- published: 03 Oct 2009
- views: 35252
- author: Kemal Kargo
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- Achaemenids
- Adana
- Aegean Region
- Aegean Sea
- Aeolis
- Africa
- Akkadian Empire
- Alaca Höyük
- Alanya
- Alaşehir
- Albanians
- Aleppo Pine
- Alexander the Great
- Americas
- An Asian Minor
- Anatolia
- Anatolian beyliks
- Anatolian black pine
- Anatolian hypothesis
- Anatolian languages
- Anatolian leopard
- Anatolian Plate
- Anatolianism
- Anatolikon
- Ancient Greece
- Ancient Greek
- Ancient Rome
- Andean States
- Anglo-America
- Ankara
- Antalya
- Antalya province
- Antarctic
- Antigonid dynasty
- Aphrodisias
- Arabs
- Arameans
- Arbutus andrachne
- Arbutus unedo
- Arctic
- Arctic Ocean
- Armenia
- Armenian Genocide
- Armenian Highland
- Armenian people
- Armenians
- Armutlu Peninsula
- Artemision
- Arzawa
- Asia
- Asia Minor
- Asia Province
- Assos
- Assuwa
- Assyrian Empire
- Assyrian Genocide
- Assyrian people
- Atlantic Ocean
- Attalid dynasty
- Australasia
- Aydın Province
- Ayvalık
- Azeris
- Babylonian
- Bagratuni Dynasty
- Balkan Wars
- Balıkesir Province
- Barley
- Battle of Issus
- Battle of Kadesh
- Battle of Manzikert
- Battle of Pteira
- Battle of Syllaeum
- Bay Laurel
- Behavioral geography
- Bergama
- Biogeography
- Bithynia
- Black Sea
- Black Sea Region
- Bodrum
- Bodrum Peninsula
- Bosnians
- Bosphorus
- Bozburun Peninsula
- Bronze Age
- Bronze Age collapse
- Bursa
- Bursa Province
- Byzantine Empire
- Byzantine–Arab Wars
- Büyük Menderes River
- Capes of Turkey
- Cappadocia
- Caria
- Caribbean
- Carl Ritter
- Cartography
- Caspian Sea
- Caucasus
- Cedar of Lebanon
- Central Africa
- Central America
- Central Asia
- Central Europe
- Chechens
- Christopher Howgego
- Cilicia
- Cilician Gates
- Cimmerian
- Cinema of Turkey
- Circassians
- City states
- Climatology
- Coastal geography
- Coin
- Constantinople
- Continental climate
- Crime in Turkey
- Crusades
- Cultural geography
- Culture of Turkey
- Cuneiform
- Czarist Russia
- Dardanelles
- Datça Peninsula
- Deep state
- Demography
- Deposit (geology)
- Didim
- Didyma
- Dilek Peninsula
- Districts of Turkey
- Doris (Asia Minor)
- Early Modern Europe
- Earth
- East Africa
- East Asia
- East Thrace
- Eastern Europe
- Economic geography
- Economy of Turkey
- Edaphology
- Education in Turkey
- Elections in Turkey
- Emblem of Turkey
- Empire of Nicaea
- Empire of Trebizond
- Ephesus
- Erciyes
- Eretna Dynasty
- Euphrates
- Europe
- Feminist geography
- Flag of Turkey
- Galatia
- Gediz River
- Gelibolu Peninsula
- Geodesy
- Geography
- Geography of Turkey
- Geomorphology
- Georgia (country)
- Georgian people
- Georgians
- Geostatistics
- Gerardus Mercator
- Glaciology
- Gordium
- Great Seljuq Empire
- Greater Syria
- Greek genocide
- Greek language
- Greeks
- Gulf of Iskenderun
- Gulfs of Turkey
- Göbekli Tepe
- Hacilar
- Halicarnassus
- Halophytic
- Hattusa
- Health geography
- Hellenistic culture
- Hellenistic Greece
- Hellenistic period
- Hemshin people
- Herodotus
- Hierapolis
- Hispanic America
- Historical geography
- History of Anatolia
- History of geography
- History of Turkey
- Hittite New Kingdom
- Hittite Old Kingdom
- Hittites
- Hornbeam
- Human geography
- Hurrian language
- Hydrography
- Hydrology
- Ilkhanate
- Indian Ocean
- Indian subcontinent
- Indochina
- Integrated geography
- Ionia
- Ionian Greeks
- Ionians
- Iran
- Iraq
- Iron Age
- Islam in Turkey
- Islamic conquest
- Istanbul
- İstiklâl Marşı
- İzmir
- İzmir Province
- İzmit
- Jews
- Jordan Rift Valley
- Juniper
- Juniperus excelsa
- Kadi Burhan al-Din
- Kanesh
- Kapıdağ Peninsula
- Kaunos
- Kayseri
- Kaçkar Mountains
- Kemalism
- Kemer
- Kermes Oak
- Kingdom of Armenia
- Kingdom of Pontus
- Knidos
- Kocaeli Peninsula
- Konya
- Kurds
- Kültepe
- Kızıl River
- Lake Tuz
- Lake Van
- Landscape ecology
- Languages of Turkey
- Latin America
- Laz people
- Lesser Armenia
- Lezgian people
- Limnology
- Lycaonia
- Lycia
- Lydia
- Magnesia ad Sipylum
- Manisa
- Maple
- Maquis shrubland
- Marmara Region
- Marmaris
- Massif
- Medes
- Media of Turkey
- Mediterranean Sea
- Melanesia
- Mersin
- Mesopotamia
- Micronesia
- Midas
- Middle Ages
- Middle East
- Miletus
- Modern Europe
- Mongol Empire
- Mount Ararat
- Mount Erciyes
- Music of Turkey
- Muslim conquests
- Myra
- Mysia
- Names of Anatolia
- Neo-Hittite
- Neo-Hittite period
- Neo-Ottomanism
- Neolithic revolution
- Nesili
- Nevali Cori
- North Africa
- North America
- North Asia
- Northeast Asia
- Northern America
- Northern Europe
- Ocean
- Oceania
- Oceanography
- Olive
- Olive oil
- Olympus
- Orhan I
- Osman I
- Osmanli
- Ottoman architecture
- Ottoman Empire
- Ottoman Interregnum
- Ottoman Sultans
- Ottomanism
- Outline of geography
- Pacific Ocean
- Palaeogeography
- Paleoclimatology
- Pamphylia
- Pamukkale
- Paphlagonia
- Peninsulas of Turkey
- Pentarchy
- Pergamon
- Persian Gulf
- Phrygia
- Physical geography
- Pisidia
- Polar region
- Political geography
- Politics of Turkey
- Polynesia
- Pontic Alps
- Pontic Mountains
- Pontus
- Portal Geography
- Portal Turkey
- President of Turkey
- Provinces of Turkey
- Ptolemy
- Qualitative research
- Quaternary science
- Regional geography
- Regions of Turkey
- Religion in Turkey
- Remote sensing
- Republic of Turkey
- Richard Chorley
- Roman Empire
- Rumi
- Saint Anatolia
- Saint Nicholas
- Sardis
- Sargon of Akkad
- Sassanids
- Sclerophyll
- Sea
- Sea of Marmara
- Secularism in Turkey
- Seleucid dynasty
- Seleucids
- Seljuk Turks
- Seven Sleepers
- Silver
- Smoking in Turkey
- Smyrna
- Soil science
- South America
- South Asia
- Southeast Asia
- Southeast Europe
- Southern Africa
- Southern Cone
- Southern Europe
- Southern Ocean
- Sovereign
- Spatial analysis
- Sport in Turkey
- Steppe
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Subregion
- Sultanate of Rum
- Sultanate of Rûm
- Sultanate of Rüm
- Syria
- Talk Anatolia
- Tatars
- Taurus fir
- Taurus Mountains
- TC Resmi Gazete
- Temperate rainforest
- Template Cat
- Template talk Cat
- The Guianas
- Theatre of Turkey
- Thema
- Thrace
- Tigran
- Tigris
- Tourism in Turkey
- Trabzon
- Transport in Turkey
- Troad
- Trough (geology)
- Troy
- Troy VII
- Turkey
- Turkic peoples
- Turkish Armed Forces
- Turkish art
- Turkish cuisine
- Turkish dance
- Turkish folklore
- Turkish language
- Turkish lira
- Turkish literature
- Turkish name
- Turkish people
- Turkish Pine
- Turkish population
- Turkish Riviera
- Turkish wine
- Turkmen people
- Uludağ
- Urartu
- Urban geography
- Uyghur people
- Uzungöl
- Van, Turkey
- West Africa
- Western Asia
- Western Europe
- Wikipedia Merging
- World Ocean
- World War I
- Zaza people
- Çatalca Peninsula
- Çatalhöyük
- Çayönü
- Çukurbağ Peninsula
- Çukurova
-
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire (/ækəˈmɛnɪˌdi/; Old Persian: Parsā, name of ruling dynasty: Haxāmanišiya) (c. 550–330 BCE), sometimes known as First Persian Empire, was an Iranian empire in Southwest Asia, founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation. It expanded to eventually rule over significant portions of the ancient world which at around 500 BCE stretched from the Indus Valley in the east, to Thrace and Macedon on the northeastern border of Greece making it the biggest empire the world had yet seen. The Achaemenid Empire would eventually control Egypt as well. It was ruled by a series of monarchs who unified its disparate tribes and nationalities by constructing a complex network of roads.
Calling themselves the Parsa after their original Aryan tribal name Parsua, Persians settled in a land which they named Parsua, bounded on the west by the Tigris River and on the south by the Persian Gulf. This became their heartland for the duration of the Achaemenid Empire. It was from this region that eventually Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II of Persia) would advance to defeat the Median, the Lydian, and the Babylonian Empires, opening the way for subsequent conquests into Egypt and Asia minor.
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Adana
Adana (pronounced [aˈda.na]) is a city in southern Turkey and a major agricultural and commercial center. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, 30 km inland from the Mediterranean Sea, in south-central Anatolia. It is the administrative seat of the Adana Province and has a population of 1.6 million, making it the fifth most populous city in Turkey. Adana-Mersin metropolitan area, with a population of 3 million, stretches over 100 km from east to west and 25 km from north to south; encompassing the cities of Mersin, Tarsus, Adana, and Ceyhan.
Adana lies in the heart of Çukurova, a geographical, economical and cultural region that covers the provinces of Mersin, Adana, Osmaniye, and Hatay. Home to approximately six million people, the region is mostly a large stretch of flat, fertile land regarded as one of the most agriculturally productive areas of the world.
According to numerous sources, the name Adana is derived from the Hittite URUAdaniya of Kizzuwatna, while others assert that it is related to the legendary character Danaus, or to the Danaoi, a mythological Greek tribe who came from Egypt[citation needed] and established themselves in the Greek city Argos.The earlier Egyptian texts for a country Danaja are inscriptions from Thutmosis II (1437 BC) and Amenophis III (1390-1352 BC). After the collapse of the Mycenean civilization (1200 BC) some refugeees from the Aegean area went to the coast of Cilicia. The inhabitants Dananayim or Danuna are identified as one group of the sea-peoples who attacked Egypt on 1191 BC during the reign of Ramesses III. Denyen are identified as inhabitants of the city Adana. It is also possible that the name is connected with the PIE da-nu (river) Da-na-vo (people living by the river), Scythian nomad people, water demons in Rigveda (Danavas).
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Aegean Region
Aegean Region (Turkish: Ege Bölgesi), is one of the 7 census-defined regions of Turkey, and in Western Asia.
It is located in the west part of the country: bounded by Aegean Sea (Ege Denizi) on the west; Marmara Region on the north; Mediterranean Region on the south & southwest; and the Central Anatolia Region on the east.
The total population of the Aegean Region is 9,594,019.
The climate of the Aegean Region has a Mediterranean climate at the coast, with hot, dry summers and mild to cool, wet winters and a semi-arid continental climate in the interior with hot, dry summers and cold, snowy winters.
Coordinates: 38°00′N 29°00′E / 38°N 29°E / 38; 29
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Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea (/ɨˈdʒiːən/; Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος, Egeo Pelagos [eˈʝeo ˈpelaɣos] (
listen); Turkish: Ege Denizi or historically Turkish: Adalar Denizi) is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus. The Aegean Islands are within the sea and some bound it on its southern periphery, including Crete and Rhodes. The Aegean Region consists of nine provinces in southwestern Turkey, in part bordering on the Aegean sea.
The sea was traditionally known as Archipelago (in Greek, Αρχιπέλαγος, meaning "chief sea"), but in English this word's meaning has changed to refer to the Aegean Islands and, generally, to any island group.
The Aegean Sea covers about 214,000 square kilometres (83,000 sq mi) in area, and measures about 610 kilometres (380 mi) longitudinally and 300 kilometres (190 mi) latitudinally. The sea's maximum depth is 3,543 metres (11,624 ft), east of Crete. The Aegean Islands are found within its waters, with the following islands delimiting the sea on the south (generally from west to east): Kythera, Antikythera, Crete, Kasos, Karpathos and Rhodes.
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Akkadian Empire
Coordinates: 33°6′N 44°6′E / 33.1°N 44.1°E / 33.1; 44.1
The Akkadian Empire (Akkadian URUAkkad KI, Hittite KUR A.GA.DÈ.KI "land of Akkad"; Biblical Hebrew אַכַּד Akkad) was an empire centered in the city of Akkad (Sumerian: Agade) and its surrounding region in Mesopotamia.
During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism.Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate).
The Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC, following the conquests of its founder Sargon of Akkad (2334–2279 BC). Under Sargon and his successors, Akkadian language was briefly imposed on neighboring conquered states such as Elam. Akkad is sometimes regarded as the first empire in history, though there are earlier Sumerian claimants.[citation needed]
The precise archaeological site of the city of Akkad has not yet been found.[citation needed] The form Agade appears in Sumerian, for example in the Sumerian King List; the later Assyro-Babylonian form Akkadû ("of or belonging to Akkad") was likely derived from this. The etymology and meaning of Akkad (written a.ga.dèKI or URIKI) are unknown. Centuries later, the neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus mentioned in his archaeological records that Ishtar's worship in Agade was later superseded by that of the goddess Anunit, whose shrine was at Sippar—suggesting proximity of Sippar and Agade. Despite numerous searches, the city has never been found. One theory holds that Agade was situated opposite Sippar on the left bank of the Euphrates, and was perhaps the oldest part of the city of Sippar. Another theory is that the ruins of Akkad are to be found beneath modern Baghdad. Reputedly it was destroyed by invading Gutians with the fall of the Akkadian Empire.
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Alaca Höyük
Coordinates: 40°14′04″N 34°41′44″E / 40.23444°N 34.69556°E / 40.23444; 34.69556
Alacahöyük or Alaca Höyük (sometimes also spelt as Alacahüyük, Euyuk, or Evuk) is the site of a Neolithic and Hittite settlement and is an important archaeological site. It is northeast of Boğazkale (formerly and more familiarly Boğazköy), where the ancient capital city Hattusa of the Hittite Empire was situated. Its Hittite name is unknown: connections with Arinna, Tawiniya, and Zippalanda have all been suggested.
The mound (Turkish höyük) at Alacahöyük was the center of a flourishing Hattian culture during the Early Bronze Age. The mound was a scene of settlement in a continuous sequence of development from the Chalcolithic Age, when earliest copper tools appeared alongside the use of stone tools. It has been continuously occupied ever since, until today's modern settlement in the form of a small village. The standing and distinguishing remains at Alacahöyük, however, such as the "Sphinx Gate", date from the Hittite period that followed the Hatti, from the fourteenth century BC.
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Alanya
Alanya (pronounced [aˈɫanja]), formerly Alaiye, is a beach resort city and a component district of Antalya Province in the Mediterranean Region of Turkey, 166 kilometres (103 mi) from the city of Antalya. On the southern coast of Turkey, the district (which includes the city and its built-up area) has an area of 1,598.51 km2 and (2010 Census) 248,286 inhabitants (city 98,627). The population is almost entirely of Turkish origin, but is home to around 10,000 European residents.
Because of its natural strategic position on a small peninsula into the Mediterranean Sea below the Taurus Mountains, Alanya has been a local stronghold for many Mediterranean-based empires, including the Ptolemaic, Seleucid, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empires. Alanya's greatest political importance came in the Middle Ages, with the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm under the rule of Alaeddin Kayqubad I, from whom the city derives its name. His building campaign resulted in many of the city's landmarks, such as the Kızıl Kule (Red Tower), Tersane (Shipyard), and Alanya Castle.
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Alaşehir
Alaşehir (Turkish pronunciation: [aˈlaʃehiɾ]), in Antiquity and the Middle Ages known as Philadelphia (Greek: Φιλαδέλφεια), i.e. "(city of) brotherly love" is a town and district of Manisa Province in the Aegean region of Turkey. It is situated in the valley of the Kuzuçay (Cogamus in antiquity), at the foot of the Bozdağ Mountain (Mount Tmolus in antiquity). The town is connected to İzmir by a 105 km (65 mi) railway. The longtime mayor is Gökhan Karaçoban.
It stands on elevated ground commanding the extensive and fertile plain of the Gediz River, (Hermus in antiquity) presents at a distance an imposing appearance. It has several mosques and Christian churches. There are small industries and a fair trade. From one of the mineral springs comes a heavily charged water popular around Turkey.
Within Turkey, the city's name is synonymous with the dried Sultana raisins, although cultivation for the fresh fruit market, less labour-intensive than the dried fruit, gained prominence in the last decades. As Philadelphia, Alaşehir was a highly important center in the Early Christian and Byzantine periods, and remained a titular see of the Catholic Church.
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Americas
The Americas, or America, are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World.
In the English language, the Americas refers to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, whereas America, in current usage, usually refers to the United States of America.
The Americas cover 8.3% of the Earth's total surface area (28.4% of its land area) and contain about 13.5% of the human population (about 900 million people).
The specifics of Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the exact dates and routes traveled, are subject to ongoing research and discussion. The traditional theory has been that these early migrants moved into the Beringia land bridge between eastern Siberia and present-day Alaska around 40,000–17,000 years ago, when sea levels were significantly lowered due to the Quaternary glaciation. These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct pleistocene megafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets. Another route proposed is that, either on foot or using primitive boats, they migrated down the Pacific Northwest coast to South America. Evidence of the latter would since have been covered by a sea level rise of hundreds of meters following the last ice age.
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Anatolia
Coordinates: 39°N 32°E / 39°N 32°E / 39; 32
Anatolia (from Greek Ἀνατολή Anatolē — "east" or "(sun)rise"; also Asia Minor, from Greek: Μικρὰ Ἀσία Mikrá Asía "small Asia"; in modern Turkish: Anadolu) is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Aegean Sea to the west. The Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the European mainland. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line between the Gulf of Iskenderun and the Black Sea, approximately corresponding to the western two-thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. However, since Anatolia is now often considered to be synonymous with Asian Turkey, its eastern and southeastern borders are widely taken to be the Turkish borders with the neighboring countries, which are Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq and Syria, in clockwise direction.
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Ankara
Ankara (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈan.ka.ɾa]; historically known as Angora) is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of 938 metres (3,077 ft), and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million.
Centrally located in Anatolia, Ankara is an important commercial and industrial city. It is the center of the Turkish Government, and houses all foreign embassies. It is an important crossroads of trade, strategically located at the centre of Turkey's highway and railway networks, and serves as the marketing centre for the surrounding agricultural area. The city was famous for its long-haired Angora goat and its prized wool (mohair), a unique breed of cat (Angora cat), Angora rabbits and their prized wool (Angora wool), pears, honey, and the region's muscat grapes.
The historical center of Ankara is situated upon a rocky hill, which rises 150 m (492 ft) above the plain on the left bank of the Ankara Çayı, a tributary of the Sakarya (Sangarius) river. The city is located at 39°52'30" North, 32°52' East (39°52′30″N 32°50′00″E / 39.875°N 32.8333°E / 39.875; 32.8333Coordinates: 39°52′30″N 32°50′00″E / 39.875°N 32.8333°E / 39.875; 32.8333), about 450 km (280 mi) to the southeast of Istanbul, the country's largest city. Although situated in one of the driest places of Turkey and surrounded mostly by steppe vegetation except for the forested areas on the southern periphery, Ankara can be considered a green city in terms of green areas per inhabitant, which is 72 m2 per head.
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Antalya
Antalya (Turkish pronunciation: [anˈtalja]; from Ancient Greek: Aττάλεια, "Attalia") is a city on the Mediterranean coast of southwestern Turkey. It was the world's third most visited city by number of international arrivals in 2011, displacing New York, and had a population of 1,001,318. Antalya is the eighth most populous city in Turkey and country's biggest international sea resort.
It is uncertain when the site of the current city was first inhabited. Attalos II, king of Pergamon, was believed to have founded the city around 150 BC, naming it Attalia and selecting it as a naval base for his powerful fleet. However, excavations in 2008 in the Doğu Garajı district of Antalya have uncovered remains dating to the 3rd century BC, suggesting that the city was founded earlier than previously supposed. Antalya became part of the Roman Republic in 133 BC when King Attalos III of Pergamon willed his kingdom to Rome at his death. The city grew and prospered during the Ancient Roman period.
Christianity started to spread in the region after 2nd century. Antalya was visited by Paul of Tarsus, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles: "From Perga, Paul and Barnabas went down to Attalia and sailed from there to Antioch after preaching in Pisidia and Pamphylia" (Acts 14:25-26).
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Antalya province
Antalya Province (Turkish: Antalya ili) is located on the Mediterranean coast of south-west Turkey, between the Taurus Mountains and the Mediterranean sea.
Antalya Province is the centre of Turkey's tourism industry, attracting 30% of foreign tourists visiting Turkey. The province of Antalya corresponds to the lands of ancient Pamphylia to the east and Lycia to the west. It features a shoreline of 657 km (408 mi) with beaches, ports, and ancient cities scattered throughout, including the World Heritage Site Xanthos. The provincial capital is Antalya city with a population of 1,001,318.
Antalya is the fastest-growing province in Turkey; with a 4.17% yearly population growth rate between years 1990-2000, compared with the national rate of 1.83%. This growth is due to a fast rate of urbanization, particularly driven by tourism and other service sectors on the coast.
The city and thus the province are named after Attalos II, king of Pergamon, who founded the city in the 2nd century BC.
Antalya has been settled since pre-historic times. Evidence of human habitation dating back to the early Paleolithic age (150,000-200,000) years has been discovered in the Karain caves, 30 km (19 mi) of the north of Antalya city. Other finds dating back to the Mesolithic (Beldibi caves), Neolithic (Bademağacı Höyüğü) and more recent periods show that the area has been populated by various civilizations throughout the ages.
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Antarctic
The Antarctic (
/ænˈtɑrktɪk/ or /ænˈtɑrtɪk/) is a polar region, specifically the region around the Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica and the ice shelves, waters, and island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence. The region covers some 20% of the Southern Hemisphere, of which 5.5% (14 million km2) is the surface area of the continent itself.
The maritime part of the region constitutes the area of application of the international Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), where for technical reasons the Convention uses an approximation of the Convergence line by means of a line joining specified points along parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude. The implementation of the Convention is managed through an international Commission headquartered in Hobart, Australia by an efficient system of annual fishing quotas, licenses and international inspectors on the fishing vessels, as well as satellite surveillance.
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Aphrodisias
Aphrodisias (Greek: Ἀφροδισιάς, Aphrodisiás) was a small city in Caria, on the southwest coast of Asia Minor. Its site is located near the modern village of Geyre, Turkey, about 230 km (140 mi) south-east of İzmir and about 100 km (62 mi) inland from the coast.
