The peninsula of Asia Minor, the most western point of the Asian continent, bounded by the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara, the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, is part of the state of the Turkish Republic, founded on 29th October 1923.
The total area of Turkey is about 780000 square kilometres. The part of it regarded as belonging to Europe is just 27000 square kilometers. Known as the eastern area of Thrakia, it is becoming more and more important because of the major town of Istanbul, the only town in the world situated on two continents, and thought of as the gate to Asia Minor or, really, Anatolia.
So we can say that three percent of Turkey belongs to Europe and 97 percent of it belongs to Asia. But the whole country is the meeting point of three continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa. Turkey has borders with Iran, Iraq, Syria, Cyprus, Greece (Aegean and Thrakia), Bulgaria and Romania (just sea borders) and, with a length of more than one thousand kilometres, including sea borders, has the longest borders with the former Soviet Union to the north and east. As Turkey seems to be a never-ending country because of its size, there are lots of differences in climate and landscape.
An almost never-ending zone
There are zones of moderate temperatures, Mediterranean landscapes, the Steppes of Asia and zones of alpine/mountain landscapes. The difference in the geographical landscapes and, therefore, the climate makes the differences between the single regions of Turkey even more important. The surface of the country shows a clear character. The European part in the extreme western part of Turkey is formed by the Thrakian high plateau. The Aegean zone in the west is more like a combination of smaller mountainous rocks and valleys. The most important elements to give a complete picture of Turkey are the two chains of mountains along the coasts, the Pontus to the north and the Taurus to the south. These mountain chains sometimes come together in the centre of Turkey but mainly run parallel to the coast lines until their meeting point in the east were they form the high plateau of Central Anatolia. They surround the huge high plateau of Central Anatolia.
Even though you may think of Turkey as a country where nature provides major obstacles to the ideas of humans, we need to say, that, because of its central position between Europe and Asia, Turkey has been one of those places where the history of mankind has taken huge steps because of the influence of former empires as well as because of huge movements in population. Today, Turkey has an almost completely Muslim population of Asian origin, but is also powerfully drawn to the western world. Anatolia has come under the influence of Sumerian, Hethitian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman cultures while, in more recent times, Christianity and Islam have built some of their most important centres here in Turkey.
Turkey - Country on two Continents
