Location and Geography
Turkey is the largest country in Europe (aside from Russia). It is bordered by Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran in the East, Iraq, Syria and the Mediterranean Sea in the South, Greece and Bulgaria in the North-west, the Black Sea in the North, and the Aegean Sea in the West. Marmara is an inland sea that separates Europe and Asia by two natural passages: Dardanel and Bosphorus. The land in Europe is called Trakya. Anatolia, which is the land area located in Asia, is a high plateau bounded by the Pontic Mountains in the North, the Taurus Mountains in the South, and stretching out to the peak of Mount Ararat in the Caucasus Mountains in the East. Mountain ranges give way to narrow coastal plains in the North-east and South, and to treeless valleys between rolling hills and low mountains in the centre. The climate varies considerably across Turkey from North to South and West to East. It is mild on the Black Sea coast, warm on the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, and cold and dry in the inland.