Aphrodisias was named after Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, who had here her unique cult image, the Aphrodite of Aphrodisias. According to the Byzantine encyclopedic compilation called the Suda, before being known as Aphrodisias, the city had held three previous names: Lelégōn Pólis (Λελέγων πόλις, "City of the Leleges"),Megálē Pólis (Μεγάλη Πόλις, "Great City"), and Ninóē (Νινόη),
Sometime before 640, in the Late Antique period, the city was renamed Stauroúpolis (Σταυρούπολις, "City of the Cross").
The city was built near a marble quarry that was extensively exploited in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and sculpture in marble from Aphrodisias became famous in the Roman world. Many examples of statuary have been unearthed in Aphrodisias, and some representations of the Aphrodite of Aphrodisias also survive from other parts of the Roman world, as far afield as Pax Julia in Lusitania.
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Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, although some oceanographers call it the Arctic Mediterranean Sea or simply the Arctic Sea, classifying it as one of the mediterranean seas of the Atlantic Ocean. Alternatively, the Arctic Ocean can be seen as the northernmost part of the all-encompassing World Ocean.
Almost completely surrounded by Eurasia and North America, the Arctic Ocean is partly covered by sea ice throughout the year (and almost completely in winter). The Arctic Ocean's temperature and salinity vary seasonally as the ice cover melts and freezes; its salinity is the lowest on average of the five major oceans, due to low evaporation, heavy freshwater inflow from rivers and streams, and limited connection and outflow to surrounding oceanic waters with higher salinities. The summer shrinking of the ice has been quoted at 50%. The US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) uses satellite data to provide a daily record of Arctic sea ice cover and the rate of melting compared to an average period and specific past years.
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Armenia
Armenia
i/ɑrˈmiːniə/ (Armenian: Հայաստան Hayastan [hɑjɑsˈtɑn]), officially the Republic of Armenia (Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն, Hayastani Hanrapetut’yun, [hɑjɑstɑˈni hɑnɾɑpɛtuˈtʰjun]), is a landlocked, mountainous country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to the south.
A former republic of the Soviet Union, Armenia is a unitary, multiparty, democratic nation-state with an ancient and historic cultural heritage. The Kingdom of Armenia became the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its religion, in the early years of the 4th century (the traditional date is 301 AD). The modern Republic of Armenia recognizes the Armenian Apostolic Church, the world's oldest national church, as the country's primary religious establishment. Armenians have their own unique alphabet invented by Mesrob Mashtots in 406 AD.
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Armenian Highland
The Armenian Highland (for names in other languages see below; also known as the Armenian Upland, Armenian plateau, Armenian tableland, simply Armenia) is the central-most and highest of three land-locked plateaus that together form the northern sector of the Middle East. To its west is the Anatolian plateau which rises slowly from the lowland coast of the Aegean Sea and rises to an average height of 3,000 feet (910 m). In Armenia, the average height rises dramatically from 3,000 feet (910 m) to 7,000 feet (2,100 m). To its southeast is the Iranian plateau, where the elevation drops rapidly to an average 2,000 feet (610 m) to 5,000 feet (1,500 m) feet above sea level.
When the Treaty of Lausanne was signed in 1923, the Republic of Turkey was established. It is claimed that in its attempts to Turkify the geographical and settlement names in Turkey, the authorities of the republic began a systematic campaign to alter non-Turkish placenames. These attempts included the name change of the geographical expression of "Armenia" or "Armenian plateau" to "Eastern Anatolia." However, as can be seen in Turkish sources, the names Armenian plateau (Ermenistan Platosu) or Armenian Highland (Ermenistan Yaylası) are used to define the plateau. The term "Eastern Anatolia Region" is designated for the region and is mainly used for statistical purposes, while geographic expression Armenian plateau is continued to be used in contemporary Turkish sources.
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Assos
Assos (Greek: Άσσος), also known as Behramkale or for short Behram, is a small historically rich town in the Ayvacık district of the Çanakkale Province, Turkey.
After leaving the Platonic Academy in Athens, Aristotle (joined by Xenocrates) went to Assos, where he was welcomed by King Hermias, and opened an Academy in this city. Aristotle also married Pythias, the adopted daughter of Hermias. In the Academy of Assos, Aristotle became a chief to a group of philosophers, and together with them, he made innovative observations on zoology and biology. When the Persians attacked Assos, King Hermias was caught and put to death. Aristotle fled to Macedonia, which was ruled by his friend King Philip II of Macedon. There, he tutored Philip's son, Alexander the Great.
Assos was also visited by St. Paul. Today, Assos is an Aegean-coast seaside retreat amid ancient ruins.
Though officially named Behramkale (pronounced [behˈramkale]), most people still call the town by its ancient name of Assos. The town is on the southern side of Biga Peninsula, better known by its ancient name, Troad. The town is located on the coast of the Adramyttian Gulf (Turkish: Edremit Körfezi).
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Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106,400,000 square kilometres (41,100,000 sq mi), it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to Atlas of Greek mythology, making the Atlantic the "Sea of Atlas".
The oldest known mention of "Atlantic" is in The Histories of Herodotus around 450 BC (Hdt. 1.202.4): Atlantis thalassa (Greek: Ἀτλαντὶς θάλασσα; English: Sea of Atlas); see also: Atlas Mountains. The term Ethiopic Ocean, derived from Ethiopia, was applied to the southern Atlantic ocean as late as the mid-19th century. Before Europeans discovered other oceans, the term "ocean" itself was synonymous with the waters beyond the Strait of Gibraltar that we now know as the Atlantic. The early Greeks believed this ocean to be a gigantic river encircling the world.
The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Europe and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. As one component of the interconnected global ocean, it is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean (which is sometimes considered a sea of the Atlantic), to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the Indian Ocean in the southeast, and the Southern Ocean in the south. (Other definitions describe the Atlantic as extending southward to Antarctica.) The equator subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean.
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Attalid dynasty
The Attalid dynasty was a Hellenistic dynasty that ruled the city of Pergamon after the death of Lysimachus, a general of Alexander the Great. The Attalid kingdom was the rump state left after the collapse of the Lysimachian Empire. One of Lysimachus' officers, Philetaerus, took control of the city in 282 BC. The later Attalids were descended from his father, and they expanded the city into a kingdom. Attalus I proclaimed himself King in the 230s BC, following his victories over the Galatians. The Attalids ruled Pergamon until Attalus III bequeathed the kingdom to the Roman Republic in 133 BC to avoid a likely succession crisis.
On the interior of the Pergamon Altar is a frieze depicting the life of Telephus, son of Herakles, whom the ruling Attalid dynasty associated with its city and utilized to claim descendance from the Olympians. Pergamon, having entered the Greek world much later than its counterparts to the west, could not boast the same divine heritage as older city-states, and retroactively had to cultivate its place in Greek mythos.
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Aydın Province
Aydın Province (Turkish: Aydın ili) is a province of southwestern Turkey, located in the Aegean Region. The provincial capital is the city of Aydın which has a population of approx. 150,000 (2000). Other towns in the province include the summer seaside resorts of Didim and Kuşadası.
Aydın was founded by the ancient Thracians and was once known as Tralles. The area is an earthquake zone and the city was built and rebuilt by a succession of Spartans, Phrygians, Ionians, Lydians, Persians and Ancient Romans. In 1186 the Seljuk Turks took control of the area, followed by the Anatolian beylik of the Aydinids. During this period the town was named Aydın Güzelhisar, and was brought into the Ottoman Empire in 1426.
Neighboring provinces are Manisa to the north east, İzmir to the north, Denizli to the east, Muğla to the south.
The central and western parts of the province are fertile plains watered by the largest river in the Aegean region the Büyük Menderes River, with the Aydın Mountains to the north and the Menteşe Mountains to the south. The western end of the province is the Aegean coast with Lake Bafa a major feature of the Menderes delta area. The climate is typical of the Aegean region, very hot in summer. The Germencik region contains a number of hot springs.
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Ayvalık
Ayvalık (pronounced [ˈajvaɫɯk]) is a seaside town on the northwestern Aegean coast of Turkey. It is a district of the Balıkesir Province.
It was alternatively called (Κυδωνίες - Kidonies) by the town's formerly indigenous Greek population, although the use of the name Ayvalık was widespread for centuries among both the Turks and the Greeks (pronounced as Ayvali by the latter).
ayvalik
Ayvalık is a district in Turkey's Balıkesir Province on the Aegean Sea coast, facing the Greek island of Lesbos. It is situated on a narrow coastal plain surrounded by low hills to the east which are covered with pine and olive trees. Ayvalık is also surrounded by the archipelago of the Ayvalık Islands on the sea and by a narrow peninsula in the south named the Hakkıbey Peninsula. Ayvalık is the southernmost district of Balıkesir. Gömeç, Burhaniye and Edremit are other districts of the Balıkesir Province which are situated on the Aegean shores and they are lined up respectively to the north. The region is under the influence of a typical Mediterranean climate with mild and rainy winters and hot, dry summers.
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Balıkesir Province
Balıkesir Province (Turkish: Balıkesir ili) is a province in midwestern Turkey, having coastlines on both the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean. Its adjacent provinces are Çanakkale to the west, İzmir to the southwest, Manisa to the south, Kütahya to the southeast, and Bursa to the east. The provincial capital is Balıkesir City. Most of the province lies in the Marmara Region except the southern parts of Bigadiç Edremit, Kepsut, İvrindi, Savaştepe and Sındırgı districts and ones of Ayvalık, Burhaniye, Dursunbey, Gömeç and Havran, that bound the Aegean Region.
Kaz Dağı (pronounced [kaz daːɯ]), known also as Mount Ida, is located in this province.
Balıkesir province is famous for its olives, thermal spas, and clean beaches, making it an important tourist destination. The province also hosts immense deposits of kaolinite and borax, with some open-pit mines. The Kaz mountains are also threatened with the expansion of gold mining using cyanide which puts the villagers' lives, the agricultural economy, and tourism at risk.
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Battle of Issus
Coordinates: 36°50′16″N 36°12′40″E / 36.837894°N 36.211109°E / 36.837894; 36.211109
The Battle of Issus occurred in southern Anatolia, in November 333 BC. The invading troops, led by the young Alexander of Macedonia, defeated the army personally led by Darius III of Achaemenid Persia in the second great battle for primacy in Asia. After Alexander's forces successfully forced a crossing of the Hellespont (the Dardanelles) and defeated the Persian satraps led by a Greek mercenary, Memnon of Rhodes, in a prior encounter, the Battle of the Granicus, Darius took personal charge of his army, gathered a large army from the depths of the empire, and maneuvered to cut the Macedonian line of supply, requiring Alexander to countermarch his forces, setting the stage for the battle near the mouth of the Pinarus River and south of the town of Issus.
Eventual accounts tell of bodies piled within the waters high enough to dam its flow, and the river running red with blood. So while Alexander is known to have repeatedly emphasized the importance of maintaining contact with the beach to his sub-commander on the left (seaward) flank, it is safe to assume a lot of action that day along all the water course in its 2.5 km travel through the narrow and hilly coastal plain that prevented the Persians, with their greater numbers, from outflanking the attacking Greeks.
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Battle of Manzikert
The Battle of Manzikert (Modern Turkish: Malazgirt Meydan Savaşı; Classical Armenian: Մամազկերտ – Manazkert, City of Manaz) was fought between the Byzantine Empire and Seljuq Turks led by Alp Arslan on August 26, 1071 near Manzikert (modern Malazgirt in Muş Province, Turkey). The decisive defeat of the Byzantine army and the capture of the Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes played an important role in undermining Byzantine authority in Anatolia and Armenia, and allowed for the gradual Turkification of Anatolia.
The brunt of the battle was borne by the professional soldiers from the eastern and western tagmata, as large numbers of the mercenaries and Anatolian levies fled early and survived the battle. The fallout from Manzikert was disastrous for the Byzantines, resulting in civil conflicts and an economic crisis that severely weakened the Byzantine Empire's ability to adequately defend its borders. This led to the mass movement of Turks into central Anatolia; by 1080 an area of 30,000 square miles (78,000 km2) had been gained by the Seljuk Turks. It took three decades of internal strife before Alexios I Komnenos (1081 to 1118) restored stability to the Byzantines. Historian Thomas Asbridge says: "In 1071, the Seljuqs crushed an imperial army at the Battle of Manzikert (in eastern Asia Minor), and though historians no longer consider this to have been an utterly cataclysmic reversal for the Greeks, it still was a stinging setback."
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Bergama
Bergama is a populous district, as well as the center city of the same district, in İzmir Province in western Turkey. By excluding İzmir's metropolitan area, it is one of the prominent districts of the province in terms of population and is largely urbanized at the rate of 53,6 per cent. Tire center is situated at a distance of 118 km (73 mi) to the north from the point of departure of the traditional center of İzmir (Konak Square in Konak, İzmir) and lies at a distance of 27 km (17 mi) inland from the nearest seacoast at the town of Dikili to its west. Bergama district area neighbors the areas of three districts of Balıkesir Province to its north, namely Ayvalık, Burhaniye and İvrindi, İzmir Province district of Kınık and Manisa Province district of Soma to its east, while to the south it is bordered by the central provincial of Manisa and two other İzmir Province districts along the coast that are Aliağa and Dikili from its south towards its west. The district area's physical features are determined by the alluvial plain of Bakırçay River.
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Black Sea Region
The Black Sea Region (Turkish: Karadeniz Bölgesi) is one of Turkey's seven census-defined geographical regions (bölge). It is bordered by the Marmara Region to the west, the Central Anatolia Region to the south, the Eastern Anatolia Region to the southeast, the Republic of Georgia to the northeast, and the Black Sea to the north.
The Black Sea region's population is 8,439,213 based on the 2010 census. 4,137,166 people live in cities and 4,301,747 people in villages. This makes it the only one of the seven regions of Turkey in which more people live in rural rather than urban areas.
Though the overwhelming majority is Turkish, there are some Laz people and Georgian people living in the eastern Black Sea Region, and unlike both ethnic groups in neighboring Republic of Georgia (where they are Georgian Orthodox Christians), are Sunni Muslim.
The Black Sea region has a steep, rocky coast with rivers that cascade through the gorges of the coastal ranges. A few larger rivers, those cutting back through the Pontic Mountains (Doğu Karadeniz Dağları), have tributaries that flow in broad, elevated basins. Access inland from the coast is limited to a few narrow valleys because mountain ridges, with elevations of 1,525 to 1,800 meters in the west and 3,000 to 4,000 meters in the east in Kaçkar Mountains, form an almost unbroken wall separating the coast from the interior. The higher slopes facing northwest tend to be densely forested. Because of these natural conditions, the Black Sea coast historically has been isolated from Anatolia.
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Bodrum
Bodrum (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈbodɾum]) is a port city in Muğla Province, in the southwestern Aegean Region of Turkey. It is located on the southern coast of Bodrum Peninsula, at a point that checks the entry into the Gulf of Gökova. The city was called Halicarnassus of Caria in ancient times and was famous for housing the Mausoleum of Mausolus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Bodrum Castle, built by the Crusaders in the 15th century, overlooks the harbour and the marina. The castle grounds include a Museum of Underwater Archeology and hosts several cultural festivals throughout the year.
The city had a population of 118,237 in 2009.
The region includes the municipalities of Bodrum, Turgutreis, Ortakent, Türkbükü, Yalıkavak, Gümüşlük, Bitez, Konacık, Yalı and Mumcular; with many tourist-oriented developments being constructed across the district area.
The name Bodrum derives from Petronium, named from the Hospitaller Castle of St. Peter (see history). The site was formerly known as Halicarnassus (Ancient Greek: Ἁλικαρνασσός,Turkish: Halikarnas.) In Turkish, the word bodrum or bodrum katı also refers to a basement floor.
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Bosphorus
The Bosphorus (/ˈbɒsfərəs/) or Bosporus (/ˈbɒspərəs/, Turkish: Boğaziçi, Greek: Βόσπορος, Vosporos, Bulgarian: Босфора, Bosfora), also known as the Istanbul Strait (Turkish: İstanbul Boğazı), is a strait that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. It—along with the Dardanelles—is one of two straits in Turkey. The world's narrowest strait used for international navigation, it connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara (which is connected by the Dardanelles to the Aegean Sea, and thereby to the Mediterranean Sea.)
Bosphorus' limits are defined as the connecting line between the lighthouses Rumeli Feneri and Anadolu Feneri in the north and between the Ahırkapı Feneri and the Kadıköy İnciburnu Feneri in the south. The strait is between the limits 31 km (17 nmi) long, with a width of 3,329 m (1.798 nmi) at the northern entrance and 2,826 m (1.526 nmi) at the southern entrance. Its maximum width is 3,420 m (1.85 nmi) between Umuryeri and Büyükdere Limanı, and minimum width 700 m (0.38 nmi) between Kandilli Point and Aşiyan. A 45-degree course alteration is required for the ships at this point. The current can reach 7–8 knots at this point. It is a highly dangerous point for ship navigation. At Yenikoy, the necessary course alteration is 80 degrees. All the dangers and obstacles characteristic of narrow waterways are present and acute in this critical sea lane. At the above mentioned turns (Kandilli and Yenikoy) where significant course alterations have to be made, the rear and forward sights are totally blocked prior to and during the course alteration. The ships approaching from the opposite direction cannot be seen round these bends. There is also very heavy ferry traffic in the Strait of Istanbul, which crosses between European and Asiatic sides of the city.
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Bursa
Bursa (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈbuɾsa]) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the seat of Bursa Province. The metropolitan area in the entire Bursa province had a population of 2.6 million as of 2010, making the city the fourth most populous in Turkey. The city is equally one of the most industrialized metropolitan centers in the country.
Bursa was the capital of the Ottoman State between 1326 and 1365. The city was referred to as "Hüdavendigar" (meaning "God's Gift") during the Ottoman period, while a more recent nickname is "Yeşil Bursa" (meaning "Green Bursa") in reference to the parks and gardens located across its urban tissue, as well as to the vast forests in rich variety that extend in the surrounding region. The city is synonymous with Mount Uludağ which towers behind its core and which is also a famous ski resort. The mausoleums of the early Ottoman sultans are located in Bursa and the numerous edifices built throughout the Ottoman period constitute the city's main landmarks. The surrounding fertile plain, its thermal baths, several interesting museums, notably a rich museum of archaeology, and a rather orderly urban growth are further principal elements that complete Bursa's overall picture.
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Bursa Province
Bursa Province (Turkish: Bursa ili) is a province in western Turkey, along the Sea of Marmara. Its adjacent provinces are Balıkesir to the west, Kütahya to the south, Bilecik and Sakarya to the east, Kocaeli to the northeast and Yalova to the north. The province has an area of 11,043 km2 and a population of 3,187,000 (2010 est). It was 2,125,140 according to the 2000 census. In 1990 it had a population of 1,603,137. The traffic code is 16. The city of Bursa was the capital of the Ottoman State until the conquest of Edirne. Most part of the province remained in Marmara Region except districts of Büyükorhan, Harmancık, Keles and Orhaneli, who are bounded to Aegean Region.
Bursa province is divided into 17 districts (capital district in bold):
Coordinates: 40°09′00″N 29°01′15″E / 40.15°N 29.02083°E / 40.15; 29.02083
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Caribbean
The Caribbean (pronounced /ˌkærɨˈbiːən/ or /kəˈrɪbiən/) is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles (3,200 km) long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north. From the peninsula of Florida on the mainland of the United States, the islands stretch 1,200 miles (1,900 km) southeastward, then 500 miles (800 km) south, then west along the north coast of Venezuela on the South American mainland.
Situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 7,000 islands, islets, reefs, and cays. These islands generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea.
The Caribbean islands are part of the somewhat larger West Indies grouping, which consists of the Greater Antilles on the north, the Lesser Antilles on the south and east (including the Leeward Antilles), as well as the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands (the Lucayan Archipelago, which does not border the Caribbean Sea). Due to its proximity to the equator, the sun rises from 3am EST to 5am EST.[citation needed]
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Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia (for endonyms, see below), is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains, which contain Europe's highest mountain, Mt. Elbrus. Politically, the Caucasus region is separated between northern and southern parts.
The northern portion of the Caucasus is known as the Ciscaucasus and the southern portion as the Transcaucasus.
The Ciscaucasus contains the larger majority of the Greater Caucasus Mountain range, also known as the Major Caucasus mountains. It includes Southwestern Russia and northern parts of Georgia and Azerbaijan.
The Transcaucasus is bordered on the north by Russia, on the west by the Black Sea and Turkey, on the east by the Caspian Sea, and on the south by Iran. It includes the Caucasus Mountains and surrounding lowlands. All of Armenia, Azerbaijan (excluding the northern parts) and Georgia (excluding the northern parts) are in South Caucasus.
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Constantinople
Constantinople (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις, Konstantinoúpolis; Latin: Constantinopolis; Ottoman Turkish: قسطنطینیه, Qostantiniyye; and modern Turkish: İstanbul) was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Latin and the Ottoman Empires. It was founded in AD 330, at ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine I, after whom it was named. The city was the largest and wealthiest European city of the Middle Ages, and shared the glories of the Byzantine Empire, which was eventually reduced to the city and its environs.
Although besieged on numerous occasions by various peoples, it was taken only in 1204 by the army of the Fourth Crusade, in 1261 by Michael VIII, and in 1453 by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. An inner wall was erected by Constantine I, and the city was surrounded by a triple wall of fortifications, begun during the 5th century by Theodosius II. The city was built on seven hills as well as on the Bosporus, and thus presented an impregnable fortress enclosing magnificent palaces, domes and towers. The Church of Hagia Sophia, the sacred palace of the emperors, the hippodrome, and the Golden Gate were among the largest of the many churches, public edifices, and monuments lining the arcaded avenues and squares.
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Dardanelles
Coordinates: 40°12′N 26°24′E / 40.2°N 26.4°E / 40.2; 26.4
The Dardanelles ( /dɑrdəˈnɛlz/; Turkish: Çanakkale Boğazı, Greek: Δαρδανέλλια, Dardanellia), formerly known as Hellespont ( /ˈhɛlɨspɒnt/; Ancient Greek: Ἑλλήσποντος, Hellespontos, literally "Sea of Helle"), is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart the Bosphorus. It is located at approximately 40°13′N 26°26′E / 40.217°N 26.433°E / 40.217; 26.433. The strait is 61 kilometres (38 mi) long but only 1.2 to 6 kilometres (0.75 to 3.7 mi) wide, averaging 55 metres (180 ft) deep with a maximum depth of 103 metres (338 ft). Water flows in both directions along the strait, from the Sea of Marmara to the Aegean via a surface current and in the opposite direction via an undercurrent.
Like the Bosphorus, it separates Europe (the Gallipoli peninsula) from the mainland of Asia. The strait is an international waterway, and together with the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.
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Datça Peninsula
The Datça Peninsula is an 80 km-long, narrow peninsula in southwest Turkey separating the Gulf of Gökova to the north from the Gulf of Hisarönü to the south. The peninsula corresponds almost exactly to the administrative district of Datça, part of Muğla Province. The town of Datça is located at its half-way point.
In the early 20th century, it was called the Reşadiye Peninsula; other names include the Dorian or Cnidos Peninsula or the Chersonisos Cnidia.
The eastern half of the peninsula is bare, mountainous and scarcely inhabited. In the middle of the peninsula, centered around the town of Datça, is the peninsula's largest area of good land, extending towards the southwest of its median isthmus dividing the two halves of the land mass. The western part is also mountainous, rising in places over 1,000 meters, but has towards its western end on the south side a considerable extent of well-watered land reaching to the coast at Palamutbükü locality and supporting a group of villages known collectively as Betçe (the five villages).
