Turkey Geography

• Geography

Turkey is a big and respectively green country as opposed to what many people may think. It is between 35 and 42 long latitude, and 25 and 44 east longitude. Philedelphia, Tokyo and Beijing are some of the cities around the same latitude as Turkey.

Turkey is divided into 7 geographic regions :

Marmara (Marmara)

Aegean (Ege)

Mediterrenean (Akdeniz)

Southeastern (Guney Dogu)

Eastern (Dogu)

Blacksea (Karadeniz)

Central Anatolia (Ic Anadolu)

    The total area Turkey covers is a bit less than 800.000 sq km ( 774,815 sq km ), which makes it one of the biggest countries in Europe and the Middle East. The neighbours are Greece and Bulgaria on the norhtwest,Armenia and Georgia on the northeast, Iran and Irak on the southeast and Syria on the south. Of all, the Turkish-Syrian border is the longest.Turkey has no direct border with Russia, but the Black Sea on the north.The other seas that cover Turkey are the Aegean on the west and the Mediterrenean on the south. In other words, Turkey is a huge big peninsula wrapped up by seas on three sides that looks like the head of a horse, as a Turkish poet has put it.

    The highest mountain of Turkey is the Mount Ararat in the east, on which Noah's Ark is believed to be ,and it is not far from the lake Van , the biggest lake of the country. Other known mountains are Mount Erciyes, Mount Hasan, Bursa Uludag ,and the mountainchain "The Tauruses".

    The Asian part of Anatolia comprises a large part of the present day Turkey, although the area .,mentioned above was only a small portion of the pre World War I. Once the Ottoman Empire had its  widest borders from the Adriatic Sea to the Persian Gulf i.e. Indian Ocean. The eastern region of Turkey, Thrace, lies in Europe and has 23,000 sq km surface area. The elevation rises from west towards east and stabilizes at around 800m above sea level in the Central Anatolian Plateau.

    Further east, the elevation increases and reaches 2,000-2,200m on the average in eastern Anatolia. In the South, the taurus Mountains lay parallel to the Mediterranean with average elevations around 2,500m, sometimes reaching 4,OOOm above sea level. In Western Anatolia, the mountain ranges lie from east to west, perpendicular to the Aegean Sea   creating fertile valleys and fields washed by the rivers of famous ancient times legends such as the Great Meander, Castros, Pactole and Selinus. These mountain ranges, perpendicular to the sea, created many peninsulas and bays and thus, a coastal line full of natural wonders.

    The high plateaus east of the sunken salt lake bowl contain many volcanoes with elevations of 3,000-4,OOOm and higher. The highest of these mountains is Mt. Ararat (5,165m). The largest lake in the country, Lake Van (3,600 sq km ) is also in this region. The high plains of Eastern Anatolia are ,generally large areas for animal husbandry, but there are lower, warmer and more fertile plains such as  the Igdir plain. The rivers that originate in this region, like Euphrates and Tigris, flow south as the elevation decreases rapidly. They water the South Eastern Anatolia region and, forming Upper Mesopotamia, they leave Turkey.

    In the Black Sea, it is noticeable that the mountains generally lie close to the sea. As a result of this, only several (Carsamba, Bafra, etc.) fertile plains were formed, and other than these plains, the mountains are almost perpendicular to the coastline.

    The region around the Marmara Sea, both in Anatolia and in Thrace has very few changes in elevation , ,and is comprised of large, flat, fertile lands.

Geographical Regions:

    Turkey, which has 80 administrative provinces, is divided into seven geographical regions; the Black Sea region, the Marmara region, the Aegean region, the Mediterranean region, Central Anatolia, the East and Southeast Anatolia regions.

Coastlines:

    Turkey is surrounded by sea on three sides, by Black Sea in the north, the Mediterranean Sea in the south and the Aegean Sea in the west. In the northwest, there is an internal sea, the Sea of Marmara, between the straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, which are important waterways that connect the Black Sea with the rest of the world. The coastline of Turkey (excluding islands) is 8333 km.

Rivers:

    Most of the rivers of Turkey flow into the seas surrounding the country. The Fyrat (Euphrates) and Dicle (Tigris) join together in Iraq and flow into the Persian Gulf. Turkey's largest rivers, the Kyzylyrmak, Ye?ilyrmak and Sakarya, flow into the Black Sea. The Susurluk, Biga and Gönen pour into the Sea of Marmara, the Gediz, Küçük Menderes, Büyük Menderes, and Meriç into the Aegean and the Seyhan, Ceyhan and Göksu into the Mediterranean.

    Mountains:

    In the Marmara region the most important peak is the Uludağ (2543 m) at the same time it is a major winter sports and tourist centre. In the Aegean region, the mountains fall perpendicularly to the sea. In the Mediterranean region, located in the south of Turkey, the western and central Taurus Mountains suddenly rise up behind the coastline. The Central Anatolia Region is exactly in the middle of Turkey and gives the appearance of being less mountainous compared with other regions. The main peaks of the region are Karadağ, Karacadağ, Hasandağ, and Erciyes (3917 m). The Eastern Anatolia region is Turkey's largest and highest region. About three-fourths is at an altitude of 1500 - 2000 metres. There are numerous inactive volcanoes in the region, including Nemrut, Suphan, Tendurek and Turkey's highest peak where Noah's Ark was landed, Mount Ağrı (Ararat) is 5165 metres high.

Lakes:

    In terms of numbers of lakes, the Eastern Anatolia region is the richest. It contains Turkey's largest, Lake Van (3713 sq.km.). There are also many lakes in west Tourus Mountains area; the Beyşehir and Eğridir lakes. Important lakes are; the second largest lake in Turkey, Tuzgölü, Burdur, Sapanca, Iznik, Ulubat, Manyas (bird sanctuary), Akşehir, and Eber. As a result of the construction of dams during the past thirty years, several large dam lakes have come into existence in the Eastern Anatolia such as, Keban, Karakaya, and Ataturk.