The location of the geographical centre of Asia (russian: Центр Азии; tyv, Азияның Төвү; ) depends on the definition of the borders of Asia, mainly whether remote islands are included to define the extreme points of Asia, and on the method of calculating the final result. Also on the projection used (radial projection on the plane vs. projection on a geoid), there is no objectively correct way of finding "the centre of Asia". Thus, several places claim to host this hypothetical centre. The first official declaration of the Centre of Asia was made in the 1890s by the British traveller, and calculated to be near the Manor house of Estate of Safyanov in Saldam (modern Tuva, Russia) at . There is a monument commemorating that fact in the estate garden.

Current measurements

China

The Geographical Centre of the Asian Continent () is the name of a monument indicating the supposed

geographical centre In geography, the centroid of the two-dimensional shape of a region of the Earth's surface (projected radially to sea level or onto a geoid surface) is known as its geographic centre or geographical centre or (less commonly) gravitational centre. I ...

of the Asian continent. It is located about 20 km south-west of

Ürümqi Ürümqi ( ; also spelled Ürümchi or without umlauts), formerly known as Dihua (also spelled Tihwa), is the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far northwest of the People's Republic of China. Ürümqi developed its ...

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The measurement on which it is based dates to 1992. It was based on calculating the geographical centre of 49

Asian countries This is a list of sovereign states and dependent territories in Asia. It includes sovereign state, fully recognized states, states with limited but substantial international recognition, ''de facto'' states with little or no international recogn ...

, including island states such as

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

(and, reflecting the People's Republic of China's political perspective, counting

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

and

Sikkim Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Siligur ...

as separate countries), placing the geographical centre of all these countries at . Before the completion of the monument, the site was marked by a wooden pole stating "Geographic Centre of Asia" (亚洲地理中心). A village that happened to be located at the site where the monument was to be built was relocated, and the new village is now known as the "Heart of Asia" (亚心). The site has a tower labelled "Centre of Asia" which represents 48 countries of

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. The monument was completed in the late 1990s.

Russia

Obelisk "Center of Asia" (russian: Центр Азии; tyv, Азияның Төвү) is the name of a monument indicating the supposed geographical centre of the Asian continent. It is located in

Kyzyl Kyzyl (; Tuvan and russian: Кызыл; , ) is the capital city of the republic of Tuva, Russia. The name of the city means "red" or "crimson" in Tuvan (and in many other Turkic languages). Its population was History The city was founded in 1 ...

Tyva Republic Tuva (; russian: Тува́) or Tyva ( tyv, Тыва), officially the Republic of Tuva (russian: Респу́блика Тыва́, r=Respublika Tyva, p=rʲɪˈspublʲɪkə tɨˈva; tyv, Тыва Республика, translit=Tyva Respublika ...

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. It is located in the

Tos-Bulak Tos-Bulak is the name of an area of open fields and a mineral spring situated at , some 9 km south of Kyzyl, Tyva. It is the location of the Naadym festival (15 August), the Tyvan Republic Day, where various competitions such as horseriding and ...

area south of the city, located about 700 km to the north-to-northeast of the Ürümqi monument at . The monument was completed in 1968.

References

{{GeographicalCenters

Monuments and memorials in Russia Monuments and memorials in China Geography of Asia Kyzyl