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Didyma
Didyma (Greek: Δίδυμα) was an ancient Ionian sanctuary, the modern Didim, Turkey, containing a temple and oracle of Apollo, the Didymaion. In Greek didyma means "twin", but the Greeks who sought a "twin" at Didyma ignored the Carian origin of the name. Next to Delphi, Didyma was the most renowned oracle of the Hellenic world, first mentioned among the Greeks in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, but an establishment preceding literacy and even the Hellenic colonization of Ionia. Mythic genealogies of the origins of the Branchidae line of priests, designed to capture the origins of Didyma as a Hellenic tradition, date to the Hellenistic period.
Didyma was the largest and most significant sanctuary on the territory of the great classical city Miletus. To approach it, visitors would follow the Sacred Way to Didyma, about 17 km long. Along the way, were ritual waystations, and statues of members of the Branchidae family, male and female, as well as animal figures. Some of these statues, dating to the 6th century BC are now in the British Museum, taken by Charles Newton in the 19th century.
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Dilek Peninsula
Dilek Peninsula (Turkish: Dilek Yarımadası) is a peninsula lying between the districts of Didim and Kuşadası in Aydın Province, western Turkey.
The peninsula was made into a national park of 109.85 square kilometres (27,145 acres), Dilek Yarimadası Milli Parki ("Dilek Peninsula National Park"), in 1966, which is in part accessible to the public. Part of the delta of the River Büyük Menderes, in juxtaposition to the national park and covering 166.90 square kilometres was added to the reserve in 1994, and the whole is commonly referred to under the joint name "Dilek Peninsula - Büyük Menderes Delta" National Park.
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East Thrace
Coordinates: 41°9′13″N 27°22′0″E / 41.15361°N 27.366667°E / 41.15361; 27.366667
East Thrace or Eastern Thrace (Turkish: Doğu Trakya or simply Trakya; Bulgarian: Източна Тракия, Iztochna Trakiya; Greek: Ανατολική Θράκη, Anatoliki Thraki), also known as Turkish Thrace, is the part of the modern republic of Turkey that is geographically part of Europe, all in the eastern part of the historical region of Thrace; most of Turkey is in Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor. Turkish Thrace is also called European Turkey. This area includes the historic centre of old İstanbul (medieval Constantinople), as well as such cities as Edirne (the historical capital of the Ottoman vilayet that comprised all Thrace), Tekirdağ, Çorlu, Lüleburgaz and Kırklareli.
East Thrace, which is also known as European Turkey, holds about 12 percent of the population and has an area of 23,764 km2 (3 percent of the country). Asiatic Turkey, called Anatolia or Asia Minor, has an area of 755,688 km2 (97 percent of the country). The two are separated by the Dardanelles, Sea of Marmara and Straits of the Bosphorus, a route of about 361 km. The European portion is bordered on the west by Greece for 212 km and on the north by Bulgaria for 269 km.
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Ephesus
Ephesus (/ˈɛfəsəs/);Ancient Greek Ἔφεσος, Ephesos; Turkish Efes) was an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city, on the west coast of Asia Minor, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era. In the Roman period, Ephesus had a population of more than 250,000 in the 1st century BC, which also made it one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean world.
The city was famed for the Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BC), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Emperor Constantine I rebuilt much of the city and erected new public baths. Following the Edict of Thessalonica from emperor Theodosius I, the temple was destroyed in 401 AD by a mob led by St. John Chrysostom. The town was partially destroyed by an earthquake in 614 AD. The city's importance as a commercial center declined as the harbor was slowly silted up by the Cayster River (Küçük Menderes).
Ephesus was one of the seven churches of Asia that are cited in the Book of Revelation. The Gospel of John may have been written here. The city was the site of several 5th century Christian Councils, see Council of Ephesus. It is also the site of a large gladiators' graveyard.
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Gediz River
The Gediz River (Turkish: Gediz Nehri, Turkish pronunciation: [ˈɟediz]) is the second-largest river in Anatolia flowing into the Aegean Sea. The ancient names Hermos and Hermus are sometimes still used.
The ancient name of the river was Hermos (Ἕρμος) or Hermus.
The name of the river Gediz may be related to the Lydian proper name Cadys; Gediz is also the name of a town near the river's sources. The name "Gediz" may also be encountered as a male name in Turkey.</ref>
The Hermos separated Aeolia from Ionia, except for Ionic Phocaea, which was north of the Hermos. The valley of the Hermos was the heartland of the ancient Lydian Empire and overlooking the valley was the Lydian capital Sardis.
In Turkey's Aegean Region, Gediz River's length is second only to Büyük Menderes River whose flow is roughly parallel at a distance of slightly more than a hundred kilometers to the south.
Gediz River rises from Murat Mountain and Şaphane Mountain in Kütahya Province and flows through Uşak, Manisa and İzmir Provinces. It joins the sea in the northern section of the Gulf of Izmir, close to the gulf's mouth, near the village of Maltepe in Menemen district, south of the coastal town of Foça.
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Gordium
Gordium (Greek: Γόρδιον, Górdion; Turkish: Gordiyon) was the capital city of ancient Phrygia. It was located at the site of modern Yassıhüyük, about 70–80 km southwest of Ankara (capital of Turkey), in the immediate vicinity of Polatlı district. The site was excavated by Gustav and Alfred Körte in 1900 and then by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, under the direction of Rodney S. Young, between 1950 and 1973. Excavations have continued at the site under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania Museum with an international team.
Gordium lies where the ancient road between Lydia and Assyria/Babylonia crossed the Sangarius river.
In the twelfth century BCE, Gordium was settled by Thracians who had migrated from southeastern Europe. During the ninth and eighth centuries (BC), the city grew into the capital of a kingdom that controlled much of Asia Minor west of the river Halys. The kings of Phrygia built large tombs near Gordium called tumuli, which consist of artificial mounds constructed over burial chambers. There are about one hundred of them, covering both cremations and inhumations. In the 8th century, the lower city and the area to the north of the citadel was surrounded by a circuit wall with regularly spaced towers.
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Gulf of Iskenderun
The Gulf of İskenderun (Turkish: İskenderun Körfezi, by the Romans called Mare Issicus) is a gulf or inlet of the Levantine Sea, the easternmost part of Mediterranean Sea, of which it forms the easternmost tip, on the southern coast of Turkey near its border with Syria. It also contains the northernmost point of the Levantine Sea. The gulf's eastern coast forms part of the Turkish province of Hatay, where the city of İskenderun (formerly known as Alexandretta) is located, while its northern coast forms part of the province of Adana.
The eastern and southern coasts of the gulf had been shaped by the Nur Mountains (Turkish: Nur Dağları, literally "Mountains of Holy Light"), Amanus or Gâvur Mountains. On the western coastline lies the ancient Greek and modern city of Tarsus whose name is still officially used, and on the eastern coastline lied the ancient Greek cities of Issus and Alexandretta known today as İskenderun which is located near the gulf's southern coast. On the northern coastline lies the historical region of Cilicia.
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Hacilar
Hacilar is an early human settlement in southwestern Turkey, 25 km southwest of present day Burdur. It has been dated back 7040 BC at its earliest stage of development. Archaeological remains indicate that the site was abandoned and reoccupied on more than one occasion in its history.
Hacilar lived and died in prehistory. What remained of Hacilar became a mound on the plain and remained so until 1956. It was in this year that a local teacher showed the mound to British archaeologist James Mellaart. In 1957 the excavation of Hacilar began under Mellaart's direction and continued until 1960. The artifacts recovered during this excavation are currently on display at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara.
Housing in Hacilar consisted of grouped units surrounding an inner courtyard. Each dwelling was built on a foundation of stone to protect against water damage. Walls were made of wood and daub or mud-brick that was mortared with lime. Wooden poles were located within each unit to support a flat roof. It is generally believed that these houses had an upper story made of wood.
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Halicarnassus
Halicarnassus (Ancient Greek: Ἁλικαρνᾱσσός, Halikarnassós or Ἀλικαρνασσός, Alikarnassós; Turkish: Halikarnas) was an ancient Greek city at the site of modern Bodrum in Turkey. It was located in southwest Caria on a picturesque, advantageous site on the Ceramic Gulf. The city was famous for the tomb of Mausolus, the origin of the word mausoleum, built between 353 BC and 350 BC, and one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was part of the Persian Empire until captured by Alexander the Great at the siege of Halicarnassus in 334 BC.
Halicarnassus originally occupied only a small island near to the shore called Zephyria, which was the original name of the settlement and the present site of the great Castle of St. Peter built by the Knights of Rhodes in 1404; but in course of time, the island united with the mainland and the city extended to incorporate Salmacis, an older town of the Leleges and Carians and site of the later citadel.
The founding of Halicarnassus is debated among various traditions; but they agree in the main point as to its being a Dorian colony, and the figures on its coins, such as the head of Medusa, Athena or Poseidon, or the trident, support the statement that the mother cities were Troezen and Argos. The inhabitants appear to have accepted Anthes, a son of Poseidon, as their legendary founder, as mentioned by Strabo, and were proud of the title of Antheadae. The Carian name for Halicarnassus has been tentatively identified with Alosδkarnosδ in inscriptions.
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Hattusa
Hattusa (Hittite: 𒌷𒄩𒀜𒌅𒊭, URUḪa-at-tu-ša, read "Ḫattuša") was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age. It was located near modern Boğazkale, Turkey, within the great loop of the Kızıl River (Hittite: Marashantiya; Greek: Halys).
Hattusa was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1986.
The landscape surrounding the city included rich agricultural fields, hill lands for pasture, as well as woods. Smaller woods are still found outside the city but in ancient times they were far more widespread. This meant the inhabitants had an excellent supply for timber when building their houses and other structures. The fields provided the people with a subsistence crop of wheat, barley and lentils. Flax was also harvested, but their primary source for clothing was wool from sheep. They also hunted deer in the forest, but this was probably only a luxury reserved for the nobility. The source for meat was domesticated animals. There were several other settlements in the vicinity, such as the rock shrine at Yazılıkaya and the town at Alacahöyük. Since the rivers in the area are too small and unsuitable for major ships, all transport to and from Hattusa had to go by land.
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Hierapolis
Hierapolis (Greek: Ἱεράπολις 'sacred city') was an ancient Greco-Roman city in Phrygia located on hot springs in southwest Anatolia. Its ruins are adjacent to modern Pamukkale, Turkey.
Hierapolis is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The hot springs there have been used as a spa since the 2nd century BCE, and people came to soothe their ailments, with many of them retiring or dying here. The large necropolis is filled with sarcophagi, including the Sarcophagus of Marcus Aurelius Ammianos.
The great baths were constructed with huge stone blocks without the use of cement, and consisted of various closed or open sections linked together. There are deep niches in the inner section of the bath, library, gymnasium and other closed or open locations. The complex, which was constructed in the 2nd century BCE, constitutes a good example of vault type architecture. The complex is now an archaeological museum.
Hierapolis is located adjacent to Pamukkale.
There are only a few historical facts known about the origin of the city. No traces of the presence of Hittites or Persians have been found. The Phrygians built a temple (a hieron) probably in the first half of the 3rd century BCE. This temple would later form the centre of Hierapolis. It was already used by the citizens of the nearby town Laodiceia, a city built by Antiochus II Theos in 261-253 BCE.
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Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula (or, more generally, by southern and western Asia); on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, by Antarctica). The ocean is named after the geographic location of India.
As one component of the interconnected global ocean, the Indian Ocean is delineated from the Atlantic Ocean by the 20° east meridian running south from Cape Agulhas, and from the Pacific by the meridian of 146°55' east. The northernmost extent of the Indian Ocean is approximately 30° north in the Persian Gulf. This ocean is nearly 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) wide at the southern tips of Africa and Australia; its area is 73,556,000 square kilometres (28,350,000 sq mi), including the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
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Iran
Coordinates: 32°N 53°E / 32°N 53°E / 32; 53
Iran (i/ɪˈrɑːn/ or /aɪˈræn/;Persian: ایران [ʔiˈɾɒn] ( listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: جمهوری اسلامی ایران Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi-ye Irān), is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran", which in Persian means "Land of the Aryans", has been in use natively since the Sassanian era. It came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia ( /ˈpɜrʒə/ or /ˈpɜrʃə/). Both "Persia" and "Iran" are used interchangeably in cultural contexts; however, "Iran" is the name used officially in political contexts.
The 18th-largest country in the world in terms of area at 1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi), Iran has a population of around 79 million. It is a country of particular geopolitical significance owing to its location in the Middle East and central Eurasia. Iran is bordered on the north by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. As Iran is a littoral state of the Caspian Sea, which is an inland sea, Kazakhstan and Russia are also Iran's direct neighbors to the north. Iran is bordered on the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by Iraq and on the northwest by Turkey. Tehran is the capital, the country's largest city and the political, cultural, commercial and industrial center of the nation. Iran is a regional power, and holds an important position in international energy security and world economy as a result of its large reserves of petroleum and natural gas. Iran has the second largest proven natural gas reserves in the world and the fourth largest proven petroleum reserves.
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Iraq
Iraq (/ɪˈræk/ or
i/ɪˈrɑːk/; Arabic: العراق al-‘Irāq); officially the Republic of Iraq (Arabic: 
جمهورية العراق (help·info) Jumhūriyyat al-‘Irāq), is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.
Iraq borders Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Jordan to the southwest and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south. Iraq has a narrow section of coastline measuring 58 km (36 mi) on the northern Persian Gulf. The capital city, Baghdad is in the center-east of the country.
Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run through the center of Iraq, flowing from northwest to southeast. These provide Iraq with agriculturally capable land and contrast with the steppe and desert landscape that covers most of Western Asia.
Historically, Iraq was the center of the Abbasid Arabic Islamic Empire. Iraq has been known to the west by the Greek toponym 'Mesopotamia' (Land between the rivers) and has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BC. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is often referred to as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of writing, law and the wheel. At different periods in its history, Iraq was the center of the indigenous Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Abbasid empires. It was also part of the Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires, and under British control as a League of Nations mandate.
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Istanbul
Istanbul (Turkish: İstanbul) is the largest city in Turkey, forming the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With a population of 13.4 million, the city is at the center of the second-largest urban area in Europe after Moscow, and among the world's largest cities by population within city limits. Istanbul's vast area of 5,343 square kilometers (2,063 sq mi) is coterminous with Istanbul Province, of which the city is considered capital. Straddling the Bosphorus—one of the world's busiest waterways—in northwestern Turkey, between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, Istanbul is a transcontinental city, with one third of its population living in Asia but its commercial and historical center in Europe.
Founded around 660 BC as Byzantium on the Seraglio Point, the city now known as Istanbul developed to become one of the most significant cities in history. For nearly sixteen centuries following its reestablishment as Constantinople in 330 AD, it served as the capital of four empires — the late classical Roman Empire (330–395), the Eastern Roman ("Byzantine") Empire (395–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). It was instrumental in the advancement of Christianity during Roman and Byzantine times, before the Ottomans conquered the city in 1453 and transformed it into an Islamic stronghold from which the last caliphate ruled. Although the Republic of Turkey established its capital elsewhere, in Ankara, remnants of Istanbul's previous central role still remain highly visible across the city, with palaces and imperial mosques lining its hills.
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İzmir
Coordinates: 38°25′19″N 27°07′44″E / 38.422°N 27.129°E / 38.422; 27.129
Izmir (Turkish: İzmir) is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.95 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey. Izmir metropolitan area extends along the outlying waters of the Gulf of İzmir and inland to the north across Gediz River's delta, to the east along an alluvial plain created by several small streams and to a slightly more rugged terrain in the south. The ancient city was known as Smyrna, and the city was generally referred to as Smyrna in English, until the Turkish Postal Services Law of 1930 made "Izmir" the internationally recognized name.
The city of Izmir is composed of several metropolitan districts. Of these, Konak district corresponds to historical Izmir, this district's area having constituted the "Izmir Municipality" (Turkish: İzmir Belediyesi) area until 1984, Konak until then having been a name for a central neighborhood around Konak Square, still the core of the city. With the constitution of the "Greater Izmir Metropolitan Municipality" (Turkish: İzmir Büyükşehir Belediyesi), the city of Izmir became a compound bringing together initially nine, and since recently eleven metropolitan districts, namely Balçova, Bayraklı, Bornova, Buca, Çiğli, Gaziemir, Güzelbahçe, Karabağlar, Karşıyaka, Konak and Narlıdere. Almost each of these settlements are former district centers or neighborhoods which stood on their own and with their own distinct features and temperament. In an ongoing processus, the Mayor of Izmir was also vested with authority over the areas of additional districts reaching from Aliağa in the north to Selçuk in the south, bringing the number of districts to be considered as being part of Izmir to twenty-one under the new arrangements, two of these having been administratively included in Izmir only partially.
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İzmir Province
İzmir Province (Turkish: İzmir ili) is a province of Turkey in western Anatolia on the Aegean coast, whose capital is the city of İzmir. On the west it is surrounded by the Aegean sea, and it encloses the Gulf of İzmir. Its area is 11,973 km.2, population 3.948.848 (2010 tüik census). The population was 3,370,866 in 2000. Neighbouring provinces are Balıkesir on the north, Manisa on the east, and Aydın on the south. The traffic code of the province is 35.
The main rivers of the province are Küçük Menderes river, Koca Çay (with Güzelhisar dam), and Bakır Çay.
İzmir Province is divided into 30 districts (metro districts are bold):
Of these, Balçova, Bayraklı, Bornova, Buca, Çiğli, Gaziemir, Güzelbahçe, Karabağlar, Karşıyaka, Konak, and Narlıdere are core districts, making up the city of İzmir.
The area was first settled by local Anatolians, milleninum later Ionians in about the 11th century BC who established the League of Ionia. It was later conquered by the Persians, retaken by the Greeks, before being subsumed into the Roman Empire. After the split of the Roman Empire, the area became part of what is now called the Byzantine Empire until conquered by the Ottoman Turks in the 14th century. Following the First World War the province was ceded to Greece, but was retaken by the forces of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in the Turkish War of Independence. As a result of the Treaty of Lausanne all Greek Orthodox inhabitants of the province had to leave, and İzmir Province was incorporated into the modern republic of Turkey.
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İzmit
İzmit (Greek: Νικομήδεια, Nicomedia) is a city in Turkey, administrative center of Kocaeli Province as well as the Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality. It is located at the Gulf of İzmit (the ancient Gulf of Astacus) in the Sea of Marmara, about 100 km (62 mi) east of Istanbul, on the northwestern part of Anatolia. The city center has a population of 293,339 (2010 census). The population of the province (including rural areas) is 1,459,772 (Unlike other provinces in Turkey apart from Istanbul, the whole province is now included within the municipality of the metropolitan center.)
Nicomedia was the eastern and most senior capital city of the Roman Empire between 286 and 324, during the Tetrarchy introduced by Diocletian. Following Constantine's victory over co-emperor Licinius at the Battle of Chrysopolis (Üsküdar) in 324, Nicomedia served as an interim capital city for Constantine the Great between 324 and 330, until the nearby Byzantium was officially declared Nova Roma (later known as Constantinople, present-day Istanbul).
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Jordan Rift Valley
The Jordan Rift Valley (Arabic: الغور Al-Ghor or Al-Ghawr; Hebrew: בקעת הירדן Bik'at HaYarden) is an elongated depression located in modern-day Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. This geographic region includes the Jordan River, Jordan Valley, Hula Valley, Lake Tiberias and the Dead Sea, the lowest land elevation on Earth. The valley continues to the Red Sea, incorporating Arabah and the shorelines of the Gulf of Aqaba.
The Jordan Rift Valley was formed many millions of years ago in the Miocene epoch (23.8 - 5.3 Myr ago) when the Arabian tectonic plate moved northward and then eastward away from Africa. One million years later, the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan Rift Valley rose so that the sea water stopped flooding the area.
The lowest point in the Jordan Rift Valley is at the shores of the Dead Sea, which is also the lowest point (on land) on the surface of the earth at 400 meters below sea level. Rising sharply to almost 1,000 meters in the west, and similarly in the east, the rift is a significant topographic feature over which few narrow paved roads and difficult mountain tracks lead. The valley north of the Dead Sea has long been a site of agriculture because of water available from the Jordan River and numerous springs located on the valley's flanks.
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Kaunos
Kaunos (Carian: Kbid;Lycian: Khbide;Ancient Greek: Καῦνος; Latin: Caunus) was a city of ancient Caria and in Anatolia, a few km west of the modern town of Dalyan, Muğla Province, Turkey.
The Calbys river (now known as the Dalyan river) was the border between Caria and Lycia. Initially Kaunos was a separate state; then it became a part of Caria and later still of Lycia.
Kaunos was an important sea port, the history of which is supposed to date back till the 10th century BC. Because of the formation of İztuzu Beach and the silting of the former Bay of Dalyan (from approx. 200 BC onwards) Kaunos is now located about 8 km from the coast. The city had two ports, the southern port at the southeast of Küçük Kale and the inner port at its northwest (the present Sülüklü Göl, the Lake of the Leeches). The southern port was used from the foundation of the city till roughly the end of the Hellenistic era, after which it became inaccessible due to its drying out. The inner or trade port could be closed by chains. The latter was used till the late days of Kaunos , but due to the silting of the delta and the ports, Kaunos had by then long lost its important function as a trade port. After Caria had been captured by Turkish tribes and the serious malaria epidemic of the 15th century AD, Kaunos was completely abandoned.
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Kayseri
Kayseri (pronounced [kajˈseɾi]) is a large and industrialized city in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It is the seat of Kayseri Province. The city of Kayseri, as defined by the boundaries of Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality, is structurally composed of five metropolitan districts, the two core districts of Kocasinan and Melikgazi, and since 2004, also Hacılar, İncesu and Talas. In conjunction with the addition of new districts and first stage municipalities into the metropolitan area, the city's population, which was 690,000 in 2000, was over 1,050,000 as of 2010, making it the seventh most populous city in Turkey.
Kayseri is located at the foot of the extinct volcano Mount Erciyes that towers 3916 m over the city. Its inhabitants (Kayserili) are renowned for their alertness, entrepreneurial spirit and a strict understanding regarding the management of economies, the last point having been the subject of more than a few legends in Turkey.wealth of the city itself is a blend of modernity and conservatism. The city is often cited in the first ranks among Turkey's cities that fit the definition of Anatolian Tigers.
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Kaçkar Mountains
Kaçkar Mountains (Turkish: Kaçkar Dağları) or simply Kaçkars (Turkish: Kaçkarlar) are a mountain range that rises above the Black Sea coast in eastern Turkey.
With highest peak Kaçkar Dağı at an elevation of 3,937 metres (12,917 ft), and mountain plateaus at about 3,000 m (9,800 ft) in elevation, it is the highest part of the Pontic Mountains. The Kaçkars are glaciated mountains that are alpine in character, with steep rocky peaks and numerous mountain lakes. The area was declared a national park in 1994. Tourism activities in the park include hiking, camping, mountaineering, and, increasingly, heliskiing.
The name Kaçkar (from Armenian khachkar (Խաչքար) literally meaning "cross stone") may be used in various senses. It may describe the whole mountain range, including the many mountain groups, or it may just describe the Kaçkar-Kavron group with its highest peak, or just the highest peak itself. The local name of the highest peak or its mountain group Kaçkar Dağı translates to Kaçkar Mountain, and the name of the range Kaçkar Dağları translates to Kaçkar Mountains.
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Kemer
Kemer is a seaside resort and district of Antalya Province on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, 40 km (25 mi) west of the city of Antalya, on the Turkish Riviera.
Kemer is on the Gulf of Antalya, 53 km (33 mi) of sea coast with the skirts of the western Taurus Mountains behind. The coast has the typical Mediterranean hot, dry weather and warm sea. Until the early 1980s this was a quiet rural district but today the town of Kemer and coastal villages in the district play a very important part in tourism in Turkey.
