from a floating forest. Now there are signs symbolizing the edge of the earth: a wooden pillar of S. Chelyuskin, a huria, built of slate slabs by R. Amundsen in honor of the expedition of N. Nordensheld, and a quartz stone giant. Currently, residential buildings and scientific pavilions have been built on the cape. The polar hydrometeorological station “Cape Chelyuskin” operates here, where up to 10 people winter. Previously, the northernmost airfield was located on the cape, from which only a helipad now remains.
Calling the extreme points of Eurasia, it must be said that the mainland slightly more than 10 ° enters the Southern Hemisphere, therefore Cape Piai is the southern edge of the continent (1 ° 56 "S). The cape is located in Malaysia, in the national park of the country Tanjung Piai.In this place, a globe is installed - a memorial sign of the southern tip of the mainland.
Most of Eurasia is located in the eastern part of the globe, which means that the eastern extreme points lie on Cape Dezhnev (169 ° 64 'E). Named after its discoverer, Cape Dezhnev was opened in 1648. Dezhnev wrote that it is a naked mountain range, abruptly breaking down and covered only with a “blanket” of fog, above which clouds, driven by air currents, were carried.
Now a wooden memorial cross rises on the rocky shore, which was erected in honor of the Russian sailors in the year of the 350th anniversary of the voyage of the Dezhnev expedition. Another monument demonstrates the symbolic connection of Asia and America. Next to the lighthouse on a high pedestal is a third monument - a bronze bust of Dezhnev, a man with an open and courageous face.
Enumerating the extreme points of Eurasia, we name the westernmost part of the continent - Cape Roca, located on the territory of Portugal (38 ° 47 'W). The cape is a rock that rises 140 meters above the level of the Atlantic Ocean. The coordinates of this extreme eastern point of the mainland are carved on a stone stele. There is also a lighthouse, which attracts a lot of travelers.