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Turkey is a vast peninsula, covering an area
of 780,000 sq.+km and linking Asia to Europe through
the Sea of Marmara an the Straits of Istanbul
and Çanakkale. Across the Sea of Marmara, the
triangular shaped Thrace is the continuation of
Turkey on the European continent. Anatolia is
rectangular in outline,1600 kilometers long and
600 kilometers wide. It is characterized by a
central plateau surrounded by chains of mountains
on the north, west and south and a rugged mountainous
region in the east with an average elevation of
1050 meters. The northern Anatolia mountain range,
and the Taurus range in the south, stretch like
arcs, becoming ever denser in the east. In the
west, however, the mountains descent gently towards
the sea.
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Turkey is like a mosaic made up of many different
relieves and formations: parallel mountain ranges,
extinct volcanoes, plateaus fissured by valleys
and plains. Surrounded on its three sides by warm
seas, it falls in the temperate climate zone.
The climate varies considerably however from region
to region: a temperate climate in the Black sea
region, a Mediterranean climate on the southern
coast and the Aegean, a continental and arid climate
on the central plateau and a harsh mountain climate
in eastern Turkey. Because of these variations
in climate, the fauna and flora are some of the
richest in Europe and the Middle East.
There are more than 10,000 species of plants
in Turkey, 20% of which are found only in these
lands. The abundant rainfall in the black sea
region allows the growth of rich forest vegetation,
including oak, beech, maple, alder, chestnut and
walnut trees. The Dardanelles forms a transition
between the Black Sea and the Aegean regions and
therefore has a mixture of temperate and Mediterranean
type of vegetation. Thrace has fine forests which
are subject to the continental influence of the
Balkans. The coast of the Aegean and the Mediterranean,
from the Dardanelles to the gulf of Iskenderun,
have a typically Mediterranean vegetation which
extends to the plains and western slopes of mountains
as high as 1,000 meters. The southern coast has
very hot and dry summers and the vegetation in
some places in subtropical with banana trees and
date palms. In the Taurus mountains, the vegetation
consists of pine and cedar forests, with even
junipers at higher altitudes.
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