Countries and territories of Asia

45 to explore

• Watch Country Afghanistan Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south-central Asia. The high Hindu Kush mountains run across its middle, sandy deserts lie in the southwest, and the capital, Kabul, sits in a valley about 1,800 meters above sea level.
• Watch Country Armenia Armenia is a small, landlocked country just south of the Caucasus mountains. Most of it is high mountains and plateaus, its tallest peak is Mount Aragats, and about 3.1 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch Country Azerbaijan Azerbaijan is a country on the southern side of the Caucasus Mountains, along the western shore of the Caspian Sea. It has high mountains, wide lowlands and forests, its capital is Baku, and about 10.3 million people lived there in mid-2026.
• Watch Country Bahrain Bahrain is a small island country in the Persian Gulf, linked to Saudi Arabia by a long causeway. Long ago it was the center of a trading land called Dilmun, and for centuries its people dived for pearls. About 1.6 million people live there today.
• Watch Country Bangladesh Bangladesh is a low, flat country in South Asia, built by two great rivers, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra. Monsoon rains flood its fields each year, the Sundarbans mangrove forest lines its coast, and about 176 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch Country Bhutan Bhutan is a small, landlocked kingdom on the eastern ridges of the Himalayas, between India and China. Its land climbs from steamy forests in the south to snowy peaks over 7,300 meters in the north. About 790,000 people live there, mostly in villages in its green valleys.
• Watch Country Brunei Brunei is a small country on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia. Most of it is covered in rainforest, where proboscis monkeys and sun bears live. Its capital has a famous water village built on stilts, and about 459,000 people lived in Brunei in 2025.
• Watch Country Cambodia Cambodia is a country in mainland Southeast Asia, a land of wide plains and great rivers. Its Tonle Sap lake more than doubles in size every rainy season, and Angkor, with the remains of capitals built from the 800s to the 1400s, is one of the most important archaeological sites in Southeast Asia.
• Watch Country China China is the largest country in Asia, almost as big as all of Europe. The land steps down from the high, cold Plateau of Tibet in the west to plains and coasts in the east, and about 1.4 billion people live there, along with giant pandas in the mountains of south-central China.
• Watch Country Cyprus Cyprus is the third-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily and Sardinia. It has two mountain ranges with a flat plain between them, hot dry summers and rainy winters, and its first known village was built about 9,000 years ago.
• Watch Country Georgia Georgia is a country at the eastern end of the Black Sea, below the high, icy Greater Caucasus mountains. It has warm, wet coasts, dry eastern plains and old monasteries, and about 3.9 million people lived there at the start of 2026.
• Watch Country India India is a huge country in South Asia, shaped like a big triangle pointing into the Indian Ocean. The Himalayas rise along its north, heavy monsoon rains arrive every summer, and about 1.46 billion people (2025) live there, speaking hundreds of languages.
• Watch Country Indonesia Indonesia is a country of about 17,500 islands in Southeast Asia, spread across the Equator between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It has more than 100 active volcanoes, rainforests full of wildlife, and about 286 million people (2025).
• Watch Country Iran Iran is a country in southwestern Asia. A high, dry plateau fills its middle, with mountain ranges all around it, and about 92 million people (2025) live there. Long ago it was called Persia, and its capital today is Tehran.
• Watch Country Iraq Iraq is a country in the Middle East. Its two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, water a wide plain that was once called Mesopotamia, where some of the world's earliest cities grew. About 46.1 million people were counted there in 2024, and its capital is Baghdad.
• Watch Country Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Most of its land is steep mountains and forest, Mount Fuji is its tallest peak, and about 124 million people live there, many of them in big cities such as Tokyo.
• Watch Country Jordan Jordan is a kingdom in Southwest Asia, mostly covered by rocky desert. It is home to Petra, a city carved into red sandstone cliffs long ago, the wild valleys of Wadi Rum, and the shore of the Dead Sea, the lowest place on land. About 11.5 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch Country Kazakhstan Kazakhstan is the largest country in Central Asia and the ninth largest in the world. It has no ocean coast, but the Caspian Sea lies along its southwest edge. About 20.6 million people lived there in 2026, and its capital is Astana.
• Watch Country Kuwait Kuwait is a small desert country at the top of the Persian Gulf, between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. It grew from a trading town on Kuwait Bay into a modern country after oil was found. About 4.9 million people live there, most of them in and around Kuwait City.
• Watch Country Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan is a mountain country in Central Asia, with no coast on the sea. The high Tien Shan mountains cover much of it, and Lake Issyk-Kul, one of the largest high-mountain lakes in the world, lies in the northeast. Its capital is Bishkek.
• Watch Country Laos Laos is a landlocked country in mainland Southeast Asia, covered mostly by forested mountains. The Mekong River runs along its western side, and most people live in villages and grow rice. Its capital, Vientiane, stands on the Mekong.
• Watch Country Lebanon Lebanon is a small country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Snowcapped mountains rise steeply behind its narrow coast, and its coast holds some of the oldest settlements in the world, such as Byblos. Arabic is the official language, and the capital is Beirut.
• Watch Country Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia, just north of the Equator. One part is on the Malay Peninsula and the other is on the island of Borneo. It has rainforests, huge caves, Mount Kinabalu and the city of Kuala Lumpur, with about 34.4 million people (2026).
