Asia

Sri Lanka is an island country in the Indian Ocean. It lies just 30 kilometres south-east of India. It has mountains in the south-central region. Elsewhere it is mainly low lying with flat coastal plains. The country has many sandy beaches and lagoons.

Singapore is a densely populated city state in South-East Asia. It sits south of the Malay Peninsula, across the Johor Straits. The country is made up of Singapore Island and about 60 much smaller islands. Most of the main island is low lying. There are low hills in the central region and large areas of swamp in the north-east.

Pakistan lies to the north-west of India. Its other neighbours are China, Afghanistan and Iran. It borders the Arabian Sea to the south. Pakistan has a varied climate and geography. It has vast mountain ranges in the north, an area of desert in the west and the Indus River plain in the centre. The east is fertile and has many lakes.

Maldives is a low-lying island country in the north-central Indian Ocean. Its closest neighbours are India, about 600 kilometres north-east, and Sri Lanka, about 645 kilometres north-east. It is made up of around 1,200 small coral islands and sandbanks. Around 200 of these are inhabited. Barrier reefs protect the islands.

Malaysia is a South-East Asian country. Peninsular Malaysia lies south of Thailand. The states of Sabah and Sarawak are located across the South China Sea and form part of the island of Borneo. They border the small country of Brunei and the Indonesian part of the island, Kalimantan. Malaysia’s environment features mountains, mangrove swamps, low plains and sandy beaches. More than 60% is covered by rainforest.

India mainly sits on a vast peninsula in Southern Asia, surrounded by the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. In the north, it borders countries including Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and China. Its diverse geography includes a plateau region to the south, flat-to-rolling plains along the Ganges river, and the Himalayan mountain range to the north.

Brunei is a small equatorial country on the northern coast of the island of Borneo in South-East Asia. The South China Sea lies to the north. Otherwise, it is bordered to all sides by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, which divides it in two. The coastal plain rises to mountains in the east. Nearly three-quarters of Brunei’s land area is covered by forest.

Bangladesh is surrounded by India to the west, north and east. It borders Myanmar in the south-east. The Bay of Bengal is to the south. Bangladesh is mainly low-lying delta, but mountains separate it from Myanmar and parts of India. There is a large area of swamp forest in the south.