Turkey is a unique country: a bridge between
Asia and Europe,has an extremely rich cultural heritage.
Turkey is surrounded by sea on three sides, by the
Black Sea in the
north, the
Mediterranean in the south and the
Aegean Sea in the west.
In the northwest there is also an important internal sea, the
Sea of
Marmara, between the straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus
Turkey, known officially as the
Republic of Turkey is a Eurasian country that stretches across the
Anatolian peninsula in western Asia and Thrace (Rumelia) in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe.
Turkey is bordered by eight countries:
Bulgaria to the northwest;
Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast;
Armenia,
Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhichevan) and
Iran to the east; and
Iraq and
Syria to the southeast.
The Mediterranean Sea and
Cyprus are to the south; the
Aegean Sea and Archipelago are to the west; and the
Black Sea is to the north. Separating Anatolia and Thrace are the Sea of Marmara and the Turkish Straits (the Bosporus and the Dardanelles), which are commonly reckoned to delineate the border between
Asia and Europe, thereby making
Turkey transcontinental.
Due to its strategic location astride two continents,
Turkey's culture has a unique blend of Eastern and Western tradition. A powerful regional presence in the Eurasian landmass with strong historic, cultural and economic influence in the area between Europe in the west and Central Asia in the east,
Russia in the north and the
Middle East in the south,
Turkey has come to acquire increasing strategic significance.
Turkey today still holds a very strategic position on the world map
Perhaps no other land has witnessed so many diverse civilisations over the last nine thousand years.After the great Mesopotamians,the
Hittite and
Urartu kingdoms flourished,and in Westerb Anatolia the Ionian and Roman civilisation predominated.Istanbul holds the honour of having been the capital of two huge empires first the Byzantine then the Ottoman.
Anatolia is a melting pot where cultures from Sumer,Babylon and Assyria interacred for centuries with peoples such as the Hattis,Hittites and Hourrites.The result was a unique Anatolian civilisation which has long inspired the thoughts and legends of the West.
The ancient Bronze Age witnessed the establishment of the first independent city states.At that time,the centre and southeast of Anatolia were inhabitted by the indigenous Hattis.
The most spectacular findings from thistime are those of Alaca Höyük in the Kizilirmak region and of Horoztepe near Tokat, in the Black Sea region.They are contemporary with the royal tombs of Mycenae in Greece.
Anatolia itself became a crossroads of peoples,cultures and religions.Christianity,for example,thrived here,and Islam was glorified by the Seljuks and Ottomans.
Geographical Regions Turkey has 81 administrative provinces and seven geographical regions. The first four of the seven regions are given the names of the seas which are adjacent to them.
The other three regions are named in accordance with their location in the whole of Anatolia.
