id author title date pages extension mime words sentences flesch summary cache txt en-wikipedia-org-6864 Central Asia - Wikipedia .html text/html 13615 1561 65 The UNESCO History of the Civilizations of Central Asia, published in 1992, defines the region as "Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, northern and central Pakistan, northern India, western China, Mongolia and the former Soviet Central Asian republics."[24] Central Asia is an extremely large region of varied geography, including high passes and mountains (Tian Shan), vast deserts (Kyzyl Kum, Taklamakan), and especially treeless, grassy steppes. According to an independent study, Turkmenistan is supposed to be the fifth largest natural gas field in the world.[64] The mountain ranges and areas in northern Pakistan lie on the fringes of greater Central Asia; the Gilgit–Baltistan region of Pakistan lies adjacent to Tajikistan, separated only by the narrow Afghan Wakhan Corridor. ./cache/en-wikipedia-org-6864.html ./txt/en-wikipedia-org-6864.txt