BRUSSELS.- Together, Asia and Europe form a single gigantic continent, Eurasia , with an endless variety of landscapes, climates, fauna, and flora and an equally great diversity of peoples and cultures. For millennia past, Asia and Europe have had intense relations with each other. Both by land and by sea, commercial and political links developed between East and West. Conquerors such as Alexander the Great, Attila, and Genghis Khan set out in search of glory, wealth, and power. Marco Polo was fascinated by what he saw on his travels through Central Asia and the Far East . Vasco Da Gama and Magellan sought new routes to China . The Chinese admiral Zeng He sought diplomatic contacts with the West by sea. Two cultural factors seem to have brought East and West into contact with each other over thousands of years: trade and religion. The land route between China and Rome , which later became known as the “Silk Road “, was not the only network of trade routes. Greek, Roman, and Chin