Kemer was called Eski Köy (Old Village) until in 1916 - 1917, a 23 km (14 mi) long stone wall was built to channel the mountain stream water and protect the town from flooding, which until then had been a persistent problem. The name Kemer refers to those walls.
Until the 1960s there was no road connection and the district was accessible only by boat. Then a road was built and from the 1980s onwards this was followed by a great investment in infrastructure, planned by the state and funded by the World Bank, aimed at developing a large tourist industry.
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Knidos
Coordinates: 36°41′09″N 27°22′30″E / 36.68583°N 27.375°E / 36.68583; 27.375
Knidos or Cnidus ( /ˈnaɪdəs/; Ancient Greek: Κνίδος [knidos]) is an ancient settlement located in Turkey. It was an ancient Greek city of Caria, part of the Dorian Hexapolis. It was situated on the Datça peninsula, which forms the southern side of the Sinus Ceramicus, now known as Gulf of Gökova. By the fourth century BC, Knidos was located at the site of modern Tekir, opposite Triopion Island. But earlier, it was probably at the site of modern Datça (at the half-way point of the peninsula).
It was built partly on the mainland and partly on the Island of Triopion or Cape Krio. The debate about it being an island or cape is caused by the fact that in ancient times it was connected to the mainland by a causeway and bridge. Today the connection is formed by a narrow sandy isthmus. By means of the causeway the channel between island and mainland was formed into two harbours, of which the larger, or southern, was further enclosed by two strongly built moles that are still in good part entire.
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Kocaeli Peninsula
Kocaeli Peninsula (Turkish: Kocaeli Yarımadası) is a peninsula in Turkey.
The peninsula is at the north west corner of Anatolia. The length toward west is 90 kilometres (56 mi) and the average width is about 40 kilometres (25 mi). It is bordered by the Black Sea to the north, Sea of Marmara to the south and the strait of Bosphorus (Turkish: Boğaziçi) to the west. The geographers consider it to be a part of Kocaeli Çatalca subregion, where Çatalça is a peninsula on the other side of Bosphorous. .
Together with the strait of Dardanelles, the passage through Bosphorus and the Kocaeli peninsula is the main passage of people from Europe to Asia and vice versa. During ancient times, Phryigians, Bithynians and Galatians were some of them. But while Phryigians and Galatians moved to Central Anatolia, it was the Bithinians who controlled the region for a considerable time. Hannibal, the Carthaginian commander who took refuge in Bithinia died in Kocaeli Peninsula at around 182 BC. His grave may be around Dilovası or at Gebze both at about the middle of Kocaeli Peninsula. Later the peninsula was a part of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and the Ottoman Empire.
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Konya
Konya (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈkon.ja]) is a city in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. The metropolitan area in the entire Konya Province had a population of 1,036,027 as of 2010, making the city the seventh most populous in Turkey.
Konya, also spelled in some historic English texts as Konia or Koniah, was known in classical antiquity and during the medieval period as Iconium in Latin, and Ἰκόνιον (Ikónion) in Greek. The name Konya is a cognate of icon, as an ancient Greek legend ascribed its name to the "eikon" (image), or the "gorgon's (Medusa's) head", with which Perseus vanquished the native population before founding the city.
Excavations have shown that the region was inhabited during the Late Copper Age, around 3000 BC. The city came under the influence of the Hittites around 1500 BC. These were overtaken by the Sea Peoples around 1200 BC. The Phrygians established their kingdom in central Anatolia in the 8th century BC. Xenophon describes Iconium, as the city was called, as the last city of Phrygia. The region was overwhelmed by Cimmerian invaders c. 690 BC. It was later part of the Persian Empire, until Darius III was defeated by Alexander the Great in 333 BC. Alexander's empire broke up shortly after his death and the town came under the rule of Seleucus I Nicator. During the Hellenistic period the town was ruled by the kings of Pergamon. As Attalus III, the last king of Pergamon, was about to die without an heir, he bequeathed his kingdom to Rome. Under the rule of emperor Claudius, the city's name was changed to Claudioconium, and during the rule of emperor Hadrianus to Colonia Aelia Hadriana.
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Kültepe
Coordinates: 38°51′N 35°38′E / 38.85°N 35.633°E / 38.85; 35.633 Kültepe (Turkish: Ash Hill) is a modern village near the ancient city of Kaneš or Kanesh (Hittite: Neša, occasionally Anisa), located in the Kayseri Province of Turkey's Central Anatolia Region. The nearest modern city to Kültepe is Kayseri, about 20 km southwest.
Kaneš, inhabited continuously from the Chalcolithic period to Roman times, flourished as an important Hattic/Hittite/Hurrian city, which contained a large merchant quarter (kârum) of the Old Assyrian kingdom, from ca. 20th to 16th centuries BC. A late (c 1400 BC) witness to an old tradition includes a king of Kaneš called Zipani among seventeen local city-kings who rose up against the Akkadian Naram-Sin (ruled c.2254-2218 BC). It is the site of discovery of the earliest traces of the Hittite language, and the earliest attestation of any Indo-European language, dated to the 20th century BC. The native term for the Hittite language was nešili "language of Neša".
The king of Zalpuwa, Uhna, raided Kanes, after which the Zalpuwans carried off the city's "Sius" idol. Pithana, the king of Kussara, conquered level Ia Neša "in the night, by force", but "did not do evil to anyone in it." Neša revolted against the rule of Pithana's son, Anitta, but Anitta quashed the revolt and made Neša his capital. Anitta further invaded Zalpuwa, captured its king Huzziya, and recovered the Sius idol for Neša.
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Lycia
Lycia ( /ˈlɪʃə/;Lycian: 𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊖 Trm̃mis; Greek: Λυκία) was a geopolitical region in Anatolia in what are now the provinces of Antalya and Muğla on the southern coast of Turkey, and Burdur Province inland. Known to history since the records of ancient Egypt and the Hittite Empire in the Late Bronze Age, it was populated by speakers of the Luwian language group. Written records began to be inscribed in stone in the Lycian language (a later form of Luwian) after Lycia's involuntary incorporation into the Achaemenid Empire in the Iron Age. At that time (546 BC) the Luwian speakers were decimated, and Lycia received an influx of Iranian speakers.
Lycia fought for the Persians in the Persian Wars, but on the defeat of the Achaemenid Empire by the Greeks, it became intermittently a free agent. After a brief membership in the Athenian Empire, it seceded and became independent (its treaty with Athens had omitted the usual non-secession clause), was under the Persians again, revolted again, was conquered by Maussollus of Caria, returned to the Persians, and went under Macedonian hegemony at the defeat of the Persians by Alexander the Great. Due to the influx of Greek speakers and the sparsity of the remaining Lycian speakers, Lycia was totally Hellenized under the Macedonians. The Lycian language disappeared from inscriptions and coinage.
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Magnesia ad Sipylum
Magnesia and Sipylum (modern Manisa, Turkey), was a city of Lydia, situated about 65 km northeast of Smyrna (now İzmir) on the river Hermus (now Gediz) at the foot of Mount Sipylus. The city should not be confused with its older neighbor, Magnesia on the Maeander, both founded by colonists from the Greek region of Magnesia.
The first famous mention of the city is in 190 BC, when Antiochus the Great was defeated in the battle of Magnesia by the Roman consul Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus. It became a city of importance under Roman rule and, though nearly destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of Tiberius, was restored by that emperor and flourished through the Roman empire. It was an important regional centre through the Byzantine Empire, and during the 13th century interregnum of the Empire of Nicea. Magnesia housed the Imperial mint, the Imperial treasury, and served as the functional capital of the empire until the recovery of Constantinople in 1261. Magnesia was one of the few towns in this part of Anatolia which remained prosperous under the Turkish rule.
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Marmara Region
The Marmara Region (Turkish: Marmara Bölgesi), with a surface area of 67.000 km², is the smallest but most densely populated of the seven geographical regions of Turkey. It represents approximately 8.6% of the Turkish national territory and about 30% of its population.
This region was officially put in existence after the Geography Congress of 1941 in Ankara and is geographically divided into four regional parts.
Its name derives from the Sea of Marmara, which itself is named for the island of Marmara.
The Yıldız Mountains and Uludağ are in the Marmara Region. Islands in the Aegean Sea are Gökçeada and Bozcaada, and in the Sea of Marmara are Marmara Island, Avşa, Paşalimanı, İmralı and the Princes Islands of Istanbul.
The Marmara region has a hybrid mediterranean climate/humid subtropical climate on the Aegean Sea coast and the south Marmara Sea coast, an oceanic climate on the Black Sea coast and a humid continental climate in the interior. Summers are warm to hot, humid and moderately dry whereas winters are cold and wet and sometimes snowy.
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Marmaris
Marmaris is a port town and tourist resort on the Mediterranean coast, located in Muğla Province, southwest Turkey, along the shoreline of the Turkish Riviera.
Marmaris' main source of income is tourism. Little is left of the sleepy fishing village that Marmaris was just a few decades ago, after a construction boom in the 1980s. Marmaris still retains its charm due to its exceptional location between two intersecting sets of mountains by the sea. The town's population was 30,957 in 2010 and peaks at around 300,000 to 400,000 people during the tourism season. Marmaris' nightlife rivals anything on the Turkish coast.
It is also a centre for sailing and diving, possessing two major and several smaller marinas. It is a popular wintering location for hundreds of cruising boaters. It is served by the nearby Dalaman Airport.
Marmaris has a Mediterranean climate characterised by a hot and humid summer and cool, rainy winter. Showers and rain are very unlikely between May and October.
Summers are hot and humid, and temperatures can reach over 40°C sometimes during heatwaves in July and August. October is still warm and bright, though with spells of rain, and many tourists prefer to visit in the early autumn, especially in September, because the temperatures are not as hot.
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Medes
The Medes (/midz/) (from Old Persian Māda-) were an ancient Iranian people who lived in Iran in an area known as Media and spoke a northwestern Iranian language referred to as the Median language. Their arrival to the region is associated with the first wave of Iranian tribes in the late second millennium BCE (the Bronze Age collapse) through the beginning of the first millennium BCE.
In the 7th century BCE a unified Median state was formed which together with Babylonia, Lydia, and Egypt became one of the four major powers of the ancient Near East. An alliance with the Babylonians helped the Medes to capture Nineveh in 612 BCE which resulted in the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Medes were subsequently able to establish their Median kingdom (with Ecbatana as their royal centre) beyond their original homeland (central-western Iran) and had eventually a territory stretching roughly from northeastern Iran to the Halys River in Anatolia. The Median kingdom was conquered in 550 BCE by Cyrus the Great who established the next Iranian dynasty—the Achaemenid Empire.
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Mersin
Mersin (Ancient Greek: Ζεφύριον, Zephyrion) is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. The metropolitan area in the entire Mersin Province had a population of 195,000 (city center) as of 2010, making it Turkey's sixth most populous city. It is also part of an interurban agglomeration – the Adana-Mersin Metropolitan Area – and lies on the western part of Çukurova, a geographical, economical and cultural region. According to Evliya Çelebi, the city is named after the Mersinoğullari clan; another theory is that it is made from the myrtle (Greek: μύρτος, μυρσίνη) which grows abundanlty in the region.
Mersin is important for Turkey's economy, and Turkey's largest seaport is located here. Mersin's nickname within Turkey is "Pearl of the Mediterranean" (Turkish: Akdeniz'in İncisi) and the city will host the 2013 Mediterranean Games.
This coast has been inhabited since the 9th millennium BC. Excavations by John Garstang of the hill of Yumuktepe have revealed 23 levels of occupation, the earliest dating from ca. 6300 BC. Fortifications were put up around 4500 BC, but the site appears to have been abandoned between 350 BC and 300 BC.
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Miletus
Miletus (mī lē' təs) (Ancient Greek: Μίλητος, Milētos; Latin: Miletus) was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia (in what is now Aydin Province, Turkey), near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria. Before the Persian invasion in the middle of the 6th century BC, Miletus was considered the greatest and wealthiest of Greek cities.
Evidence of first settlement at the site has been made inaccessible by the rise of sea level and deposition of sediments from the Maeander. The first available evidence is of the Neolithic. In the early and middle Bronze age the settlement came under Minoan influence. Legend has it that an influx of Cretans occurred displacing the indigenous Leleges. The site was renamed Miletus after a place in Crete.
The Late Bronze Age, 13th century BCE, saw the arrival of Luwian language speakers from south central Anatolia calling themselves the Carians. Later in that century the first Greeks arrived. The city at that time rebelled against the Hittite Empire. After the fall of that empire the city was destroyed in the 12th century BCE and starting about 1000 BCE was resettled extensively by the Ionian Greeks. Legend offers an Ionian foundation event sponsored by a founder named Neleus from the Peloponnesus.
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Myra
Myra is an ancient town in Lycia, where the small town of Kale (Demre) is situated today in present day Antalya Province of Turkey. It was located on the river Myros (Demre Çay), in the fertile alluvial plain between Alaca Dağ, the Massikytos range and the Aegean Sea.
Although some scholars equate Myra with the town Mira in Arzawa, there is no proof for the connection. There is no substantiated written reference for Myra before it was listed as a member of the Lycian alliance (168 BC – AD 43); according to Strabo (14:665) it was one of the largest towns of the alliance.
The Greek citizens worshipped Artemis Eleutheria, who was the protective goddess of the town. Zeus, Athena and Tyche were venerated as well.
The ruins of the Lycian and Roman town are mostly covered by alluvial silts. The Acropolis on the Demre-plateau, the Roman theatre and the Roman baths (eski hamam) have been partly excavated. The semi-circular theater was destroyed in an earthquake in 141, but rebuilt afterwards.
There are two necropoli of Lycian rock-cut tombs in the form of temple fronts carved into the vertical faces of cliffs at Myra: the river necropolis and the ocean necropolis. The ocean necropolis is just northwest of the theater. The best known tomb in the river necropolis (located 1.5 km up the Demre Cayi from the theater) is the "Lion's tomb,"also called the "Painted Tomb." When the traveller Charles Fellows saw the tombs in 1840 he found them still colorfully painted red, yellow and blue.
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Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.
At 165.2 million square kilometres (64.1 million square miles) in area, this largest division of the World Ocean – and, in turn, the hydrosphere – covers about 46% of the Earth's water surface and about one-third of its total surface area, making it larger than all of the Earth's land area combined. The equator subdivides it into the North Pacific Ocean and South Pacific Ocean, with two exceptions: the Galápagos and Gilbert Islands, while straddling the equator, are deemed wholly within the South Pacific. The Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres (35,797 ft).
The eastern Pacific Ocean was first sighted by Europeans early in the 16th century. Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and named it Mar del Sur (South Sea). The ocean's current name was given by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish expedition of world circumnavigation in 1521, who encountered favourable winds as he reached the ocean and called it Mar Pacifico in Portuguese, meaning "peaceful sea".
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Pamukkale
Pamukkale, meaning "cotton castle" in Turkish, is a natural site in Denizli Province in southwestern Turkey. The city contains hot springs and travertines, terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing water. It is located in Turkey's Inner Aegean region, in the River Menderes valley, which has a temperate climate for most of the year.
The ancient Greco-Roman and Byzantine city of Hierapolis was built on top of the white "castle" which is in total about 2,700 metres (8,860 ft) long, 600 m (1,970 ft) wide and 160 m (525 ft) high. It can be seen from the hills on the opposite side of the valley in the town of Denizli, 20 km away.
Tourism is and has been a major industry. People have bathed in its pools for thousands of years. As recently as the mid-20th century, hotels were built over the ruins of Heropolis, causing considerable damage. An approach road was built from the valley over the terraces, and motor bikes were allowed to go up and down the slopes. When the area was declared a World Heritage Site, the hotels were demolished and the road removed and replaced with artificial pools. Wearing shoes in the water is prohibited to protect the deposits.
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Pergamon
Pergamon (Ancient Greek: τὸ Πέργαμον or ἡ Πέργαμος), or Pergamum, was an ancient Greek city in modern-day Turkey, in Mysia, today located 16 miles (26 km) from the Aegean Sea on a promontory on the north side of the river Caicus (modern day Bakırçay), that became the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamon during the Hellenistic period, under the Attalid dynasty, 281–133 BC. Pergamon was cited in the book of Revelation as one of the seven churches of Asia. Today, the main sites of ancient Pergamon are to the north and west of the modern city of Bergama.
The Attalid kingdom was the rump state left after the collapse of the Kingdom of Thrace.
The Attalids, the descendants of Attalus, father of Philetaerus who came to power in 281 BC following the collapse of the Kingdom of Thrace, were among the most loyal supporters of Rome in the Hellenistic world. Under Attalus I (241-197 BC), they allied with Rome against Philip V of Macedon, during the first and second Macedonian Wars, and again under Eumenes II (197-158 BC), against Perseus of Macedon, during the Third Macedonian War. For support against the Seleucids, the Attalids were rewarded with all the former Seleucid domains in Asia Minor.
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Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf is located in Western Asia between Iran (Persia) and the Arabian Peninsula. It is an extension of the Indian Ocean.
The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers. In 1991, the Persian Gulf again was the background for what was called the "Persian Gulf War" or the "Gulf War" when Iraq invaded Kuwait and was subsequently pushed back, despite the fact that this conflict was primarily a land conflict.
The Persian Gulf has many good fishing grounds, extensive coral reefs, and abundant pearl oysters, but its ecology has come under pressure from industrialization, and in particular, oil and petroleum spillages during wars in the region.
Historically and internationally known as the Persian Gulf, this body of water is sometimes controversially referred to as the Arabian Gulf or simply The Gulf by most Arab states, although neither of the latter two terms are recognized internationally. The name Gulf of Iran (Persian Gulf) is used by the International Hydrographic Organization.
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Pontic Mountains
The Pontic Mountains form a mountain range in Northern Turkey, also known as the Parhar mountains in the local Turkish and Pontic Greek languages. The term "Parhar" originates from the Hittite word meaning "high" or "summit".
The range runs roughly east-west, parallel and close to the southern coast of the Black Sea and extends eastward to Georgia. The highest peak in the range is Kaçkar Dağı, which rises to 3,937 m (12,917 ft). The North Anatolian Fault and the Northeast Anatolian Fault, which are east-west running strike-slip faults, run along the length of the range.
The mountains are generally covered by dense forests, predominantly of conifers. The Northern Anatolian conifer and deciduous forests is an ecoregion which covers most of the range, while the Caucasus mixed forests extend across the eastern end of the range, known as the Kaçkar Mountains. The region is home to such Eurasian wildlife as the Caucasian Black Grouse, Ring Ouzel, Red-fronted Serin, and Wallcreeper. The narrow coastal strip between the mountains and the Black Sea, known as Pontus, is home to the Euxine-Colchic deciduous forests, which contain some of Europe's only temperate rain forests. The Anatolian Plateau, which lies south of the range, has a considerably drier and more continental climate than the humid and mild coast.
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Sardis
Sardis or Sardes (Lydian: Sfard; Greek: Σάρδεις, Sardeis; Persian: سارد, Sārd) was an ancient city at the location of modern Sart (Sartmahmut before 19 October 2005) in Turkey's Manisa Province. Sardis was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, one of the important cities of the Persian Empire, the seat of a proconsul under the Roman Empire, and the metropolis of the province Lydia in later Roman and Byzantine times. As one of the Seven churches of Asia, it was addressed by the author of the Book of Revelation in terms which seem to imply that its population was notoriously soft and fainthearted. Its importance was due, first to its military strength, secondly to its situation on an important highway leading from the interior to the Aegean coast, and thirdly to its commanding the wide and fertile plain of the Hermus.
Sardis was situated in the middle of Hermus valley, at the foot of Mount Tmolus, a steep and lofty spur which formed the citadel. It was about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) south of the Hermus. Today, the site is located by the present day village of Sart, near Salihli in the Manisa province of Turkey, close to the Ankara - İzmir highway (approximately 72 kilometres (45 mi) from İzmir). The part of remains including the bath-gymnasium complex, synagogue and Byzantine shops is open to visitors year-round.
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Sea of Marmara
The Sea of Marmara /ˈmɑrmərə/ (Greek: Θάλασσα του Μαρμαρά, Turkish: Marmara Denizi), also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, and in the context of classical antiquity as the Propontis (Greek: Προποντίς), is the inland sea that connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, thus separating Turkey's Asian and European parts. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Black Sea and the Dardanelles strait to the Aegean. The former also separates Istanbul into its Asian and European sides. The Sea has an area of 11,350 km² (280 km x 80 km) with the greatest depth reaching 1,370 m.
The salinity of the sea averages about 22 parts per thousand, which is slightly greater than that of the Black Sea but only about two-thirds that of most oceans. However, the water is much more saline at the sea-bottom, averaging salinities of around 38 parts per thousand — similar to that of the Mediterranean Sea. This high-density saline water, like that of the Black Sea itself, does not migrate to the surface. Water from the Susurluk, Biga (Granicus) and Gonen Rivers also reduces the salinity of the sea, though with less influence than on the Black Sea. With little land in Thrace draining southward, almost all of these rivers flow from Anatolia.
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Smyrna
Smyrna (Ancient Greek: Σμύρνη or Σμύρνα) was an ancient city located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Thanks to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence. The ancient city is located at two sites within modern İzmir, Turkey. The first site, probably founded indigenously, rose to prominence during the Archaic Period as one of the principal ancient Greek settlements in western Anatolia. The second, whose foundation is associated with Alexander the Great, reached metropolitan proportions during the period of the Roman Empire. Most of the present-day remains date from the Roman era, the majority from after a 2nd century AD earthquake.
In practical terms, a distinction is often made between Old Smyrna, the initial settlement founded around the 11th century BC, first as an Aeolian settlement, and later taken over and developed during the Archaic Period by the Ionians, and Smyrna proper, the new city moved into from the older one as of the 4th century BC and whose foundation was inspired, and perhaps also initiated, by Alexander the Great.
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Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean (also known as the Great Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Ocean, and the South Polar Ocean) comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60°S latitude and encircling Antarctica. It is usually regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions. This ocean zone is where cold, northward flowing waters from the Antarctic mix with warmer subantarctic waters.
Geographers disagree on the Southern Ocean's northern boundary or even its existence, with many considering the waters part of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans instead. Others regard the Antarctic Convergence, an ocean zone which fluctuates seasonally, as separating the Southern Ocean from other oceans, rather than the 60th parallel.Australian authorities regard the Southern Ocean as lying immediately south of Australia.
The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) has not yet ratified its 2000 definition of the ocean as being south of 60°S. Its latest published definition of oceans dates from 1953; this does not include the Southern Ocean. However, the more recent definition is used by the IHO and others.
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Syria
Syria (/ˈsɪriə/ ( listen) SIRR-ee-ə; Arabic: سورية Sūriyya or سوريا Sūryā; Syriac: ܣܘܪܝܐ; Kurdish: Sûrî), officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية العربية السورية al-Jumhūriyyah al-‘Arabīyah as-Sūriyyah Arabic pronunciation (help·info)), is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest.
In English, the name Syria was formerly synonymous with the Levant, known in Arabic as Sham, while the modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the third millennium BC. In the Islamic era, its capital city, Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate, and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.
The population of Syria is 74% Sunni, 12% Alawi, 10% Christian, and 3% Druze. Combined, 87% of the Syrian population is Muslim, while the other 10% is Christian, which includes mainly Arab Christians but also Assyrians and Armenians. Major ethnic minorities in Syria include Kurds (9%), Assyrians, Armenians, Turkmens and Circassians. The majority of the population is Arab (90%).
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Tigris
The Tigris River (/ˈtaɪɡrɪs/; Arabic: دجله) is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq.
