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The Asian region of Anatolia comprises a large part of today's Turkey , although the surface area mentioned obove was only a small portion of the pre World War I Ottoman Empire which reached 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 km2 surface erea. The elevantion rises from west towards east and stabilizes at around 800m above sea level in the Central Anatolian Plateau. Further earst, the elevation increases and reaches 2,000- 2,200m on the average in Eastern Anatolian. In the South,the Taurus Mountain lay parellel to the Mediterranean with average elevations around 2,500m somestimes reaching 4,00m above sea level.The Pontic chain in the North lies parallel to the Black Sea coast with an average elevation of 1,500m , reaching 3,600m as one travels east
.In Western Anatolia , the mountain ranges lies from east to west, perpendicular to the Aegean Sea creanting fertile vallys irigated by the rivers of famous ancient times legeds such as, Meandros, 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. In the South, there are many river that carry the snow water down from the peaks of the Taurus Mountains to the Mediterranean. These rivers fed fertile plains of various sizes. The high plateaus east of the sunken salt lake bowl contain many volcanoes with elevations of 3,000- 4,000m and higher. The highest of these mountains is Mt. Ararat ( 5,165m ). The largest lake in the country, Lake Van (3,600 km2 ) is also in this region . The high plains of Eastern Anatolia are generally large areas for cattle farmig , but there are lower, warmer and more fertile plains such as the Igdir plain. The rivers that origiinate in this region, such and Euphrates and Tigris, flom south as the elevation decreases rapidly. They irrigate the Sount Eastern Anatolia region and ,forming Upper Mesopotamai, they leave Turkey. In the Black Sean, it is noticeable that the mountains genellay lie close to the sea. As a result of this, only several ( Çar?amba , 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 Anatolie and in Thrace has very few changes in large, flat, fertile lands.
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