<P> "For there are three - thousand neat - ankled daughters of Ocean who are dispersed far and wide, and in every place alike serve the earth and the deep waters ." </P> <P> The Iliad (attributed by the ancient Greeks to Homer) mentions two Phrygians (the tribe that replaced the Luvians in Lydia) in the Trojan War named Asios (an adjective meaning "Asian"); and also a marsh or lowland containing a marsh in Lydia as ασιος . </P> <P> The history of Asia can be seen as the distinct histories of several peripheral coastal regions: East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, linked by the interior mass of the Central Asian steppes . </P> <P> The coastal periphery was home to some of the world's earliest known civilizations, each of them developing around fertile river valleys . The civilizations in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and the Yellow River shared many similarities . These civilizations may well have exchanged technologies and ideas such as mathematics and the wheel . Other innovations, such as writing, seem to have been developed individually in each area . Cities, states and empires developed in these lowlands . </P>

How many countries in asia can you name