The Tigris is 1,850 km long, rising in the Taurus Mountains of eastern Turkey about 25 km southeast of the city of Elazig and about 30 km from the headwaters of the Euphrates. The river then flows for 400 km through Turkish territory before becoming the border between Syria and Turkey. This stretch of 44 km is the only part of the river that is located in Syria. The remaining 1,418 km are entirely within the Iraqi borders.
The Tigris unites with the Euphrates near Basra, and from this junction to the Persian Gulf the mass of moving water is known as the Shatt-al-Arab. According to Pliny and other ancient historians, the Euphrates originally had its outlet into the sea separate from that of the Tigris.
Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, stands on the banks of the Tigris. The port city of Basra straddles the Shatt al-Arab. In ancient times, many of the great cities of Mesopotamia stood on or near the Tigris, drawing water from it to irrigate the civilization of the Sumerians. Notable Tigris-side cities included Nineveh, Ctesiphon, and Seleucia, while the city of Lagash was irrigated by the Tigris via a canal dug around 2400 BC.
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Trabzon
Trabzon (Turkish: Trabzon, see other names, Turkish pronunciation: [ˈtrabzon]) is a city on the Black Sea coast of north-eastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. Trabzon, located on the historical Silk Road, became a melting pot of religions, languages and culture for centuries and a trade gateway to Iran in the southeast and the Caucasus to the northeast. The Venetian and Genoese merchants paid visits to Trebizond during the medieval period and sold silk, linen and woolen fabric; with the Republic of Genoa having an important merchant colony within the city that was similar to Galata near Constantinople (across the Golden Horn) in present-day Istanbul. Trabzon formed the basis of several states in its long history and was the capital city of the Empire of Trebizond between 1204 and 1461. During the Ottoman period, Trabzon, because of the importance of its port, became a focal point of trade to Iran and the Caucasus. The population of the center urban is 230,399 (2009 census).
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Troy
Coordinates: 39°57′27″N 26°14′20″E / 39.9575°N 26.23889°E / 39.9575; 26.23889
Troy (Ancient Greek: Ἴλιον, Ilion, and Τροία, Troia; Latin: Trōia and Īlium;Hittite: Wilusa or Truwisa;Turkish: Truva) was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida. It is best known for being the setting of the Trojan War described in the Greek Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer. Metrical evidence from the Iliad and the Odyssey seems to show that the name Ἴλιον (Ilion) formerly began with a digamma: Ϝίλιον (Wilion). This was later supported by the Hittite form Wilusa.
A new city called Ilium was founded on the site in the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus. It flourished until the establishment of Constantinople and declined gradually during the Byzantine era.
In 1865, English archaeologist Frank Calvert excavated trial trenches in a field he had bought from a local farmer at Hisarlık, and in 1868, Heinrich Schliemann, wealthy German businessman and archaeologist, also began excavating in the area after a chance meeting with Calvert in Çanakkale. These excavations revealed several cities built in succession. Schliemann was at first skeptical about the identification of Hissarlik with Troy, but was persuaded by Calvert and took over Calvert's excavations on the eastern half of the Hissarlik site, which was on Calvert's property. Troy VII has been identified with the Hittite Wilusa, the probable origin of the Greek Ἴλιον, and is generally (but not conclusively) identified with Homeric Troy.
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Turkey
Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (help·info)), is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia (mostly in the Anatolian peninsula) and in East Thrace in 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 Nakhchivan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea is to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. The Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles (which together form the Turkish Straits) demarcate the boundary between East Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia.
Turkey is one of the six independent Turkic states. The vast majority of the population are Muslims. The country's official language is Turkish, whereas Kurdish and Zazaki languages are spoken by Kurds and Zazas, who constitute 18% of the population.
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Çatalhöyük
Çatalhöyük (Turkish pronunciation: [tʃaˈtaɫhøjyc]; also Çatal Höyük and Çatal Hüyük, or any of the three without diacritics; çatal is Turkish for "fork", höyük for "mound") was a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement in southern Anatolia, which existed from approximately 7500 BCE to 5700 BCE. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date.
Çatalhöyük is located overlooking wheat fields in the Konya Plain, southeast of the present-day city of Konya (ancient Iconium) in Turkey, approximately 140 km (87 mi) from the twin-coned volcano of Mount Hasan. The eastern settlement forms a mound which would have risen about 20 m (66 ft) above the plain at the time of the latest Neolithic occupation. There is also a smaller settlement mound to the west and a Byzantine settlement a few hundred meters to the east. The prehistoric mound settlements were abandoned before the Bronze Age. A channel of the Çarşamba river once flowed between the two mounds, and the settlement was built on alluvial clay which may have been favourable for early agriculture.
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Çayönü
Coordinates: 38°12′59″N 39°43′35″E / 38.21639°N 39.72639°E / 38.21639; 39.72639
Çayönü is a Neolithic settlement in southern Turkey inhabited around 7200 to 6600 BC. It is located forty kilometres north-west of Diyarbakır, at the foot of the Taurus mountains. It lies near the Bogazcay, a tributary of the upper Tigris River and the Bestakot, an intermittent stream.
The first excavations were conducted by Robert John Braidwood between 1964 and 1978, and later between 1985 and 1991. The settlement covers the periods of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), and the Pottery Neolithic (PN).
The stratigraphy is divided into the following subphases according to the dominant architecture:
Çayönü is possibly the place where the pig (Sus scrofa) was first domesticated. The wild fauna include wild boar, wild sheep, wild goat and cervids. The Neolithic environment included marshes and swamps near the Bogazcay, open wood, patches of steppe and almond-pistachio forest-steppe to the south.
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Çukurova
Çukurova (Turkish pronunciation: [tʃukuɾova]), historically known as Cilicia, is a geographic, economic and cultural region in south-central Turkey, covering the provinces of Mersin, Adana, Osmaniye and Hatay. With a population of 5.74 million, it is one of the largest population concentrations in Turkey.
Çukurova in Turkish means roughly "Low Plain", çukur for "depression", ova for "plains". The region starts from Anamur at the west, extending east along the Mediterranean, stretching as far north as Tufanbeyli, wrapping around Gulf of İskenderun, turning south at Erzin and finally terminating at Yayladağı on the border of Syria. The core area is Çukurova plain (formerly Cilicia Pedia), covering the area of Mersin on the west, Kozan on the north, Osmaniye on the east and the Mediterranean on the south. Adana-Mersin Metropolitan Area is the business and cultural center of Çukurova.
Most of the Çukurova region is a large stretch of flat, fertile land which is among the most agriculturally productive areas of the world. Throughout history, Çukurova was a gateway from Europe to the Middle East and, being the shortest access point to the Mediterranean from the northern Middle East and Central Asia, it is a transportation hub, with its two major seaports and oil terminal.
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Albanians
Albanians (Albanian: Shqiptarët) are an ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. In the context of an ethnicity, they are commonly referred to as ethnic Albanians to distinguish the group from the use of the term Albanians as referring to citizens of Albania. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo. The Albanian diaspora also exists in a number of other countries.
While the exonym Albania for the general region inhabited by the Albanians does hark back to Classical Antiquity, the name was lost within the Albanian language, the Albanian endonym being shqiptar, from the term for the Albanian language, shqip, a derivation of the verb shqiptoj "to utilize a correct Albanian pronunciation ". This theory pertains to Hahn and it holds that perhaps the word is ultimately a loan from Latin excipio. Thus, the Albanian endonym, like Slav and others, is in origin a term for "those who speak [intelligibly, the same language]". However another plausible theory has been advanced by Maximilian Lambertz to explain the endonym as derived from the Albanian noun shqype or shqiponjë (eagle), which, according to Albanian folk etymology, denoted a bird totem dating from the times of Skanderbeg, as displayed on the Albanian flag.
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Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon (20/21 July 356 – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great (Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Μέγας, Aléxandros ho Mégas from the Greek αλέξω alexo "to defend, help" + ανήρ aner "man"), was a king of Macedon, a state in northern ancient Greece. Born in Pella in 356 BC, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle until the age of 16. By the age of thirty, he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from the Ionian Sea to the Himalayas. He was undefeated in battle and is considered one of history's most successful commanders.
Alexander succeeded his father, Philip II of Macedon, to the throne in 336 BC after Philip was assassinated. Upon Philip's death, Alexander inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army. He was awarded the generalship of Greece and used this authority to launch his father's military expansion plans. In 334 BC, he invaded Persian-ruled Asia Minor and began a series of campaigns that lasted ten years. Alexander broke the power of Persia in a series of decisive battles, most notably the battles of Issus and Gaugamela. He subsequently overthrew the Persian King Darius III and conquered the entirety of the Persian Empire. At that point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River.
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Arameans
The Arameans, or Aramaeans[pronunciation?] (Aramaic: ארמיא; ʼaramáyé) were a Northwest Semitic semi-nomadic and pastoralist people who originated in what is now modern Syria (Biblical Aram) during the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Large groups migrated to Mesopotamia where they intermingled with the native Akkadian (Assyrian and Babylonian) population.
The Arameans never had a unified nation; they were divided into small independent kingdoms across parts of the Near East, particularly in what is now modern Syria. After the Bronze Age collapse, their political influence was confined to a number of Syro-Hittite states, which were entirely absorbed into the Neo-Assyrian Empire by the 8th century BC.
By contrast, the Aramaic language came to be the lingua franca of the entire Fertile Crescent, by Late Antiquity developing into the literary languages such as Syriac and Mandaic. Scholars even have used the term "Aramaization" for the process by which the Akkadian/Assyro-Babylonian peoples became Aramaic-speaking during the later Iron Age.
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Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians (Armenian: հայեր, Armenian pronunciation: [hɑˈjɛɾ]) are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.
The largest concentration is in Armenia, having a nearly homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian. Because of wide-ranging and long-lasting diaspora, an estimated total of 3 million people of full or partial Armenian ancestry live outside of Armenia. As a result of the Armenian Genocide, a large number of survivors fled to many countries throughout the world, most notably the Russian Empire, the Near East, the United States, France, Iran, Georgia and other parts of Europe (see Armenian diaspora).
Christianity began to spread in Armenia soon after Jesus's death, due to the efforts of two of his apostles, St. Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew In the early 4th century, the Kingdom of Armenia became the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion. Most Armenians adhere to the Armenian Apostolic Church, a non-Chalcedonian church, which is also the world's oldest national church.
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Assyrian people
The Assyrian people, most commonly known as Assyrians and other later names, such as: Chaldeans, Syrians, Syriacs (see names of Syriac Christians), are a distinct ethnic group whose origins lie in ancient Mesopotamia. They are Eastern Aramaic speaking Semites who trace their ancestry back to the Sumero-Akkadian civilisation that emerged in Mesopotamia circa 4000- 3500 BC, and in particular to the northern region of the Akkadian lands, which would become known as Assyria by the 24th Century BC. The Assyrian nation existed as an independent state, and often a powerful empire, from the 24th century BC until the end of the 7th century BC.
Today that ancient territory is part of several nations; Assyria remained a Geo-political entity after its fall, and was ruled as an occupied province under the rule of various empires from the late 7th century BC until the mid 7th century AD when it was dissolved, and the Assyrian people have gradually become a minority in their homelands since that time. They are indigenous to, and have traditionally lived all over what is now Iraq, north east Syria, north west Iran, and Southeastern Turkey. They are predominantly Christian.
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Bosnians
Bosnians (Bosnian: Bosanci) are people who reside in, or come from, Bosnia and Herzegovina. By modern state definition, a Bosnian can be anyone who holds citizenship of the state. This includes, but is not limited to, members of the constituent ethnic groups of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosniaks, Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats. Those who reside in the geographical region of Herzegovina prefer to call themselves Herzegovinians in a localized, regional sense. Ethnic minorities such as Jews, Roma, Albanians, Montenegrins and others may consider Bosnian to be attached to their ethnicity (e.g. Bosnian Albanians).
In addition, there is a sizable population in Bosnia and Herzegovina who believe that Bosnians are a people that constitute a distinct collective cultural identity.
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Caria
Caria ([pronunciation?]; or Karia) (from Luwian Karuwa meaning "steep country", Ancient Greek, Καρία) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionian and Dorian Greeks colonized the west of it and joined the Carian population in forming Greek-dominated states there. The eponymous inhabitants of Caria were known as Carians, and they had arrived in Caria before the Greeks. They were described by Herodotos as being of Minoan descent, while the Carians themselves maintained that they were Anatolian mainlanders intensely engaged in seafaring and were akin to the Mysians and the Lydians. The Carians did speak an Anatolian language, which does not necessarily reflect their geographic origin, as Anatolian once may have been widespread. Also closely associated with the Carians were the Leleges, which could be an earlier name for Carians or for a people who had preceded them in the region and continued to exist as part of their society in a reputedly second-class status.
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Carl Ritter
Carl Ritter (August 7, 1779 – September 28, 1859) was a German geographer. Along with Alexander von Humboldt, he is considered one of the founders of modern geography. From 1825 until his death, he occupied the first chair in geography at the University of Berlin.
Ritter was born in Quedlinburg, one of the six children of a well-respected doctor, F. W. Ritter.
Ritter's father died when he was two. At the age of five, he was enrolled in the Schnepfenthal Salzmann School, a school focused on the study of nature (apparently influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau's writings on children's education). This experience would influence Ritter throughout his life, as he retained an interest in new educational modes, including those of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Indeed, much of Ritter's writing was based on Pestalozzi's three stages in teaching: the acquisition of the material, the general comparison of material, and the establishment of a general system.
After completion of his schooling, Ritter was introduced to Bethmann Hollweg, a banker in Frankfurt. It was arranged that Ritter should become tutor to Hollweg's children, but that in the meantime he should attend the University of Halle at his patron's expense. His duties as tutor began in 1798 and continued for fifteen years. The years 1814–1819, which he spent at Göttingen in order still to watch over his pupils, were those in which he began to exclusively study geography. It was there that where he courted and married Lilli Kramer, from Duderstadt and that he wrote and published the first two volumes of his Erdkunde.
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Christopher Howgego
Professor Christopher Howgego is a British numismatist and classicist, who lectures on Ancient Greek and Roman numismatics at Oxford University. He is also the assistant keeper of the Herberden coin room at the Ashmolean museum.
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Culture of Turkey
The culture of Turkey combines a heavily diverse and heterogeneous set of elements that have been derived from the Byzantine, Ottoman, European, Middle Eastern and Central Asian traditions. Turkey's former status as a multiethnic empire which, de facto until the loss of Libya to the Kingdom of Italy in 1912 (and de jure until the official loss of Egypt and Sudan to the British Empire in 1914, as a consequence of the Ottoman government's decision to join the First World War on the side of the Central Powers) spanned three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa. The present-day Republic of Turkey, which succeeded the Ottoman state in 1923, is still a transcontinental country that spans Europe and Asia.
The nation was modernized primarily by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk starting from 1923. As he transformed a religion-driven former Ottoman Empire into a modern nation-state with a strong separation of state and religion, a corresponding increase in the methods of artistic expression arose. During the first years of the republic, the government invested a large amount of resources into fine arts such as paintings, sculpture and architecture. This was done as both a process of modernization and of creating a cultural identity. Because of the different historical factors defining the Turkish identity, the culture of Turkey combines clear efforts to be "modern" and Western, with a desire to maintain traditional religious and historical values.
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Galatia
Ancient Galatia ( /ɡəˈleɪʃə/; Greek: Γαλατία) was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Galatia was named for the immigrant Gauls from Thrace (cf. Tylis), who settled here and became its ruling caste in the 3rd century BC, following the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC. It has been called the "Gallia" of the East, Roman writers calling its inhabitants Galli (Gaul or Celt). The Galateans themselves were not literate, and their name for themselves remains unknown.
Galatia was bounded on the north by Bithynia and Paphlagonia, on the east by Pontus and Cappadocia, on the south by Cilicia and Lycaonia, and on the west by Phrygia. Its capital was Ancyra (i.e. Ankara, today the capital of modern Turkey ).
Seeing something of a Hellenized savage in the Galatians, Francis Bacon and other Renaissance writers called them "Gallo-Graeci", "Gauls settled among the Greeks" and the country "Gallo-Graecia", as had the 3rd century AD Latin historian Justin. The more usual term in Antiquity is Ἑλληνογαλάται (Hellēnogalátai) of Diodorus Siculus' Biblioteca historica v.32.5, in a passage that is translated "...and were called Gallo-Graeci because of their connection with the Greeks", identifying Galatia in the Greek East as opposed to Gallia in the West.
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Georgian people
The Georgians (Georgian: ქართველები, kartvelebi) are Caucasian ethnic group that have originated in Georgia, where they constitute a majority of the population. Large Georgian communities are also present throughout Russia, European Union, United States, and South America.
The majority of Georgians are Eastern Orthodox Christian and largely adhere to the national autocephalous Georgian Orthodox Church, which originated in the 4th century. There are also Georgian Catholic and Muslim communities in Tbilisi and Adjara.
The Georgian people went through a complex process of nation-formation and currently comprise a diverse set of geographic subgroups, each with its characteristic traditions, manners, dialect and, in the case of Mingrelians and Svans, language. The Georgian language, with its own alphabet and long written tradition going back to the 5th century, is the language of literacy and education of all Georgians living in Georgia as well as the official language of the country. Georgian, Mingrelian and Svan, together with Laz spoken by the related Laz people form the Kartvelian language family.
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Gerardus Mercator
Gerardus Mercator[pronunciation?] (born 5 March 1512 in Rupelmonde in the Hapsburg County of Flanders, Holy Roman Empire, died 2 December 1594 in Duisburg, United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, Holy Roman Empire) was a cartographer. He is remembered for the Mercator projection world map, which is named after him. This proved very useful to many later navigators who could (using his map) sail across the entire ocean on approximately straight paths (called rhumb lines). He died in Duisburg.
Mercator was born Gerard de gemor or de Cremer in the Flemish town of Rupelmonde to parents from Gangelt in the Duchy of Jülich, where he was raised. "Mercator" is the Latinized form of his name. It means "merchant". He was educated in 's-Hertogenbosch by the famous humanist Macropedius and at the University of Leuven. Despite Mercator's fame as a cartographer, his main source of income came through his craftsmanship of mathematical instruments. In Leuven, he worked with Gemma Frisius and Gaspar Myrica from 1535 to 1536 to construct a terrestrial globe, although the role of Mercator in the project was not primarily as a cartographer, but rather as a highly skilled engraver of brass plates. Mercator's own independent map-making began only when he produced a map of Palestine in 1537; this map was followed by another—a map of the world (1538) – and a map of Flanders (1540). During this period he learned Italic script because it was the most suitable type of script for copper engraving of maps. He wrote the first instruction book of Italic script published in northern Europe.
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Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes (Greek: Ἕλληνες, [ˈelines]), are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and other regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world.
Greek colonies and communities have been historically established in most corners of the Mediterranean, but Greeks have always been centered around the Aegean Sea, where the Greek language has been spoken since antiquity. Until the early 20th century, Greeks were uniformly distributed between the Greek peninsula, the western coast of Asia Minor, Pontus, Egypt, Cyprus and Constantinople; many of these regions coincided to a large extent with the borders of the Byzantine Empire of the late 11th century and the Eastern Mediterranean areas of the ancient Greek colonization.
In the aftermath of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), a large-scale population exchange between Greece and Turkey transferred and confined Christians from Turkey, except Constantinople (effectively ethnic Greeks) into the borders of the modern Greek state and Cyprus. Other ethnic Greek populations can be found from southern Italy to the Caucasus and in diaspora communities in a number of other countries. Today, most Greeks are officially registered as members of the Greek Orthodox Church.
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Herodotus
Herodotus ( /hɨˈrɒdətəs/; Ancient Greek: Ἡρόδοτος Hēródotos) was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria (modern day Bodrum, Turkey) and lived in the fifth century BC (circa 484 – 425 BC). He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a well-constructed and vivid narrative.The Histories—his masterpiece and the only work he is known to have produced—is a record of his "inquiry" (or ἱστορία historía, a word that passed into Latin and acquired its modern meaning of "history"), being an investigation of the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars and including a wealth of geographical and ethnographical information. Although some of his stories were fanciful, he claimed he was reporting only what had been told to him. Little is known of his personal history.
The Histories, otherwise known as The Researches or The Inquiries, were divided by later Alexandrian editors into nine books, named after the nine Muses: the "Muse of History", Clio, representing the first book, then Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polymnia, Ourania and Calliope for books 2 to 9, respectively. At its simplest and broadest level of meaning, The Histories is structured as a dynastic history of four Persian kings:
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Hittites
The Hittites were a Bronze Age Indo-European speaking people of Anatolia. They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c. the 14th century BC, encompassing a large part of Anatolia, north-western Syria about as far south as the mouth of the Litani River (in present-day Lebanon), and eastward into upper Mesopotamia. The Hittite military made successful use of chariots. By the mid-14th century BC (under king Suppiluliuma I), they had carved out an empire that included most of Asia Minor as well as parts of the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia. After c. 1180 BC, the empire disintegrated into several independent "Neo-Hittite" city-states, some surviving until the 8th century BC.
Their Hittite language was a member of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. Natively, they referred to their land as Hatti, and to their language as Nesili (the language of Nesa). The conventional name "Hittites" is due to their initial identification with the Biblical Hittites in 19th century archaeology. Despite the use of "Hatti", the Hittites should be distinguished from the Hattians, an earlier people who inhabited the same region until the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, and spoke a non-Indo-European language known as Hattic.
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Ionians
The Ionians (Greek: Ἴωνες, Íōnes, singular Ἴων, Íōn) were one of the four major Greek tribes into which the Classical Greeks considered the population of Hellenes to have been divided (along with the Dorians, Aeolians and Achaeans). The Ionian dialect was one of the three major linguistic divisions of the Hellenic world, together with the Dorian and Aeolian.
"Ionian" with reference to populations had several senses in Classical Greece. In the narrowest sense, it was used of the region of Ionia in Asia Minor. In a more broad sense, it could be used to describe all speakers of the Ionic dialect, which also included the populations of Euboea, the Cyclades and many colonies founded by Ionian colonists. Finally, in the broadest sense, it could be used to describe all those who spoke languages of the East Greek group, which included Attic.
The foundation myth which was current in the Classical period suggested that the Ionians were named after Ion, son of Xuthus, and lived in the north Peloponnesian region of Aegilaus. When the Dorians invaded the Peloponnese and expelled the Achaeans from the Argolid and Lacedaemonia, the Achaeans moved into Aegilaus (henceforth known as Achaea), and the Ionians were in turn expelled. The Ionians went to Attica and mingled with the population there, before many people finally emigrated to the coast of Asia Minor, founding the historical region of Ionia.
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Jews
The Jews (Hebrew: יְהוּדִים ISO 259-3 Yhudim Israeli pronunciation [jehuˈdim]), also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and an ethnoreligious group, originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation.Converts to Judaism, whose status as Jews within the Jewish ethnos is equal to those born into it, have been absorbed into the Jewish people throughout the millennia.
In Jewish tradition, Jewish ancestry is traced to the Biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the second millennium BCE. The modern State of Israel defines itself as a Jewish state in its Basic Laws, and Israel's Law of Return states: "Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh." Israel is the only country where Jews are a majority of the population. Jews achieved political autonomy twice before in ancient history. The first of these periods lasted from 1350 to 586 BCE, and encompassed the periods of the Judges, the United Monarchy, and the Divided Monarchy of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, ending with the destruction of the First Temple. The second was the period of the Hasmonean Kingdom spanning from 140 to 37 BCE. Since the destruction of the First Temple, most Jews have lived in diaspora. A minority in every country in which they live (except Israel), they have frequently experienced persecution throughout history, resulting in a population that has fluctuated both in numbers and distribution over the centuries.
