Reflections: Voyages of Discovery
From Marco Polo, Vasco Da Gama to Zheng He, explorers have traversed the globe in search of discovery and adventure. Asian Geographic traces their journeys...
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...