The boundary between Europe and Asia is not a coastline or a mountain wall that everyone agrees on — it is a historical construct, refined over centuries, that runs along the Ural Mountains, down the Ural River, across the Caspian Sea, through the Caucasus Mountains, and across the Black Sea and the Turkish Straits. Countries sitting on that line are genuinely part of both continents, and how they are classified depends on the source.
Europe and Asia
- Russia — about 77% of its territory is in Asia (Siberia and the Far East), but roughly 75% of its population, its capital Moscow, and its historic core are in Europe. It is almost always classified as a European country.
- Turkey — a small part, including part of the city of Istanbul, lies west of the Bosphorus in Europe (the region called Thrace); the great bulk of the country is in Asia (Anatolia). Usually counted as Asian; often treated as European for sport, culture and its EU candidacy.
- Kazakhstan — a strip of land west of the Ural River is in Europe; the rest is in Asia. It is usually classified as Asian (specifically Central Asian), but has a European football federation.
- Azerbaijan and Georgia — the Caucasus mountain divide runs through both. Sources place them in Europe, Asia, or 'Eurasia' inconsistently. Both compete in European sporting competitions.
- Armenia — south of the main Caucasus range, so more often placed in Asia, but culturally and politically oriented toward Europe.
- Cyprus — geographically part of Asia (it sits on the Anatolian plate, close to the Levant), but politically, culturally and institutionally European, and an EU member.
Africa and Asia
Egypt is the clearest case: the Sinai Peninsula, east of the Suez Canal, is in Asia; the rest of the country, west of the canal, is in Africa. The canal itself is often taken as the dividing line. Egypt is always counted as an African country. The Suez Canal, opened in 1869, effectively made Africa a true island — before it, Africa and Asia were joined at Sinai.
The Americas as one continent or two
Whether North and South America are one continent or two is itself a convention that varies by country. Panama and Colombia sit at the join — the Isthmus of Panama and the Darién Gap. Most English-language sources treat them as two continents, with the boundary at the Panama–Colombia border, so Panama is North America and Colombia is South America.
How this site classifies them
Geography Games assigns each country a single continent based on standard UN regional groupings, so that its games always have one correct answer. Under this scheme: Russia is Europe, Turkey is Asia, Kazakhstan is Asia, Azerbaijan and Georgia and Armenia are Asia, Cyprus is Asia, and Egypt is Africa. If you play the Which Continent? game, spend a few rounds learning these edge cases — they are exactly the ones that end streaks.
Tap the continent for each country. The transcontinental ones — Russia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Armenia — are the rounds that catch people out.
Play Which Continent? →