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Laz people
The Laz (Lazi (ლაზი) or Lazepe (ლაზეფე) in Laz; Lazlar in Turkish; Lazi (ლაზი) or Č’ani (ჭანი) in Georgian) are an ethnic group native to the Black Sea coastal regions of Turkey and Georgia. One of the chief tribes of ancient kingdom of Colchis, the Laz were initially early adopters of Christianity, and most of them subsequently converted to Sunni Islam during Ottoman rule of Caucasus in the 16th century.
The Laz of Turkey form two principal groups. One of these is indigenous to the eastern Black Sea province formerly known as Lazistan (modern Rize and Artvin provinces). The other group fled the Russian expansion later in the 19th century and settled in Adapazarı, Sapanca, Yalova and Bursa, in western and eastern parts of the Black Sea and Marmara regions, respectively. The Laz speak the Laz language, related to Mingrelian, Georgian and Svan (Kartvelian languages). Laz identity in Georgia has largely merged with a Georgian identity and the meaning of "Laz" is seen as merely a regional category, and are mainly concentrated in Ajaria.
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Lezgian people
The Lezgians (Lezgian: лезгияр, lezgiyar, Russian: лезгины, lezginy; also called Lezgins, Lezgi, Lezgis, Lezgs, Lezgin) are an ethnic group living predominantly in southern Dagestan and northeastern Azerbaijan and who speak the Lezgian language.
The question of origin of the ethnonym lezgin still requires a more in-depth and comprehensive analysis. Nevertheless, most researchers displays the ethnonym lezgi of the ancient legi and early medieval lakzi.
In the 4th century BC, the numerous tribes speaking Lezgic languages, which is part of the Nakh-Dagestan family of languages, united in a union of 26 tribes, formed in the Eastern Caucasus state of Caucasian Albania, which existed before the 8th century BC. Under the influence of foreign invaders Caucasian Albania was divided into several areas - Lakzi, Shirvan, etc.
At the beginning of the 18th century in eastern Transcaucasia began anti-Persian uprising by the Lezgins and other peoples of Dagestan and Azerbaijan. Under the leadership of Haji Dawood Myushkyurskogo (r. 1721-1728 ) In the vast territory of Shirvan was created Lezgin State Khanate with its capital in Shemakha
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Lydia
Lydia (Assyrian: Luddu; Greek: Λυδία) was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkish provinces of Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian.
At its greatest extent, the Kingdom of Lydia covered all of western Anatolia. Lydia (known as Sparda by the Achaemenids) was a satrapy (province) of the Achaemenid Empire, with Sardis as its capital. Tabalus, appointed by Cyrus the Great, was the first satrap (governor). (See: Lydia (satrapy)).
Lydia was later the name for a Roman province. Coins are thought to have been invented in Lydia around the 7th century BC.
The endonym Śfard (the name the Lydians called themselves) survives in bilingual and trilingual stone-carved notices of the Achaemenid Empire: the satrapy of Sparda (Old Persian), Aramaic Saparda, Babylonian Sapardu, Elamitic Išbarda. These in the Greek tradition are associated with Sardis, the capital city of Gyges, constructed in the 7th century BC.
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Medes
The Medes (/midz/) (from Old Persian Māda-) were an ancient Iranian people who lived in Iran in an area known as Media and spoke a northwestern Iranian language referred to as the Median language. Their arrival to the region is associated with the first wave of Iranian tribes in the late second millennium BCE (the Bronze Age collapse) through the beginning of the first millennium BCE.
In the 7th century BCE a unified Median state was formed which together with Babylonia, Lydia, and Egypt became one of the four major powers of the ancient Near East. An alliance with the Babylonians helped the Medes to capture Nineveh in 612 BCE which resulted in the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Medes were subsequently able to establish their Median kingdom (with Ecbatana as their royal centre) beyond their original homeland (central-western Iran) and had eventually a territory stretching roughly from northeastern Iran to the Halys River in Anatolia. The Median kingdom was conquered in 550 BCE by Cyrus the Great who established the next Iranian dynasty—the Achaemenid Empire.
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Orhan I
Orhan I or Orhan Bey (Ottoman: اورخان غازی, Orhan Gazi; 1281, Sogut – March 1361, Bursa) was the second bey of the nascent Ottoman Empire (then known as the Ottoman Beylik or Emirate) from 1326 to 1359. He was the son of Osman I and Malhun Hatun, the daughter of Abdulaziz Bey.
In the early stages of his reign, Orhan focused his energies on conquering most of northwestern Anatolia. The majority of these areas were under Byzantine rule and he won his first battle, at Pelekanon, against the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos. Orhan also occupied the lands of the Karasids of Balıkesir and the Ahis of Ankara.
A series of civil wars surrounding the ascension of the nine-year-old emperor John V benefited Orhan greatly. In the first, the regent John Kantakouzenos married his daughter Theodora to Orhan and employed Ottoman warriors against the rival forces of the queen dowager, allowing them to loot Thrace. In the second, Kantakouzenos used Ottoman forces against John V himself, granting them the use of a European fortress at Çimpe around 1352. A major earthquake devastated Gallipoli (modern Gelibolu) two years later and Orhan's son Suleyman Pasha occupied the town, giving the Ottomans a strong bridgehead into mainland Europe.
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Osman I
Osman I or Othman I or El-Gazi[citation needed] (1258 – 1326) Ottoman Turkish: سلطان عثمان غازى Sultan Osman Ghazi, Turkish: Osman Gazi or Osman Bey or I. Osman, Osman Gazi Han), nicknamed "Kara" for his courage, was the leader of the Ottoman Turks, and the founder of the dynasty that established and ruled the Ottoman Empire. The Empire, named after him, would prevail as a world empire for over six centuries.
Osman announced the independence of his own small kingdom from the Seljuk Turks in 1299. The westward drive of the Mongol invasions had pushed scores of Muslims toward Osman's Anatolian principality, a power base that Osman was quick to consolidate. As the Byzantine Empire declined, the Ottoman Empire rose to take its place.
Ertuğrul, Osman's father, led the Turkic Kayi tribe west into Anatolia, fleeing the Mongol onslaught. His mother was named Khaima. He pledged allegiance to Sultan Kayqubad I of the Seljuk principality of Rum, who gave him permission to establish an emirate and expand it if he could, at the expense of the neighboring Byzantine provinces.
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Phrygia
In antiquity, Phrygia ( /ˈfrɪdʒiə/; Greek: Φρυγία, Ancient Greek: [pʰryɡía]) Turkish: Frigya) was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now modern-day Turkey, centered around the Sakarya River.
The Phrygians are most famous for their legendary kings of the heroic age of Greek mythology: Gordias whose Gordian Knot would later be untied by Alexander the Great, Midas who turned whatever he touched to gold, and Mygdon who warred with the Amazons. According to Homer's Iliad, the Phrygians were close allies of the Trojans and participants in the Trojan War against the Achaeans. Phrygian power reached its zenith in the late 8th century BC under another, historical King Midas, who dominated most of western and central Anatolia and rivaled Assyria and Urartu for power in eastern Anatolia. This later Midas was however also the last independent king of Phrygia before its capital Gordium was sacked by Cimmerians around 695 BC. Phrygia then became subject to Lydia, and then successively to Persia, Alexander and his Hellenistic successors, Pergamon, Rome and Byzantium. Phrygians were gradually assimilated into other cultures by the early medieval era, and the name Phrygia passed out of usage as a territorial designation after the Turkish conquest of Anatolia.
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Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy ( /ˈtɒləmi/; Greek: Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος, Klaudios Ptolemaios; Latin: Claudius Ptolemaeus; c. AD 90 – c. AD 168), was a Greek-Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the Thebaid. This theory, proposed by Theodore Meliteniotes, could be correct, but it is late (ca. 1360) and unsupported. There is no reason to suppose that he ever lived anywhere else than Alexandria, where he died around AD 168.
Ptolemy was the author of several scientific treatises, at least three of which were of continuing importance to later Islamic and European science. The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest (in Greek, Ἡ Μεγάλη Σύνταξις, "The Great Treatise", originally Μαθηματικὴ Σύνταξις, "Mathematical Treatise"). The second is the Geography, which is a thorough discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. The third is the astrological treatise known sometimes in Greek as the Apotelesmatika (Ἀποτελεσματικά), more commonly in Greek as the Tetrabiblos (Τετράβιβλος "Four books"), and in Latin as the Quadripartitum (or four books) in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day.
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Richard Chorley
Richard John Chorley (4 September 1927 - 12 May 2002) was a leading figure in the late 20th century for his work in quantitative geography, and played an instrumental role in bringing in the use of systems theory to geography.
Chorley grew up in south-west England in an area known as the West Country, with roots in Exmoor and the Vale of Taunton Deane. He was a product of a local primary school and Minehead Grammar School. Later on, Chorley began studying Geomorphology as an undergraduate at the School of Geography at Oxford, where he went up to Exeter College after service with the Royal Engineers. Here he was greatly influenced by R.P. Beckinsale, who advised Chorley to go on to graduate study in the United States. He made a transatlantic move in 1951 as a Fulbright Scholar to Columbia University where he was a graduate student in the Geology Department and explored the quantitative approach to land form evolution.
In 1957, Chorley's academic career at Columbia, and subsequently Brown University, was interrupted by the need to return to Britain for family reasons. He was soon appointed a Demonstrator at Cambridge University and proceeded to move rapidly up the university hierarchy with a readership in 1970 and ad hominem chair in 1974. Cambridge provided the launching pad for Chorley's revolutionary ideas. He rejected the prevailing paradigm of the Davisian cycles of erosion and sought to replace these with a quantitative model-based paradigm with an emphasis on General Systems Theory and numerical modelling.
wn.com/Richard_Chorley -
Rumi
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (Persian: جلالالدین محمد بلخى Persian pronunciation: [dʒælɒːlæddiːn mohæmmæde bælxiː]), also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (جلالالدین محمد رومی Persian pronunciation: [dʒælɒːlæddiːn mohæmmæde ɾuːmiː]) and popularly known as Mevlānā in Turkey and Mawlānā (Persian: مولانا Persian pronunciation: [moulɒːnɒː]) in Iran and Afghanistan but known to the English-speaking world simply as Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273) was a 13th-century PersianMuslim poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic.Rūmī is a descriptive name meaning "Roman" since he lived most of his life in an area called "Rûm" (then under the control of Seljuq dynasty) because it was once ruled by the Eastern Roman Empire. He was one of the figures who flourished in the Sultanate of Rum.
It is likely that he was born in the village of Wakhsh, a small town located at the river Wakhsh in Persia (in what is now Tajikistan). Wakhsh belonged to the larger province of Balkh, and in the year Rumi was born, his father was an appointed scholar there. Both these cities were at the time included in the greater Persian cultural sphere of Khorasan, the easternmost province of Persia and was part of the Khwarezmian Empire.
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Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicholas (Greek: Ἅγιος Νικόλαος, Hagios ["Saint", literally "Holy", Latin: Sanctus] Nicolaos ["victory of the people"]) (270 – 6 December 343), also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century saint and Greek Bishop of Myra (Demre, part of modern-day Turkey) in Lycia. Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker (Νικόλαος ὁ Θαυματουργός, Nikolaos ho Thaumaturgos). He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, and thus became the model for Santa Claus, whose modern name comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas, itself from a series of elisions and corruptions of the transliteration of "Saint Nikolaos". His reputation evolved among the faithful, as was common for early Christian saints. In 1087, part of the relics (about half of the bones) were furtively translated to Bari, in southeastern Italy; for this reason, he is also known as Nikolaos of Bari. The remaining bones were taken to Venice in 1100. His feastday is 6 December [O.S. 19 December].
wn.com/Saint_Nicholas -
Sargon of Akkad
Sargon of Akkad, also known as Sargon the Great "the Great King" (Akkadian Šarru-kīnu, meaning "the true king" or "the king is legitimate"), was a Semitic Akkadian emperor famous for his conquest of the Sumerian city-states in the 23rd and 22nd centuries BC. The founder of the Dynasty of Akkad, Sargon reigned in the last quarter of the third millennium BC. He became a prominent member of the royal court of Kish, killing the king and usurping his throne before embarking on the quest to conquer Mesopotamia. He was originally referred to as Sargon I until records concerning an Assyrian king also named Sargon (now usually referred to as Sargon I) were unearthed.
Sargon's vast empire is thought to have included large parts of Mesopotamia, and included parts of modern-day Iran, Asia Minor and Syria. He ruled from a new, but as yet archaeologically unidentified capital, Akkad (Agade), which the Sumerian king list claims he built (or possibly renovated). He is sometimes regarded as the first person in recorded history to create a multiethnic, centrally ruled empire, although the Sumerians Lugal-anne-mundu and Lugal-zage-si also have a claim. His dynasty controlled Mesopotamia for around a century and a half.
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Seven Sleepers
The Seven Sleepers, commonly called the "Seven Sleepers of Ephesus", refers to a group of Christian youths who hid inside a cave outside the city of Ephesus around 250 AD, to escape a persecution of Christians being conducted during the reign of the Roman emperor Decius. Having fallen asleep inside the cave, they purportedly awoke approximately 150-200 years later during the reign of Theodosius II, following which they were reportedly seen by the people of the now-Christian city before dying. An outline of this tale appears in Gregory of Tours (b. 538, d. 594), and in Paul the Deacon's (b. 720, d. 799) History of the Lombards. The best-known Western version of the story appears in Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend.
The story has its highest prominence, however, in the Muslim world; it is told in the Qur'an (Surah 18, verse 9-26). While not giving the number of youths involved, the Quranic rendering of the Seven Sleepers story largely parallels the Christian account. Unlike the Christian story, the Islamic version includes a dog who allegedly accompanied the youths into the cave, and kept watch at the entrance for the entire time[citation needed] (see Islamic interpretation). In Islam, these youths are referred to as "The People of the Cave". It represents one of the trials of Muhammad by the Jewish elders of Madina while he was in Makkah; by explaining this mystery to his followers, Muhammad would confirm his being a Prophet of God.
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Tatars
Tatars (Tatar: Tatarlar / Татарлар, sometimes spelled Tartars) are a Turkic people, numbering around 7 million. The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of 5.5 million, 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan, 1 million in the republic of Bashkortostan and other 2.5 million in different regions of Russia. Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine.
The Tatars originated with the Tatar confederation in the north-eastern Gobi desert in the 5th century. After subjugation in the 9th century by the Khitans, they migrated southward. In the 13th century Mongol Empire, they were subjugated under Genghis Khan and reassigned once again particularly by his son Jochi. Under the leadership of his grandson Batu Khan, they moved westwards, forming part of the Golden Horde which dominated the Eurasian steppe during the 14th and 15th centuries. In Europe, they were assimilated by the local populations or their name spread to the conquered peoples: Kipchaks, Kimaks and others; and elsewhere with Uralic-speaking peoples, as well as with remnants of the ancient Greek colonies in the Crimea and Caucasians in the Caucasus.
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Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are a collection of ethnic groups that live in northern, central and western Asia, northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds. The term Turkic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people including existing societies such as the Turkish, Azerbaijani, Chuvashes, Kazakhs, Tatars, Kyrgyzs, Turkmens, Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Bashkirs, Qashqai, Gagauzs, Yakuts, Crimean Karaites, Krymchaks, Karakalpaks, Karachays, Nogais and as well as past civilizations such as the Göktürks, Kumans, Kipchaks, Avars, Bulgars, Turgeshes, Khazars, Seljuk Turks, Ottoman Turks, Mamluks, Timurids and possibly Huns and the Xiongnu.
The distribution of people of Turkic cultural background ranges from Siberia, across Central Asia, to Eastern Europe. As of 2011[update] the largest groups of Turkic people live throughout Central Asia—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan, in addition to Turkey and Iran. Additionally, Turkic people are found within Crimea, East Turkistan region of western China, northern Iraq, Pakistan, Israel, Russia, Afghanistan, and the Balkans: Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania, and former Yugoslavia. A small number of Turkic people also live in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Small numbers inhabit eastern Poland and the south-eastern part of Finland. There are also considerable populations of Turkic people (originating mostly from Turkey) in Germany, United States, and Australia, largely because of migrations during the 20th century.
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Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" (Turkish: singular: Türk, plural: Türkler), are a nation and ethnic group primarily living in Turkey, and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities have been established in the Balkans, the island of Cyprus, the Levant, Meskhetia, and North Africa. The Turkish minorities are the second largest ethnic groups in Bulgaria and Cyprus. In addition, due to modern migration, a Turkish diaspora has been established, particularly in Western Europe (see Turks in Europe), where large communities have been formed in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. There are also Turkish communities living in Australia, the former Soviet Union and the United States.
Although Turkic languages may have been spoken as early as 600 BC, the name "Turk" first appeared in Chinese sources and derives from the term "Tujue" (T’u-chue), meaning "strong" or "powerful", which was used in the 6th century C.E. to refer to the Göktürks.
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Turkish population
The Turkish population refers to the number of Turkish people in the world.
wn.com/Turkish_population -
Turkmen people
The Turkmen (Turkmen: Türkmen/Түркмен, plural Türkmenler/Түркменлер) are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, Syria, Iraq and North Caucasus (Stavropol Krai). They speak the Turkmen language, which is classified as a part of the Western Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages family together with Turkish, Azerbaijani, Qashqai, Gagauz and Salar.
Originally, all Turkic tribes that were not part of the Turkic dynastic mythological system (for example, Uigurs, Karluks, Kalaches and a number of other tribes) were designated "Turkmens". Only later did this word come to refer to a specific ethnonym. The etymology of the term derives from Türk plus the Sogdian affix of similarity -myn ,-men, and means "resembling a Türk" or "co-Türk". A prominent Turkic scholar, Mahmud Kashgari, also mentions the etymology Türk manand (like Turks). The language and ethnicity of the Turkmen were much influenced by their migration to the west. Kashgari calls the Karluks Turkmen as well, but the first time the etymology Turkmen was used was by Makdisi in the second half of the 10th-century AD. Like Kashgari, he wrote that the Karluks and Oghuz Turks were called Turkmen. Some modern scholars have proposed that the element -man/-men acts as an intensifier, and have translated the word as "pure Turk" or "most Turk-like of the Turks". Among Muslim chroniclers such as Ibn Kathir the etymology was attributed to the mass conversion of two hundred thousand households in AH 349 (971 CE), causing them to be named Turk Iman, which is a combination of "Turk" and "Iman" إيمان (faith, belief), meaning "believing Turks", with the term later dropping the hard-to-pronounce hamza.
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Uyghur people
The Uyghurs (Uyghur: ئۇيغۇر, ULY: Uyghur; [ʔʊjˈʁʊː]; simplified Chinese: 维吾尔; traditional Chinese: 維吾爾; pinyin: Wéiwú'ěr) are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China. An estimated 80% of Xinjiang's Uyghurs live in the southwestern portion of the region, the Tarim Basin.
The largest community of Uyghurs outside Xinjiang in China is in Taoyuan County, in south-central Hunan province. Outside of China, significant diasporic communities of Uyghurs exist in the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Smaller communities are found in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkey.
Uyghur is often pronounced /ˈwiːɡər/ by English speakers, though the most acceptable English pronunciation is ooy-goor. Several alternate romanizations also appear: Uighur, Uygur and Uigur. The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region provincial government recommends that the generic ethnonym [ʔʊjˈʁʊː], adopted in the early 20th century for this Turkic people, be transcribed as "Uyghur".
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World War I
World War I (WWI), which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939 (World War II), and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. It involved all the world's great powers, which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and Russia) and the Central Powers (originally centred around the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy; but, as Austria–Hungary had taken the offensive against the agreement, Italy did not enter into the war). These alliances both reorganised (Italy fought for the Allies), and expanded as more nations entered the war. Ultimately more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history. More than 9 million combatants were killed, largely because of enormous increases in lethality of weapons, thanks to new technology, without corresponding improvements in protection or mobility. It was the sixth-deadliest conflict in world history, subsequently paving the way for various political changes such as revolutions in the nations involved.
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Zaza people
The Zazas, Kird, Kirmanc or Dimilis are an ethnic Iranic people whose native language is Zazaki spoken in eastern Anatolia. They primarily live in the eastern Anatolian provinces, such as Adıyaman, Aksaray, Batman, Bingöl, Diyarbakır, Elazığ, Erzurum, Erzincan, Gumushane, Kars, Malatya, Mus, Sanliurfa, Sivas, and Tunceli provinces. Almost all speakers of the Zaza language consider themselves as Kurds and they are often counted as such by international statistics and surveys as part of the Kurdish people.
The exact number of Zaza Kurds is unknown, due to the absence of recent and extensive census analyses. The fact that some Zazas have mixed into other regional ethnic groups has also contributed to the uncertainty. Many Zazas live outside their homeland. Apart from widespread suppression and mass evacuation of villages, the economically miserable situation of the Zaza areas forces the local population to emigrate to Turkish or European cities. There are many Zazas living in major Turkish cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir. Moreover, the Zaza diaspora is spread across Europe (mainly in Germany) and beyond (United States, Canada, etc.) According to estimated figures, the Zaza population should be somewhere between 1 to 2 million.
wn.com/Zaza_people
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2012)
Actors
Director
Won't you believe in the darkness I'm mournin
Blaze in the night is the sign of the warnin
You don't remember the pride you believed in
Now you're to reap the reward for deceivin
Won't you leave me alone in silence
I've been greevin for all this violence
Rain is my sorrow,wind is my sadness
Can't you see me with all your blindness
Anatolia, Anatolia
We were only receivin but we always believin
Anatolia, Anatolia
May be we'll change and always will save
And promise to never leave
Can you believe in the grief of a mourner
Blood in my veins feeds the seeds of a slaughter
Won't you leave me alone in silence
I've been greevin for all this violence
Rain is my sorrow,wind is my sadness
Can't you see me with all your blindness
Anatolia, Anatolia
We were only receivin but we always believin
Anatolia, Anatolia
May be we'll change and always will save
And promise to never leave
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Lost Songs of Anatolia - Trailer / A film by Nezih Unen
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:00
- Updated: 16 Jan 2013
LOST SONGS OF ANATOLIA a film by Nezih Unen Time: 97 min. (feature) Genre: Musical/Experimental/Documentary Int'l Sales Contact: info@nezihunen.com DVD and Soundtrack CD: Will be available Synopsis: A musical journey among exotic places and people of Anatolia, unique host of ancient civilizations of 10 millennia. While this journey is showing how music and culture is derived from life, geography and work, an exploration of Anatolias versatile cultures takes place on a basis of music, dance and rituals. With 350 hours of footage, more than 10000 km traveled, 133 recorded live performances and 20 modern arrangements made, Lost Songs of Anatolia may be the first example of a kind as a Musical/Experimental/Documentary film. www.LostSongsOfAnatolia.com To get news about the project, join the group: www.facebook.com You can download this trailer from the link: files.me.com
http://wn.com/Lost_Songs_of_Anatolia_Trailer_A_film_by_Nezih_Unen
LOST SONGS OF ANATOLIA a film by Nezih Unen Time: 97 min. (feature) Genre: Musical/Experimental/Documentary Int'l Sales Contact: info@nezihunen.com DVD and Soundtrack CD: Will be available Synopsis: A musical journey among exotic places and people of Anatolia, unique host of ancient civilizations of 10 millennia. While this journey is showing how music and culture is derived from life, geography and work, an exploration of Anatolias versatile cultures takes place on a basis of music, dance and rituals. With 350 hours of footage, more than 10000 km traveled, 133 recorded live performances and 20 modern arrangements made, Lost Songs of Anatolia may be the first example of a kind as a Musical/Experimental/Documentary film. www.LostSongsOfAnatolia.com To get news about the project, join the group: www.facebook.com You can download this trailer from the link: files.me.com
East & Southeast Anatolia - TURKEY
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:27
- Updated: 23 Aug 2012
East & Southeast Anatolia - TURKEY South & Southeast Anatolia This region is geographically the smallest region of Turkey representing only 9.7% of the total area of Turkey with its 75.000 square kilometers of land certainly not that small with respect to natural and historical beauties it possesses. This region of ancient cities, is adorned by attractive natural figures, constituting a real mixture of sights and past combined with originality. Thanks to GAP (Southeastern Anatolian Project) the area is having great changes positively; many farming lands and dam lakes were formed lately with this project. Valleys and Plateaus occupy large areas in the south of southeast Taurus mountains. Central part is very mountainous and eastern part is generally flat. Long summers are very hot and dry, with high evaporation, winters are cold and rainy. Although mountainous areas are affected by Continental climate, western part shows typical characteristics of Mediterranean climate. Southeastern Anatolia is the only region of Turkey where the country produces some oil. The economy is based also on stockbreeding and agriculture, main crops and products are; wheat, barley, lentil, tobacco, cotton, and pistachio nuts. Situated on the broad plain of upper Mesopotamia, Sanliurfa is one of these points, once being a city of 1001 nights and camel caravans. Then comes Diyarbakir with its wonderful architectural designs dates back to the Middle Ages. Here is the Malabadi Bridge presenting a ...
http://wn.com/East_Southeast_Anatolia_TURKEY
East & Southeast Anatolia - TURKEY South & Southeast Anatolia This region is geographically the smallest region of Turkey representing only 9.7% of the total area of Turkey with its 75.000 square kilometers of land certainly not that small with respect to natural and historical beauties it possesses. This region of ancient cities, is adorned by attractive natural figures, constituting a real mixture of sights and past combined with originality. Thanks to GAP (Southeastern Anatolian Project) the area is having great changes positively; many farming lands and dam lakes were formed lately with this project. Valleys and Plateaus occupy large areas in the south of southeast Taurus mountains. Central part is very mountainous and eastern part is generally flat. Long summers are very hot and dry, with high evaporation, winters are cold and rainy. Although mountainous areas are affected by Continental climate, western part shows typical characteristics of Mediterranean climate. Southeastern Anatolia is the only region of Turkey where the country produces some oil. The economy is based also on stockbreeding and agriculture, main crops and products are; wheat, barley, lentil, tobacco, cotton, and pistachio nuts. Situated on the broad plain of upper Mesopotamia, Sanliurfa is one of these points, once being a city of 1001 nights and camel caravans. Then comes Diyarbakir with its wonderful architectural designs dates back to the Middle Ages. Here is the Malabadi Bridge presenting a ...