• Watch Country Mongolia Mongolia is a large, landlocked country in Asia, between Russia and China. Most of it is a high plateau of grassy steppe, with mountains in the west and the Gobi in the south, and about 3.6 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch Country Myanmar Myanmar, also called Burma, is the northernmost country of Southeast Asia. Snowy mountains rise in the far north, and the long Irrawaddy River flows south through its heartland to a huge delta of rice fields. About 55 million people live there.
• Watch Country Nepal Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia, between India and China. It climbs from flat, warm farmland in the south to the snowy Himalaya in the north, where Mount Everest stands, and about 29.6 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch Country North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, covers the northern part of the Korean peninsula in East Asia. It is a land of mountains and river valleys with long, cold winters. About 26.6 million people lived there in 2025, and almost all of them speak Korean.
• Watch Country Oman Oman is a country on the southeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, with long coasts on the sea and the huge Empty Quarter desert inland. People have watered their farms with ancient channels called aflaj for more than 2,000 years, and Oman was famous for frankincense. About 5.4 million people lived there in 2026.
• Watch Country Pakistan Pakistan is a country in South Asia that stretches from icy mountain peaks in the north down the fertile valley of the Indus River to the Arabian Sea. It has busy cities such as Karachi and Lahore, its capital is Islamabad, and its 2023 census counted 241.49 million people.
• Watch Country Philippines The Philippines is an island country in Southeast Asia, in the western Pacific Ocean. It has more than 7,000 islands, about 50 volcanoes and rich coral reefs, and about 112.7 million people were counted there in 2024.
• Watch Country Qatar Qatar is a small desert country on a peninsula that pokes north into the Persian Gulf. Its people once lived by pearl diving and fishing; today it is one of the world's biggest exporters of natural gas. Its capital, Doha, has a skyline of towers, and about 3.2 million people lived in Qatar at the end of 2025.
• Watch Country Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia covers about four-fifths of the Arabian Peninsula. Most of it is dry desert, including the Empty Quarter, the largest sand area in the world. About 35.3 million people lived there in 2024, most of them in cities such as Riyadh, the capital.
• Watch Country Singapore Singapore is a city-state, a country that is also one city, on an island at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is small but crowded: about 6.21 million people lived there in 2026, and its port is one of the busiest in the world.
• Watch Country South Korea South Korea occupies the southern part of the Korean Peninsula in East Asia, with sea on three sides. It is mostly mountains and hills, its capital Seoul is one of its many big cities, and the national census counted about 51.8 million people in 2025.
• Watch Country Sri Lanka Sri Lanka is an island country in the Indian Ocean, just south of India. Green highlands rise in the middle, surrounded by plains and sandy beaches. About 22 million people live there, and the island is famous for its tea, its ancient cities and its wild elephants.
• Watch Country Syria Syria lies on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea in southwestern Asia. Behind a short coast rise mountains, and beyond them stretches a wide, dry steppe crossed by the Euphrates River. Damascus, its capital, is considered one of the oldest cities in the world.
• Watch Country Taiwan Taiwan is an island in the western Pacific Ocean, about 160 kilometers off the coast of southeastern China. Mountains cover about two-thirds of it, and most of its 23 million people live on the flatter west side. It has its own government, based in Taipei. The People's Republic of China, governed from Beijing, says Taiwan is part of China, and Taiwan's status is disputed.
• Watch Country Tajikistan Tajikistan is a small, landlocked country in Central Asia, and more than nine-tenths of it is mountains. The Pamir Mountains in the east have peaks over 7,000 meters and one of the longest glaciers in the world. About 10.7 million people live there, mostly in the valleys.
• Watch Country Thailand Thailand is a tropical country in the middle of mainland Southeast Asia, with forested mountains in the north, rice fields on its central plains and a long, narrow peninsula in the south. Its capital is Bangkok, and about 65.8 million people were on its civil register at the end of 2025.
• Watch Country Türkiye (Turkey) Türkiye, also called Turkey, lies partly in Asia and partly in Europe. A narrow waterway called the Bosporus runs through its biggest city, Istanbul, and its land is mostly mountains and high plains. About 86 million people live there.
• Watch Country Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia, and nine-tenths of it is desert. The huge Karakum sand desert fills its middle, while people live mostly in green oases along rivers and mountains. Ancient Silk Road cities such as Merv stand here, and the 2022 national census counted about 7.1 million people.
• Watch Country United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates, or UAE, is a country of seven emirates on the Arabian Peninsula, on the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Most of it is desert, and its cities, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, line the coast. Dubai has the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building.
• Watch Country Uzbekistan Uzbekistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia, between two great rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya. Most of it is dry desert, but its oases and valleys hold famous Silk Road cities such as Samarkand and Bukhara. It became independent in 1991, and about 37.1 million people lived there in 2025.
• Watch Country Vietnam Vietnam stretches about 1,650 kilometers along the coast of Southeast Asia, with mountains in the west and two great river deltas, the Red River in the north and the Mekong in the south. About 102.3 million people lived there in 2025. Its capital is Hanoi, and its largest city is Ho Chi Minh City.
• Watch Country Yemen Yemen sits at the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, between the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. Its green, terraced highlands are unlike anywhere else in Arabia, its old towns have tall houses of stone and mud brick, and it was the first place where coffee was grown as a crop to sell.