While the NGS has often furnished its maps of Europe and Asia with a green line
separating the two, I have never seen them do the same for the two Americas or
for Asia and Africa.
I would suggest that the COPA political boundary is an unacceptable limit
between the Americas for at least the following reasons:
1. Were there not two Americas prior to the 1903 independence of Panamá from
Colombia?
2. Nowhere does the NGS's Europe-Asia boundary follow a political boundary.
I would, rather, suggest the narrowest part of the isthmus. That would be even
with the Golfo de San Blas.
However, an excellent argument can be made that the continental limit should be
across the lowest part of the cordillera that runs the length of the isthmus.
That is, indeed, where the Americas would become two separate land masses if sea
level were to rise sufficiently. (This thinking is influenced by the actual
experience at the Bering Strait between Asia and North America at the end of the
most recent ice age, and perhaps at the Strait of Gibraltar, the Dardanelles,
and the Bosporus at various times in prehistory.) This lowest part of Panamá is
the approximate location of the canal.
Between Asia and Africa, both the narrowest and lowest parts of the Isthmus of
Suez are the approximate location of the canal there.
So, we can add Panamá and Egypt to Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and
Turkey in the list of countries with continuous intercontinental sovereignty.
Lowell G. McManus
Leesville, Louisiana, USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Kaufman" <mikekaufman79@...>
To: <BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 14, 2004 4:45 PM
Subject: Re: [BoundaryPoint] The easternmost point in Europe
>
> What does Nat. grog. society say about N/S Americas.
> Again you could say same thing that it is all one.
> But I am thinking they have determined it on basis of
> political boundary (Panama - Colombia). Is that how
> the did it?
>
> --- "Lowell G. McManus" <mcmanus71496@...> wrote:
>
> > Yes, exactly. That would be the easternmost point
> > on what the National Geographic Society shows on its
> > maps as the traditional line of distinction between
> > Europe and Asia.
> >
> > Of course, this is a distinction only in the minds
> > of men--much less significant than a political
> > boundary or an interface between distinct cultures,
> > religions, languages, etc. Still, if such terms as
> > "Europe" and "Asia" have geographic meaning, there
> > must be some limit between their respective regions
> > of applicability. This remains true, even if they
> > are part of one land mass with one another and with
> > Africa.
> >
> > Lowell G. McManus
> > Leesville, Louisiana, USA
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: John Seeliger
> > To: BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com
> > Sent: Sunday, November 14, 2004 12:09 PM
> > Subject: Re: [BoundaryPoint] The easternmost point
> > in Europe
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Lowell G. McManus
> > To: BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com
> > Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 9:54 PM
> > Subject: Re: [BoundaryPoint] The easternmost
> > point in Europe
> >
> >
> > I must disagree as to the location of the
> > eastern point of Europe. If the Ural Mountains make
> > up part of the delimitation, the eastern point of
> > Europe would be at a point on the drainage divide
> > east of the head of the Malaya Usa River. This is
> > in the far north of Russia, roughly between the
> > towns of Khal'mer Yu (west of the divide) and
> > Laborovaya (east of the divide). Search for
> > "Khal'mer Yu" on Expedia.
> >
> > Lowell G. McManus
> > Leesville, Louisiana, USA
> >
> >
> > Is this what you had in mind:
> >
>
>
>
>
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