- published: 20 Jan 2008
- views: 5178
- author: TekBayrakTurk
Mezarkabul - Anatolia
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:22
- Updated: 12 Jan 2013
Superb Turkish group & their superb song !!
http://wn.com/Mezarkabul_Anatolia
Superb Turkish group & their superb song !!
- published: 05 Sep 2006
- views: 27441
- author: angelaThewiTch
Cafe Anatolia The Voilent Coloured Mountains
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:36
- Updated: 29 Dec 2012
Ensturmantal
http://wn.com/Cafe_Anatolia_The_Voilent_Coloured_Mountains
Pentagram (Mezarkabul) - Anatolia (english ver.)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:11
- Updated: 10 Jan 2013
English version of Pentagram's Anatolia - off of the album of the same name. I actually prefer the turkish version, but since I couldn't find this version on youtube, I figured i'd share. Not to be confused with the american doom metal band of the same name. but if anyone has anything by *that* p3entagram, let me know.
http://wn.com/Pentagram_Mezarkabul_Anatolia_english_ver
English version of Pentagram's Anatolia - off of the album of the same name. I actually prefer the turkish version, but since I couldn't find this version on youtube, I figured i'd share. Not to be confused with the american doom metal band of the same name. but if anyone has anything by *that* p3entagram, let me know.
- published: 27 Aug 2008
- views: 15763
- author: greatmahoo
Cafe Anatolia - Dream's 2008 - Consuelo Luz - Yastayim
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:45
- Updated: 07 Jan 2013
Cafe Anatolia - Dream's 2008 - Consuelo Luz - Yastayim
http://wn.com/Cafe_Anatolia_Dream's_2008_Consuelo_Luz_Yastayim
Cafe Anatolia - Dream's 2008 - Consuelo Luz - Yastayim
- published: 28 May 2008
- views: 34403
- author: camlikule
Explore - Turkey - Istanbul & Anatolia 1 of 4 - BBC Travel Documentary
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 14:15
- Updated: 12 Jan 2013
Explore - Turkey - Istanbul & Anatolia 1 of 4 - BBC Travel Documentary, recorded 27.02.2011 Simon Reeve leads a team of journalists in a journey of discovery across Turkey. From the stunning mosques of Istanbul to the 'fairy chimneys' of Cappadocia and the forests of the Black Sea coast, Turkey is country of rich history and amazing landscapes. It is also a divided country where the pro-islamic government seems locked in conflict with the traditionally secular establishment, including the army, and where an armed conflict rumbles on with elements of the Kurdish minority in the South East. .
http://wn.com/Explore_Turkey_Istanbul_Anatolia_1_of_4_BBC_Travel_Documentary
Explore - Turkey - Istanbul & Anatolia 1 of 4 - BBC Travel Documentary, recorded 27.02.2011 Simon Reeve leads a team of journalists in a journey of discovery across Turkey. From the stunning mosques of Istanbul to the 'fairy chimneys' of Cappadocia and the forests of the Black Sea coast, Turkey is country of rich history and amazing landscapes. It is also a divided country where the pro-islamic government seems locked in conflict with the traditionally secular establishment, including the army, and where an armed conflict rumbles on with elements of the Kurdish minority in the South East. .
- published: 02 Apr 2011
- views: 33068
- author: RuniTravel
Concerto Anatolia
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:50
- Updated: 23 Nov 2012
A Guitar concerto written by David Hahn, featuring Turkish melodies and rhythms. The work is in Four movements, named Kocekce, Taksim, Bashraf and Medley, the last one featuring a medley of Turkish folksongs. The last movement includes a Cadenza by Cem Duruoz. The video is a summary of the 24 min work, performed by METU Dogus Youth Orchestra conducted by Umut Asil.
http://wn.com/Concerto_Anatolia
A Guitar concerto written by David Hahn, featuring Turkish melodies and rhythms. The work is in Four movements, named Kocekce, Taksim, Bashraf and Medley, the last one featuring a medley of Turkish folksongs. The last movement includes a Cadenza by Cem Duruoz. The video is a summary of the 24 min work, performed by METU Dogus Youth Orchestra conducted by Umut Asil.
- published: 30 Dec 2008
- views: 5663
- author: tuttimusic
The Fire of Anatolia
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:14
- Updated: 16 Jan 2013
The Fire of Anatolia also known as Sultans of the Dance are performing at Eurovision 2004 Song Contest Turkey. It starts with belly dance and ends with a folk dance which called "horon" from the black sea region of Turkey. UUUYyyyyyyy :))You can also hear some Turkish instruments such as; zurna, kemence(kemenche, an instrument like violin), tulum(bagpipe)... Sultans of the Dance también conocido como The Fire of Anatolia se está realizando en Eurovision Song Contest 2004 en Turquia. Usted puede también oír algunos instrumentos turcos por ejemplo; tulum, el zurna, kemence(un instrumento gusto del violín). Anadolu Atesi'nin Eurovision 2004'te sergiledigi gosteriden bir kesit. Asagidaki linkten videoyu indirebilirsiniz s1.upload.sc
http://wn.com/The_Fire_of_Anatolia
The Fire of Anatolia also known as Sultans of the Dance are performing at Eurovision 2004 Song Contest Turkey. It starts with belly dance and ends with a folk dance which called "horon" from the black sea region of Turkey. UUUYyyyyyyy :))You can also hear some Turkish instruments such as; zurna, kemence(kemenche, an instrument like violin), tulum(bagpipe)... Sultans of the Dance también conocido como The Fire of Anatolia se está realizando en Eurovision Song Contest 2004 en Turquia. Usted puede también oír algunos instrumentos turcos por ejemplo; tulum, el zurna, kemence(un instrumento gusto del violín). Anadolu Atesi'nin Eurovision 2004'te sergiledigi gosteriden bir kesit. Asagidaki linkten videoyu indirebilirsiniz s1.upload.sc
- published: 24 Jun 2006
- views: 660937
- author: TURKOMAN
Anatolia - Gözyaslarim
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:08
- Updated: 05 Jan 2013
http://wn.com/Anatolia_Gözyaslarim
Serci & Ilker Anatolia - Meryemti - (SRC Studios - Resmi Klip - 2011)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:38
- Updated: 13 Jan 2013
Serci ve Ilker Anatolia'nin ilk Albümü yakinda müzik marketlerinde. SRC Studios FFm/Nbg Müzigin ve türkce sözlerinin tüm telif haklari Serci ve Ilker'e aittir. Konser Menajerlik: Önder Balki: 0049 - 176 - 39035305 Klip'te emegi gecen tüm arkadaslara tesekkür ederiz. Song Production: Serci, SRC Studios (www.src-studios.de) Video Production: SRC Studios (www.src-studios.de) Camera/Director: Cemoka, Volkan Tural Editing/Cutter: Serdar Ünlüer (S-Production) Light/Power and Facility Management: Ilyas Balki, Volkan Tural Visagist: www.umua.de/start.html Bu eserin ilk yorumcusu, Mohamad Hussein'e saygilar. Proper respect to the first interpreter of this old arab song Mohamad Hussein.
http://wn.com/Serci_Ilker_Anatolia_Meryemti_SRC_Studios_Resmi_Klip_2011
Serci ve Ilker Anatolia'nin ilk Albümü yakinda müzik marketlerinde. SRC Studios FFm/Nbg Müzigin ve türkce sözlerinin tüm telif haklari Serci ve Ilker'e aittir. Konser Menajerlik: Önder Balki: 0049 - 176 - 39035305 Klip'te emegi gecen tüm arkadaslara tesekkür ederiz. Song Production: Serci, SRC Studios (www.src-studios.de) Video Production: SRC Studios (www.src-studios.de) Camera/Director: Cemoka, Volkan Tural Editing/Cutter: Serdar Ünlüer (S-Production) Light/Power and Facility Management: Ilyas Balki, Volkan Tural Visagist: www.umua.de/start.html Bu eserin ilk yorumcusu, Mohamad Hussein'e saygilar. Proper respect to the first interpreter of this old arab song Mohamad Hussein.
- published: 05 Nov 2010
- views: 569480
- author: sirgrecords
ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA trailer
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:37
- Updated: 16 Jan 2013
A film by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director of DISTANT and CLIMATES
http://wn.com/ONCE_UPON_A_TIME_IN_ANATOLIA_trailer
A film by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director of DISTANT and CLIMATES
- published: 09 Nov 2011
- views: 124281
- author: CinemaGuild
Cafe Anatolia - Ay Düşünce (Enstrümantal)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:54
- Updated: 12 Jan 2013
Cafe Anatolia - Ay Düşünce (Enstrümantal) - Fon Müzik - güzel bir fon müziği - Nurettin Rençber'in Ay Düşünce adli eseri - Hüzünlü, Kederli, Duygulu - Ay Düsünce fon müziği. Fon Müzik : Ay Düşünce - Nurettin Rençber Ay Düşünce Harika müzik keyfli dinlendirici sevgi
http://wn.com/Cafe_Anatolia_Ay_Düşünce_Enstrümantal
Cafe Anatolia - Ay Düşünce (Enstrümantal) - Fon Müzik - güzel bir fon müziği - Nurettin Rençber'in Ay Düşünce adli eseri - Hüzünlü, Kederli, Duygulu - Ay Düsünce fon müziği. Fon Müzik : Ay Düşünce - Nurettin Rençber Ay Düşünce Harika müzik keyfli dinlendirici sevgi
- published: 06 Jun 2009
- views: 230456
- author: AsiBirCan
Cafe Anatolia - Gülümcan (Enstrümantal)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:06
- Updated: 16 Jan 2013
Cafe Anatolia - Gülümcan (Enstrümantal) - Fon Müzik - Güzel Bir Fon Müzigi - Hüzünlü, Kederli, Duygulu.
http://wn.com/Cafe_Anatolia_Gülümcan_Enstrümantal
Cafe Anatolia - Gülümcan (Enstrümantal) - Fon Müzik - Güzel Bir Fon Müzigi - Hüzünlü, Kederli, Duygulu.
- published: 06 Jun 2009
- views: 108554
- author: AsiBirCan
ARIFA "Anatolian Alchemy"
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:38
- Updated: 13 Jan 2013
ARIFA "Anatalion Alchemy" Mehmet Polat (Turkey) ud Franz von Chossy (Germany) piano Alex Simu (Romania) sax, clarinet & live laptop, Sjahin During (Turkey/Holland) Afro Anatolian percussion. www.arifamusic.com Please join us on Facebook: www.facebook.com press: "Indescribable brilliance and uniqueness" stands for this unconventional quartet founded in Amsterdam 2010. National Dutch Newspaper "Volkskrant" crowned both Arifa's Bimhuis debut concert and debut CD "Beyond Babylon" with 5 stars. Prestigious Dutch magazine Mixed World Music awarding the disc in the world music genre as "Best World music album of 2010 in the Netherlands". The 4 members are arriving from Istanbul, Bucharest and Amsterdam to take the audience on a truthful and adventurous musical journey. Original compositions and ancient melodies from Arabic, Anatolian and Balkan worlds, combined with live electronics and contemporary improvised music". Volkskrant 2010
http://wn.com/ARIFA_Anatolian_Alchemy
ARIFA "Anatalion Alchemy" Mehmet Polat (Turkey) ud Franz von Chossy (Germany) piano Alex Simu (Romania) sax, clarinet & live laptop, Sjahin During (Turkey/Holland) Afro Anatolian percussion. www.arifamusic.com Please join us on Facebook: www.facebook.com press: "Indescribable brilliance and uniqueness" stands for this unconventional quartet founded in Amsterdam 2010. National Dutch Newspaper "Volkskrant" crowned both Arifa's Bimhuis debut concert and debut CD "Beyond Babylon" with 5 stars. Prestigious Dutch magazine Mixed World Music awarding the disc in the world music genre as "Best World music album of 2010 in the Netherlands". The 4 members are arriving from Istanbul, Bucharest and Amsterdam to take the audience on a truthful and adventurous musical journey. Original compositions and ancient melodies from Arabic, Anatolian and Balkan worlds, combined with live electronics and contemporary improvised music". Volkskrant 2010
- published: 28 Mar 2012
- views: 9655
- author: Sjahin During
Pentagram - Anatolia
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:05
- Updated: 23 Dec 2012
Pentagram Anatolia
http://wn.com/Pentagram_Anatolia
Fire of Anatolia - Troy
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:01
- Updated: 12 Jan 2013
http://wn.com/Fire_of_Anatolia_Troy
The Fire of Anatolia - Anadolu Atesi
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:39
- Updated: 28 Dec 2012
A two-minute excerpt of The Fire of Anatolia (Anadolu Atesi) dance show. The group displays a collection of dances known in Anatolia (Turkey) throughout the history.
http://wn.com/The_Fire_of_Anatolia_Anadolu_Atesi
A two-minute excerpt of The Fire of Anatolia (Anadolu Atesi) dance show. The group displays a collection of dances known in Anatolia (Turkey) throughout the history.
- published: 18 Jun 2006
- views: 59192
- author: pepitopingu
![Anadolu Kartalları (Anatolian Eagles) [HD]](http://web.archive.org./web/20130206164812im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Z4zZaWysjPM/default.jpg "Anadolu Kartalları (Anatolian Eagles) [HD]")
Anadolu Kartalları (Anatolian Eagles) [HD]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:08
- Updated: 05 Jan 2013
Anatolian Eagle is an air force exercise hosted by the Turkish Air Force and held in Konya, Turkey. There are both national and international exercises held, the international exercises usually involving air arms of the USA, other NATO forces and Asian countries. Production on "Anadolu Kartalları" (Anatolian Eagles), one of next season's much-anticipated movies in Turkish cinema, is in full gear with filming currently under way at Konya's 3rd Main Jet Base, news agencies reported this week. The movie, commissioned as part of centennial celebrations of the Turkish Air Forces, is slated for an Oct. 29 release, also marking the Turkey's Republic Day national holiday. Produced by Fida Film and directed by Ömer Vargı with a budget of $10 million, "Anadolu Kartalları" is one of Turkish cinema's most expensive productions to date. Five aircraft and two hangars at the jet base in Konya are being used in filming, which will also travel to İstanbul, İzmir and Eskişehir throughout the end of its nine-week filming period. The film's producer Murat Akdilek told the Anatolia news agency on Tuesday that the movie is of considerable importance as it is the first time such a project -- a film with many scenes featuring fighter jet flights -- has been undertaken in Turkish cinema. A specialized film crew was brought in from abroad for the filming, he added. Along with the cast, there are also trained mechanics who are required to both act and take care of technical aspects of the equipment ...
http://wn.com/Anadolu_Kartalları_Anatolian_Eagles_HD_
Anatolian Eagle is an air force exercise hosted by the Turkish Air Force and held in Konya, Turkey. There are both national and international exercises held, the international exercises usually involving air arms of the USA, other NATO forces and Asian countries. Production on "Anadolu Kartalları" (Anatolian Eagles), one of next season's much-anticipated movies in Turkish cinema, is in full gear with filming currently under way at Konya's 3rd Main Jet Base, news agencies reported this week. The movie, commissioned as part of centennial celebrations of the Turkish Air Forces, is slated for an Oct. 29 release, also marking the Turkey's Republic Day national holiday. Produced by Fida Film and directed by Ömer Vargı with a budget of $10 million, "Anadolu Kartalları" is one of Turkish cinema's most expensive productions to date. Five aircraft and two hangars at the jet base in Konya are being used in filming, which will also travel to İstanbul, İzmir and Eskişehir throughout the end of its nine-week filming period. The film's producer Murat Akdilek told the Anatolia news agency on Tuesday that the movie is of considerable importance as it is the first time such a project -- a film with many scenes featuring fighter jet flights -- has been undertaken in Turkish cinema. A specialized film crew was brought in from abroad for the filming, he added. Along with the cast, there are also trained mechanics who are required to both act and take care of technical aspects of the equipment ...
- published: 05 Oct 2011
- views: 336066
- author: UPI874
Anatolian Festival (Official Trailer of Anatolian Cultures & Food Festival 2009)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:28
- Updated: 30 Dec 2012
Anatolian Cultures & Food Festival »»» The Largest Anatolian Festival in the World ««« Date: May 6-9, 2010 Location: Orange County Great Park, Irvine, California www.anatolianfestival.org ------------------------------------ »»» Dunyanin En Buyuk Anadolu Festivali ««« Tarih: Mayis 6-9, 2010 Yer: Orange County Great Park, Irvine, California www.anatolianfestival.org
http://wn.com/Anatolian_Festival_Official_Trailer_of_Anatolian_Cultures_Food_Festival_2009
Anatolian Cultures & Food Festival »»» The Largest Anatolian Festival in the World ««« Date: May 6-9, 2010 Location: Orange County Great Park, Irvine, California www.anatolianfestival.org ------------------------------------ »»» Dunyanin En Buyuk Anadolu Festivali ««« Tarih: Mayis 6-9, 2010 Yer: Orange County Great Park, Irvine, California www.anatolianfestival.org
- published: 17 May 2009
- views: 8367
- author: Selman PINARLI
anatolian balloons uluer havacılık
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:14
- Updated: 22 Nov 2012
balloon ride cappadocia hot air balloons turkey hotel abdullah uluer
http://wn.com/anatolian_balloons_uluer_havacılık
balloon ride cappadocia hot air balloons turkey hotel abdullah uluer
- published: 30 Apr 2008
- views: 6956
- author: anatolian50
Foreclosures Sacramento, Anatolia April 2010
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:31
- Updated: 09 Jan 2013
CALIFORNIA MELTDOWN - April 12, 2010.. More evidence of the economic collapse in Northern California. Residential real estate developments blighted by foreclosures and short sales. I counted 1 in 3 houses in this development abandoned or in the foreclosure process. Who is going to buy them? Not enough buyers, even at these prices.
http://wn.com/Foreclosures_Sacramento,_Anatolia_April_2010
CALIFORNIA MELTDOWN - April 12, 2010.. More evidence of the economic collapse in Northern California. Residential real estate developments blighted by foreclosures and short sales. I counted 1 in 3 houses in this development abandoned or in the foreclosure process. Who is going to buy them? Not enough buyers, even at these prices.
- published: 12 Apr 2010
- views: 6664
- author: californiameltdown
Pentagram - Anatolia
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:22
- Updated: 14 Jan 2013
videoclip of Anatolia by Pentagram(Mezarkabul). Pentagram'ın Anatolia klibinin tamamı.
http://wn.com/Pentagram_Anatolia
videoclip of Anatolia by Pentagram(Mezarkabul). Pentagram'ın Anatolia klibinin tamamı.
