South Asia Geography
This ocean lies south of India.
What is the Indian Ocean?
Central Asia is part of this continent - the largest on Earth.
What is Asia?
The Ganges flows through much of this South Asian country, whose capital is New Delhi.
What is India?
Harappan civilization is also known as the civilization of this river valley.
What is the Indus Valley?
In a geography game, “Never Eat Soggy Waffles” can help you remember these four compass directions in order.
What are north, east, south, and west?
This mountain range forms a major natural barrier along the northern edge of the Indian subcontinent.
What are the Himalayas?
Many Central Asian countries have no coastline on an ocean. This geographic term describes them.
What is landlocked?
The Ganges is considered sacred by many followers of this religion.
What is Hinduism?
A clay toy made and used by Harappan people is this type of source: primary or secondary.
What is a primary source?
You’re holding a map, but its symbols look like a secret code! This feature explains what the symbols mean.
What is a map key or legend?
These seasonal winds bring heavy summer rains to much of South Asia.
What are monsoons?
These large, mostly treeless grasslands cover parts of Central Asia and provide grazing land for livestock.
What are steppes?
Name two ways people use the Ganges to support their everyday lives or livelihoods.
Any two: irrigating crops, fishing, obtaining water for household use, transportation, or religious activities.
Harappan cities had systems of drains that carried wastewater away. What does this suggest about how their cities were built?
Their cities were planned, with systems for managing wastewater.
Archaeologists discover an ancient toy cart. Name one reasonable inference they could make about life in that society.
People made toys; children likely played with them; or people were familiar with wheeled carts. Accept a cautious inference supported by the object.
Rivers help farming communities by providing these two resources: one that crops drink and one deposited by floods that enriches farmland.
What are water and fertile soil/silt?
Name two of the five countries commonly included in Central Asia.
Any two: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.
A river can be sacred and still become polluted. Name two ways pollution can enter the Ganges.
Any two: untreated sewage, industrial waste, agricultural runoff, or dumped garbage.
Archaeologists discovered standardized weights—weights following a shared system. What activity would these help people conduct consistently?
What is trade, or weighing goods for exchange?
You are investigating an ancient city. Which is a primary source: an ancient pot found there, a textbook chapter, or a documentary made last year? Explain why.
The ancient pot, because it comes from the society and time being studied.
Explain one way the Himalayas could make travel and trade more difficult and one way people could still travel through the mountains.
High, steep mountains make travel difficult; mountain passes provide routes through them.
Explain why access to rivers and other water sources strongly influences where people farm and settle in Central Asia’s dry regions.
People and crops need water, so reliable water sources make farming and permanent settlement possible in otherwise dry areas.
Explain why pollution entering the Ganges in one community can become a problem for communities farther downstream.
Flowing water carries pollution downstream, where it can affect other communities’ water supplies, health, farming, or fishing.
A student says, “Our sources do not identify a Harappan king, so the Harappans definitely had no leaders.” Explain the problem with this conclusion.
Missing evidence does not prove that leaders did not exist. We need more evidence to determine how they were governed.
An archaeologist finds a mysterious object. Give two questions they should ask before deciding what it tells us about the people who made it.
Any two useful questions: Where was it found? How old is it? What is it made of? What might it have been used for? Who might have used it? What other evidence supports that interpretation?