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Europe
is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising
the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided
from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the
Ural River, the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the
southeast. Europe is washed upon to the north by the Arctic Ocean,
to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean
Sea, and to the southeast by the Black Sea and the waterways
connecting it to the Mediterranean. Yet, the borders for Europe—a
concept dating back to classical antiquity—are somewhat arbitrary,
as the term continent can refer to a cultural and political
distinction or a physiographic one. Europe is the world's
second-smallest continent by surface area, covering about 10,180,000
square kilometers (3,930,000 sq mi) or 2% of the Earth's surface and
about 6.8% of its land area. Of Europe's approximately 50 states,
Russia is the largest by both area and population, while the Vatican
City is the smallest.. |
