248 climate and geography: Asia and the Pacific CENTRAL ASIA The region west of Persia (modern Iran) and the Caspian Sea encompasses a variety of terrains The southern coast of modern Pakistan lies along the Arabian Sea Just north of the coast is the Central Makran Range The central area is a large, flat plateau Most of this area is extremely dry with almost no rainfall To the west the Indus River flows south from the Himalayas The river creates an extremely fertile valley that was a center of human settlement in ancient times The Hindu Kush Mountain Range runs through northern Pakistan and most of modern Afghanistan These mountains are high and snow covered, and they prevented ancient people from moving freely in this area The same mountain chain continues north into modern Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan This entire region is prone to earthquakes The Caspian Sea coast drew ancient human settlers who caught fish, such as sturgeon, in its waters; the northern coast where the Volga River enters the sea was especially attractive To the west of the Caspian Sea and north of Persia lies a huge, flat area of deserts and steppes The Amu Darya River crosses this region from the Pamir Mountains to the Aral Sea, a large body of freshwater Aside from this water, this area (modern Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) has been arid desert with little rainfall for many centuries The ancient Chinese Silk Road passed through this region, going north of the mountains to the southeastern end of the Caspian Sea in Persia North and northeast of the desert is a large area of grassland pocked with small lakes and salt flats The Syr Darya River flows from the Kyrgyz Range to the Aral Sea; in ancient times, it had a wide, well-watered delta that could support agriculture INDIA The Indian subcontinent is a giant triangular peninsula that juts southward into the Indian Ocean The Arabian Sea forms its west coast, and the Bay of Bengal lies to the east Narrow mountain ranges called Ghats run down both coasts, the Eastern Ghats in the east and the Western Ghats in the west Between the Ghats and the ocean are fertile, wet coastal plains The Thar Desert lies to the east of the Indus River; though historians are not sure exactly when it formed, it was certainly a dry, rocky desert by ancient times The Ganges River runs from west to east across northern India and drains into the Bay of Bengal The river drains a large, flat area that has very fertile soil, is easily irrigated, and has been intensively farmed and densely populated for thousands of years The Brahmaputra River joins the Ganges just above the delta It flows through the Assam valley, one of the wettest and most fertile places on earth The Himalayas, the Thar Desert, and the Indian Ocean rule India’s climate The mountains block cold winds from central Asia, keeping winters warm in India south of the Himalayas The Thar Desert attracts rain-bearing clouds that bring the seasonal monsoon The monsoon is a wind pattern that follows the same course every year; the Indian monsoon blows out of the Arabian Sea in early summer, causing heavy rains on the subcontinent after about June 1, and reverses direction in the fall, taking the rain with it The monsoon rains can also be dangerous, causing floods and thunderstorms Ancient farmers did their best to time plantings with the monsoons Although the monsoon rains were generally predictable, some years they came later or failed entirely, devastating crops Droughts plagued India as they did most of the ancient world The people looked to their kings to end droughts by placating the gods One ruler, Chandragupta, abdicated his throne in 301 b.c.e., hoping to end a drought by dedicating his life to prayer; he is said to have fasted to death All of India was fairly accessible to the outside world The northeast was close to Persia, facilitating commerce as well as cultural and religious exchange with the Middle East It was also vulnerable to invasion from northern cultures, including the Persians and the Scythians, because of its proximity to central Asia The southern part of the subcontinent was well positioned to trade with other ancient empires, especially once sailors mastered sailing with the monsoons around the first century c.e The Dravidian people of southern India used this ability to trade with the Middle East and even the Roman Empire, sailing around Arabia to get close to the Mediterranean Many Indians emigrated east from south India during the first 500 years c.e., settling in Thailand, on the Malay Peninsula, and in Indonesia, and even reaching as far as Taiwan or the Philippines HIMALAYAS The Himalayas lie to the north of the Indian subcontinent The southern edge of the range stretches 1,500 miles northwest to southeast from the Hindu Kush to the headwaters of the Brahmaputra River The Himalayas are the world’s highest mountains; 14 of the peaks, including Mount Everest, are over 26,427 feet high The Indus, the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Yangtze rivers all originate in the Himalayas The Himalayas were formed by the collision of the Indo-Australian plate with the Tibetan plateau; this geological plate has been moving slowly northward for the past 70 million years and keeps the Himalayan region geologically active Earthquakes were common in ancient times Ancient peoples in the Himalayas and India certainly experienced earthquakes; ancient texts such as the Vedas (perhaps written around 3000 b.c.e.) often mention them and suggest supernatural causes The terrain of the Himalayas varies more by altitude than by latitude The lower slopes of the southern Himalayas are fertile lands with deciduous forests Above this area is a region called the Terai belt, an area of clay, sandy soils, and seasonal floods that turn the terrain into marsh Indian rhinoceros were plentiful here in ancient times Above the Terai is a zone of rocky soils and subtropical pine and broadleaf forests Next come temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, and above them subalpine conifer (trees with needles for leaves)