Link Relations of Southwestern Asia 253 



upon its surface, as in the accompany- 

 ing diagram'', the city regions he out- 

 side of this great central mass. This is 

 true of both the earher Hnes of cities 

 which stretch from Ctesiphon to Italica, 

 of the present group in northern Europe, 

 and of the more modern group which 

 extends from Moscow to Manchester, 

 of the cities of India, and of the cities 

 of China. In fact, if the eastern line 

 bounding the continental core of Asia 

 be drawn from the head of the Gulf of 



The Continental Core of Asia 



Courtesy of Afessrs. D. Appleton & Co. 



Tonkin to the head of the Gulf of Pe- 

 chi-li, the entire city area of China will 

 lie to the east of this line. It is true, 

 therefore, of the highly organized parts 

 of the Asiatic continent that its 1,500, 

 000 square miles of mainland all lie out- 

 side of the great land mass. The space 

 within the central core, which amounts 

 in all to between 12,000,000 and 13, 

 000,000 square miles, is a great region, 

 which, as it stretches before us on the 

 map, is seen to be without history, 

 without product, without letters, and 

 without art. Within this vast area 

 one-fifth of the world's surface, whose 

 history began early, over which men 

 have moved through all the annals of 

 man, there is no spot where any book 

 has been produced which men cherish; 



^ " The Continental Core of Asia," Interna- 

 tional Geograph}^, Mill, Hugh Robert, 1900, 

 P- 423. 



thence has come no painting or statue 

 which men admire. There is no lack 

 in this area of battle, murder, and sud- 

 den death; of the noise of the captains 

 and the shouting; of garments rolled in 

 blood, and all the uproar of siege and 

 sack. But as we remember its wars, 

 the}^ seem to us, however wide our his- 

 torical knowledge, as fought 



On a darkling plain. 

 Swept with confused alarms of struggle and 



flight. 

 Where ignorant armies clash by night. 



AvSIA'S ARID CLOSED BASIN 



One reason why this main core is 

 without history is because in larger 

 part it consists of a closed basin, the 

 largest on the earth's surface." This 

 closed basin, whose irregular outlines 

 bound the great sea which once matched 

 the Mediterranean and extended in a 

 great Iv- shape projection- to the Arctic 

 Ocean, along the low trough in which 

 the Obi runs, and which constitutes the 

 real division between Asia and Europe, 

 rather than the Ural Mountains, is di- 

 vided into two portions by the Kuen- 

 lun range, the southern and elevated 

 plateau from 12,000 to 15,000 feet high; 

 the northern, lower, but still having 

 an average elevation of 5,000 or 6,000 

 feet, extending to the low watershed 

 w^hich divides the series of rivers that 

 flow toward the Arctic from the group 

 of lakes that extends across Asia. This 

 area is, in the first place, closed ; this 

 cuts it off from the sea. The sea-flow- 

 ing river leads to the sea, and the sea 

 leads the world around. Still more ; 

 this is not only a closed basin ; it is a 

 closed basin because it is arid ; for 

 wherever there is sufficient rainfall, an 

 inner basin (as has been the case with 

 several on our own continent) is certain 



^ Arid Regions, Enclosed Basins ; ' ' Earth 

 and Its Inhabitants ; " Asia ; I, p. 11. Reclus, 

 E. 1884. 



" The Natural Boundary of Europe ; " Earth, 

 &c. ; " Europe ; I, p. 11. Reclus, E. 