- published: 18 Mar 2006
- views: 334808
- author: firnas
photo: US Army / Chief Warrant Officer 4 Daniel McClinton
06 Feb 2013
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. "The art of war is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin." Sun Tzu, "The Art of War," 4th Century BCE. During confirmation hearings for the next U.S. Defense Secretary, it was appalling to observe several senators haggling with Chuck Hagel over whether the surge during the disastrous U.S.-Iraqi preemptive war and military occupation was a success or not ... The U.S....(size: 6.2Kb)
photo: AP / Jerome Delay
06 Feb 2013
GAO, Mali. French-led forces have killed hundreds of Islamists in fighting to reclaim northern Mali and with the rebels' last bastion secured, France said Tuesday it will begin withdrawing its troops from March ... The defence ministry said the Islamists died in French air strikes on vehicles transporting fighters and equipment, and in "direct combat in Konna and Gao", key central and northern towns ... "The combat isn't over ... - AFP. ....(size: 4.8Kb)
photo: AP / Vahid Salemi
05 Feb 2013
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has arrived in Cairo, marking the first visit to Egypt by an Iranian president since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Ahmadinejad flew into the capital, Cairo, to attend a summit of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC), which begins on Wednesday. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi kissed the Iranian leader as he got off the plane on Tuesday ... "My wish is bigger than this ... Iran does not recognise Israel ... ....(size: 17.9Kb)
photo: UN / John Isaac
04 Feb 2013
About 800,000 people died during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. ....(size: 0.5Kb)
photo: AP / Rebecca Blackwell
06 Feb 2013
Nigeria and Ghana may meet in the Africa Cup of Nations final – but only if they can beat teams bidding for a first victory. Ghana fans, here at the Cup of Nations quarter-final against Cape Verde, hope their side can win the tournament for the first time since 1982. Photograph. Ian Walton/Getty Images. As the dust settles after the quarter-finals, the landscape looks strangely unfamiliar ... "But the thing they tend to get is respect ... ....(size: 8.2Kb)
Middle East Online
06 Feb 2013
The Times of India
05 Feb 2013
ANKARA ... "We are told of 79 fixed matches monitored in Turkey" by European authorities, Yildirim Demiroren was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency ... "FIFA will surely send us everything related to the bets. There is nothing delivered to us so far but they will do so for sure," said Demiroren ... ....(size: 1.6Kb)
Stockhouse
05 Feb 2013
While a gold resource increase powered shares of an explorer Tuesday. Stockhouse Canadian Small and Micro-cap Stock Report for Tuesday, February 5, 2013 . TORONTO (SHfn) – Condor Petroleum (TSX ... As well, shares of Columbus Gold (TSX ... Zenyatta Ventures (TSX ... Zenyatta Ventures stock powered 26% higher to $1.34. . And, Northland Resources S.A. (TSX ... (T.WTG, Stock Forum) -13.64% Anatolia Energy Corp ... ... ... ....(size: 6.9Kb)
The Washington Times
05 Feb 2013
DALLAS February 5, 2013 – In a surpise move, a commission of the Turkish Parliament last week accepted a petition from a Turkish citizen to reopen the Hagia Sophia as a place of worship for Muslims ... Conservative groups in Turkey, such as the Anatolia Youth Association, have been conducting campaigns to have the structure rededicated to Islamic worship ... This survey was also submitted to Parliament ... More from Looking for Luke ... S ... ....(size: 8.2Kb)
The Wichita Eagle
04 Feb 2013
Greek names, particularly for girls, are beginning to make more of a mark on the American baby namescape. The Greek Sophia is our Number 1 name, and Chloe and Zoe are at 10 and 31, respectively ... Leading the girls' names are ... Anatola - This and longer form Anatolia are appellations often omitted from lists of names with the meaningful meaning "dawn." Anatolia is another name for the region called Asia Minor ... Iantha is also used....(size: 6.8Kb)
Stockhouse
04 Feb 2013
This as a resource estimate boosted an iron ore play Monday. Stockhouse Canadian Small and Micro-cap Stock Report for Monday, February 4, 2013 . TORONTO (SHfn) – Majestic Gold (TSX ... As well, shares of Cap-Ex Ventures (TSX ... Canarc Resource (TSX ... Canarc stock jumped 11% to 20 cents. And, TSO3 Inc. (TSX ... TSO3 shares added 9% at $1 ... (V.TCF, Stock Forum) 14.29% LNG Energy Ltd ... (T.RBM, Stock Forum) -14.01% Anatolia Energy Corp....(size: 6.6Kb)
The Examiner
04 Feb 2013
According to hot-air ballooning enthusiasts, the top three top ballooning locales in the world are the Loire Valley, Kenya, and Cappadocia, Turkey. Or as our pilot put it, "Chateaux, wild animals, and fairy chimneys.". Located in the ancient region of Central Anatolia, Cappadocia is a topographical wonderland marked by an extraordinary lunar landscape of fairy chimneys ... Location. Cappadocia, Turkey. 38.670112609863 ; 35.743598937988 ... ... ....(size: 8.5Kb)
Bloomberg
04 Feb 2013
After rioters in Azerbaijan burned down a hotel owned by a son of one of President Ilham Aliyev’s ministers, the government blamed the violence on “destructive forces” -- including opposition politician Ilgar Mammadov ... 30, less than 12 hours after being summoned to police headquarters for questioning over the Jan ... He opted instead to commit future deliveries to the Trans-Anatolia, or Tanap, link to carry the fuel to Europe via Turkey ... ....(size: 9.9Kb)
Voa News
03 Feb 2013
The Independent
03 Feb 2013
If you want a metaphor for modern Istanbul, look no further than the Marmaray tunnel. It's currently being dug under the Bosphorus to link Sirkeci Station, near the Grand Bazaar, with the ferry port of Uskudar on the Asian shore ... These objects aren't just shards of pottery ... Millions of peasants from Anatolia flooded into Istanbul, followed by Iraqis, Afghans, Russians, Moldovans, Armenians… ... Investment money has poured in from the West....(size: 7.9Kb)
The Independent
03 Feb 2013
If you want a metaphor for modern Istanbul, look no further than the Marmaray tunnel. It's currently being dug under the Bosphorus to link Sirkeci Station, near the Grand Bazaar, with the ferry port of Uskudar on the Asian shore ... These objects aren't just shards of pottery ... Millions of peasants from Anatolia flooded into Istanbul, followed by Iraqis, Afghans, Russians, Moldovans, Armenians… ... Investment money has poured in from the West....(size: 7.9Kb)
The Star
02 Feb 2013
WE seek to make several clarifications to the article, Land before time (Star2 on Saturday, Jan 19) by Louisa Lim ... Lim repeatedly refers to the Southeastern Anatolia Region as Turkish Kurdistan although there is no such territory existing within the borders of the Republic of Turkey ... This is totally untrue and misleading as it gives the impression that the Southeast Anatolia Region is governed by the PKK not the Republic of Turkey ... ....(size: 2.4Kb)
For other uses, see Anatolia (disambiguation).
For the novel by Felice Picano, see An Asian Minor.
Coordinates: 39°N 32°E / 39°N 32°E / 39; 32
Anatolia (from Greek Ἀνατολή Anatolē — "east" or "(sun)rise"; also Asia Minor, from Greek: Μικρὰ Ἀσία Mikrá Asía "small Asia"; in modern Turkish: Anadolu) is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey.[1] The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Aegean Sea to the west. The Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the European mainland. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to a line between the Gulf of Iskenderun and the Black Sea, approximately corresponding to the western two-thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. However, since Anatolia is now often considered to be synonymous with Asian Turkey, its eastern and southeastern borders are widely taken to be the Turkish borders with the neighboring countries, which are Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq and Syria, in clockwise direction.
Anatolia has been home to many civilizations throughout history, such as the Hittites, Phrygians, Lydians, Persians, Greeks, Assyrians, Armenians, Romans, Georgians, Seljuk Turks, and Ottomans. As a result, Anatolia is one of the most archaeologically rich places on earth.
Contents |
Definition[link]
The Anatolian peninsula, also called Asia Minor, is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean Sea to the west, and the sea of Marmara to the northwest, which separates Anatolia from Thrace in Europe.
Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to an indefinite line running from the Gulf of Iskenderun to the Black Sea, coterminous with the Anatolian Plateau. This traditional geographical definition is used, for example, in the latest edition of Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary,[2] as well as the archeological community.[3] Under this definition, Anatolia is bounded to the East by the Armenian Highland, and the Euphrates before that river bends to the southeast to enter Mesopotamia.[3] To the southeast, it is bounded by the ranges that separate it from the Orontes valley in Greater Syria and the Mesopotamian plain.[3]
However, following the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, Anatolia was defined as being effectively co-terminous with Asian Turkey. Turkey's First Geography Congress in 1941 created two regions to the east of the Gulf of Iskenderun-Black Sea line named the Eastern Anatolia Region and the Southeastern Anatolia Region,[4] the former largely corresponding to the western part of the Armenian Highland, the latter to the northern part of the Mesopotamian plain. This wider definition of Anatolia has gained widespread currency outside of Turkey and has, for instance, been adopted by Encyclopedia Britannica[5] and other encyclopedic and general reference publications.[6]
Geography[link]
See also: Geography of Turkey
Regions[link]
Black Sea Coast[link]
Main article: Black Sea Region
The Black Sea coast is characterized by a range of steep mountains that extend along the entire length of the coast, separating it from the inland Anatolian plateau. In the west, the mountains tend to be low, with elevations from 1,525–1,800 m (5,003–5,900 ft), but they rise in the easterly direction to heights greater than 3,000 m (9,800 ft) south of Rize, reaching 3,937 m (12,917 ft) at the Kaçkar Mountains in the Pontic Alps. Lengthy, troughlike valleys and basins characterize the mountains. The southern slopes, facing the Anatolian Plateau, are mostly unwooded, but the northern slopes contain dense growths of both deciduous and evergreen trees. The higher slopes facing northwest tend to be densely forested.
The coast is rugged and rocky, with rivers that cascade through the gorges of the coastal ranges. A few larger rivers, those cutting back through the Pontic Alps, have tributaries that flow in broad, elevated basins. Access inland from the coast is limited to a few narrow valleys because mountain ridges. Because of these natural conditions, the Black Sea coast historically has been isolated from Anatolia.
Marmara Region[link]
Main article: Marmara Region
The western coast of Anatolia that borders the Sea of Marmara consists mainly of rolling plateau country well suited to agriculture. It receives about 52 cm (20 in) of rainfall annually.
Densely populated, this area includes the cities of Istanbul and Bursa, Turkey's largest and fourth largest cities respectively. The Bosphorus, which links the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, is about 25 km (16 mi) long and averages 1.5 km (0.93 mi) in width but narrows in places to less than 1,000 m (3,300 ft). There are two suspension bridges over the Bosphorus, both its Asian and European banks rise steeply from the water and form a succession of cliffs, coves, and nearly landlocked bays. Most of the shores are densely wooded and are marked by numerous small towns and villages. The Dardanelles Strait, which links the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean Sea, is approximately 40 km (25 mi) long and increases in width toward the south. Unlike the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles has fewer settlements along its shores.
The most important valleys are the Kocaeli Valley, the Balıkesir Ovası (Balıkesir Plain), the Bursa Ovası (Bursa Plain), and the Plains of Troy (historically known as the Troad.)
Aegean Coast[link]
Main article: Aegean Region
Located on the west coast of Anatolia, the Aegean region has a fertile soil and a typically Mediterranean climate; with mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers. The broad, cultivated lowland valleys contain about half of the country's richest farmlands.
The largest city in the Aegean Region of Turkey is İzmir, which is also the country's third largest city and second largest port after Istanbul.
Olive and olive oil production is particularly important for the economy of the region. The seaside town of Ayvalık and numerous towns in the provinces of İzmir and Aydın are particularly famous for their olive oil and related products; such as soap and cosmetics.
The region is home to many famous ancient cities; such as Troy, Assos, Pergamon (Bergama), Sardis, Ephesus, Miletus, Halicarnassus (Bodrum), Smyrna (İzmir), Hierapolis (Pamukkale), Magnesia (Manisa), Philadelphia (Alaşehir), Didyma (Didim), Aphrodisias, Kaunos, Knidos, among others.
Mediterranean Coast[link]
Main article: Mediterranean Region, Turkey
Beginning in the west of Antalya province, the south-facing Mediterranean coast of Turkey is separated from the interior by steep ranges, known as the Taurus mountains, that run along the entire length of the coast. The Taurus Mountains (Toros Dağları) are Anatolia's second chain of folded mountains. The south facing slopes rise steeply from the Mediterranean coastal plain, but slope very gently on the north side towards the Anatolian plateau. In the east, the Taurus mountains arc around the northern side of the Arabian Platform, before turning south and continuing as the ranges that define the Jordan Rift Valley. Between Adana and Antalya, the Taurus Mountains rise sharply from the coast to high elevations, reaching altitudes of over 3,700 m (12,100 ft) north of Adana. The Taurus Mountains are more rugged and less dissected by rivers than the Pontus Mountains and historically have served as a barrier to human movement inland from the Mediterranean coast except where there are mountain passes such as the historic Cilician Gates (Gülek Pass), northwest of Adana.
Toward the east, the extensive plains around Adana, Turkey's fifth largest city, consist largely of reclaimed flood lands. In general, rivers have not cut valleys to the sea in the western part of the region. East of Adana, much of the coastal plain has limestone features such as collapsed caverns and sinkholes. Other than Adana, Antalya, and Mersin, the Mediterranean coast has few major cities, although it has numerous farming villages.
Central Plateau[link]
 |
This section includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (May 2012) |
Main article: Central Anatolia Region
Stretching inland from the Aegean coastal plain, the Central Anatolian plateau occupies the area between the two zones of the folded coastal ranges in the north and south, extending east to the point where the two ranges converge. The plateau-like, semiarid highlands of Anatolia are considered the heartland of the country. The region varies in elevation from 600–1,200 m (2,000–3,900 ft) from west to east. The Anatolian plateau is interspersed with extinct volcanoes, the tallest of which is Mt. Erciyes, rising to 3,917 m (12,851 ft) near Kayseri.
Frequently interspersed throughout the folded mountains, and also situated on the Anatolian Plateau, are well-defined basins, which the Turks call "ova". Some are no more than a widening of a stream valley; others, such as the Konya Ovasi, are large basins of inland drainage or are the result of limestone erosion. Most of the basins take their names from cities or towns located at their rims. Where a lake has formed within the basin, the water body is usually saline as a result of the internal drainage — the water has no outlet to the sea. The two largest basins on the plateau are the Konya Ovasi and the basin occupied by the large salt lake, Tuz Gölü.
Forested areas are confined to the northwest and northeast of the plateau. Rain-fed cultivation is widespread, with wheat being the principal crop. Irrigated agriculture is restricted to the areas surrounding rivers and wherever sufficient underground water is available. Important irrigated crops include barley, corn, cotton, various fruits, grapes, opium poppies, sugar beets, roses, and tobacco. There also is extensive grazing throughout the plateau.
Central Anatolia receives little annual rainfall with an average precipitation of 40 cm (16 in) per year. The driest part of the region is the semiarid center of the plateau which receives an average yearly precipitation of 30 cm (12 in). However, actual rainfall from year to year is irregular and occasionally may be less than 20 cm (7.9 in), leading to severe reductions in crop yields for both rain-fed and irrigated agriculture. Overgrazing has contributed to soil erosion on some parts of the plateau. During the summers, frequent dust storms blow a fine yellow powder across the plateau. Locusts occasionally ravage the eastern area in April and May. In general, the plateau experiences high temperatures and almost no rainfall in summer and cold weather with heavy snow in winter.
Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia Regions[link]
Main article: Eastern Anatolia Region, Turkey
Main article: Southeastern Anatolia Region, Turkey
Eastern Anatolia, where the Pontus and Taurus mountain ranges converge, is rugged country with higher elevations, a more severe climate, and greater precipitation than are found on the Anatolian Plateau. Eastern Anatolia roughly coincides with the western half of the Armenian Highland. The region is known as the Anti-Taurus, and the average elevation of its peaks exceeds 3,000 metres (9,800 ft). Mount Ararat, at 5,137 metres (16,854 ft) the highest point in Turkey, is located in the Anti-Taurus. Many of the Anti-Taurus peaks apparently are recently extinct volcanoes, to judge from extensive lava flows. Turkey's largest lake, Lake Van, is situated in the mountains at an elevation of 1,546 metres (5,072 ft). The headwaters of three major rivers arise in the Anti-Taurus: the east-flowing Aras, which pours into the Caspian Sea; the south-flowing Euphrates; and the south-flowing Tigris, which eventually joins the Euphrates in Iraq before emptying into the Persian Gulf. Several small streams that empty into the Black Sea or landlocked Lake Van also originate in these mountains.
In addition to its rugged mountains, the area is known for severe winters with heavy snowfalls. The few valleys and plains in these mountains tend to be fertile and to support diverse agriculture. The main basin is the Mus Valley, west of Lake Van. Narrow valleys also lie at the foot of the lofty peaks along river corridors.
Southeast Anatolia is south of the Anti-Taurus Mountains. It is a region of rolling hills and a broad plateau surface that extends into Syria. Elevations decrease gradually, from about 800 metres (2,600 ft) in the north to about 500 metres (1,600 ft) in the south. Traditionally, wheat and barley were the main crops of the region, but the inauguration of major new irrigation projects in the 1980s has led to greater agricultural diversity and development.
Geology[link]
Anatolia's terrain is structurally complex. A central massif composed of uplifted blocks and downfolded troughs, covered by recent deposits and giving the appearance of a plateau with rough terrain, is wedged between two folded mountain ranges that converge in the east. True lowland is confined to a few narrow coastal strips along the Aegean, Mediterranean, and Black Sea coasts. Flat or gently sloping land is rare and largely confined to the deltas of the Kızıl River, the coastal plains of Çukurova and the valley floors of the Gediz River and the Büyük Menderes River as well as some interior high plains in Anatolia, mainly around Tuz Gölü (Salt Lake) and the Konya Basin (Konya Ovasi).
Climate[link]
- Temperatures of Anatolia
-
Ankara (central Anatolia)
-
Antalya (southern Anatolia)
-
Van (eastern Anatolia)
Anatolia has a varied range of climates. The central plateau is characterized by a continental climate, with hot summers and cold snowy winters. The south and west coasts enjoy a typical Mediterranean climate, with mild rainy winters, and warm dry summers. The Black sea and Marmara coasts have temperate oceanic climate, with cool foggy summers and much rainfall throughout the year.
Ecoregions[link]
Anatolia's diverse topography and climate has fostered a similar diversity of plant and animal communities.
The mountains and coastal plain of northern Anatolia, with its humid and mild climate, is home to temperate broadleaf, mixed and coniferous forests. The central and eastern plateau, with its drier continental climate, is home to deciduous forests and forest steppes. Western and southern Anatolia, which have a Mediterranean climate, are home to Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregions.
- Euxine-Colchic deciduous forests: These temperate broadleaf and mixed forests extend across northern Anatolia, lying between the mountains of northern Anatolia and the Black Sea. They include the enclaves of temperate rainforest lying along the southeastern coast of the Black Sea in eastern Turkey and Georgia.[7]
- Northern Anatolian conifer and deciduous forests: These forests occupy the mountains of northern Anatolia, running east and west between the coastal Euxine-Colchic forests and the drier, continental climate forests of central and eastern Anatolia.[8]
- Central Anatolian deciduous forests: These forests of deciduous oaks and evergreen pines cover the plateau of central Anatolia.[9]
- Central Anatolian steppe: These dry grasslands cover the drier valleys and surround the saline lakes of central Anatolia, and include halophytic (salt tolerant) plant communities.[10]
- Eastern Anatolian deciduous forests: This ecoregion occupies the plateau of eastern Anatolia. The drier and more continental climate is home to steppe-forests dominated by deciduous oaks, with areas of shrubland, montane forest, and valley forest.[11]
- Anatolian conifer and deciduous mixed forests: These forests occupy the western, Mediterranean-climate portion of the Anatolian plateau. Pine forests and mixed pine and oak woodlands and shrublands are predominant.[12]
- Aegean and Western Turkey sclerophyllous and mixed forests: These Mediterranean-climate forests occupy the coastal lowlands and valleys of western Anatolia bordering the Aegean Sea. The ecoregion is home to forests of Turkish Pine (Pinus brutia), oak forests and woodlands, and maquis shrubland of Turkish Pine and evergreen sclerophyllous trees and shrubs, including Olive (Olea europaea), Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo), Arbutus andrachne, Kermes Oak (Quercus coccifera), and Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis).[13]
- Southern Anatolian montane conifer and deciduous forests: These mountain forests occupy the Mediterranean-climate Taurus Mountains of southern Anatolia. Conifer forests are predominant, chiefly Anatolian black pine (Pinus nigra), Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani), Taurus fir (Abies cilicica), and juniper (Juniperus foetidissima and J. excelsa). Broadleaf trees include oaks, hornbeam, and maples.[14]
- Eastern Mediterranean conifer-sclerophyllous-broadleaf forests: This ecoregion occupies the coastal strip of southern Anatolia between the Taurus Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. Plant communities include broadleaf sclerophyllous maquis shrublands, forests of Aleppo Pine (Pinus halepensis) and Turkish Pine (Pinus brutia), and dry oak (Quercus spp.) woodlands and steppes.[15]
History[link]
Main article: History of Anatolia
Anatolia has been home to many civilizations throughout history, such as the Hittites, Phrygians, Lydians, Persians, Greeks, Assyrians, Armenians, Romans, Georgians, Seljuk Turks and Ottomans. As a result, Anatolia is one of the archaeologically richest places on earth.[citation needed] Two of the seven wonders of the ancient world were located in Anatolia: The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus.
Etymology[link]
For more details on this topic, see Names of Anatolia.
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It has been suggested that Names of Anatolia be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since August 2009. |
The name Anatolia comes from the Greek Aνατολή (anatolē) meaning the "East" or more literally "sunrise".[16][17] The precise reference of this term has varied over time, perhaps originally referring to the Ionian colonies on the Asia Minor coast. In the Byzantine Empire, Anatolikon called also Theme of the Anatolics (ανατολικόν θέμα) was a theme covering the western and central parts of Turkey's present-day Central Anatolian Region.[18][19]
Antiquity[link]
Eastern Anatolia contains the oldest monumental structures in the world. For example, the monumental structures at Göbekli Tepe were built by hunters and gatherers a thousand years before the development of agriculture. Eastern Anatolia is also a heart region for the Neolithic revolution, one of the earliest areas in which humans domesticated plants and animals. Neolithic sites such as Çatalhöyük, Çayönü, Nevali Cori and Hacilar represent the world's oldest known agricultural villages.
The earliest historical records of Anatolia are from the Akkadian Empire under Sargon in the 24th century BC. The region was famous for exporting various raw materials.[20] The Assyrian Empire claimed the resources, notably silver. One of the numerous Assyrian cuneiform records found in Anatolia at Kanesh uses an advanced system of trading computations and credit lines.[20]
Unlike the Akkadians and the Assyrians, whose Anatolian possessions were peripheral to their core lands in Mesopotamia, the Hittites were centred at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia. They were speakers of an Indo-European language known as the "language of Nesa". Originating from Nesa, they conquered Hattusa in the 18th century BC, imposing themselves over a Hurrian speaking population. During the Late Bronze Age, they created an empire, the Hittite New Kingdom, which reached its height in the 14th century BC. The empire included a large part of Anatolia, north-western Syria and upper Mesopotamia. After 1180 BC, the empire disintegrated into several independent "Neo-Hittite" states. Ancient Anatolia is subdivided by modern scholars into various regions named after the people that occupied them, such as Lydia, Lycia, Caria, Mysia, Bithynia, Phrygia, Galatia, Lycaonia, Pisidia, Paphlagonia, Cilicia, and Cappadocia.
Beginning with the Bronze Age Collapse at the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the west coast of Anatolia was settled by Ionian Greeks. Over several centuries, numerous Ancient Greek city states were established on the coasts of Anatolia. Greeks started Western philosophy on the western coast of Anatolia (Pre-Socratic philosophy). In the 6th century BC, most of Anatolia was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great conquered the peninsula. Following his death and the breakup of his empire, Anatolia was ruled by a series of Hellenistic kingdoms. Two hundred years later western and central Anatolia came under Roman control, but it continued to be strongly influenced by Hellenistic culture. In the 1st century BC, the Armenians established the Armenian kingdom under Tigran who reigned throughout much of eastern Anatolia between the Caspian, Black and Mediterranean seas. Anatolia is known as the birthplace of coinage as a medium of exchange (some time in the 7th century BC), which flourished during the Greek and Roman eras.[21][22]
Medieval and Renaissance Periods[link]
After the division of the Roman Empire, Anatolia became part of the East Roman, or Byzantine Empire. Byzantine control was challenged by Arab raids starting in the 7th century (see Byzantine–Arab Wars), but in the 9th and 10th century a resurgent Byzantine Empire regained its lost territories and even expanded beyond its traditional borders, into Armenia and Syria. In the 10 years following the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Seljuk Turks established themselves over large areas of Anatolia, with particular concentrations around the north western rim.[23] The Turkish language and Islamic religion were gradually introduced as a result of the Seljuk conquest, and this period marks the start of Anatolia's slow transition from predominantly Christian and Greek-speaking, to predominantly Muslim and Turkish-speaking. In the following century, the Byzantines managed to reassert their control in Western and Northern Anatolia. Control of Anatolia was then split between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm, with the Byzantine holdings gradually being reduced. In 1255, the Mongols swept through eastern and central Anatolia, and would remain until 1335. The Ilkhanate garrison was stationed near Ankara.[24][25]
By the end of the 14th century, most of Anatolia was controlled by various Anatolian beyliks. The Turkmen Beyliks were under the control of the Mongols, at least nominally, through declining Seljuk Sultans.[26][27] The Beyliks did not mint coins in the names of their own leaders while they remained under the suzerainty of the Ilkhanids.[28] The Osmanli ruler Osman I was the first Turkish ruler who minted coins in his own name in 1320s, for it bears the legend "Minted by Osman son of Ertugul".[29] Since the minting of coins was a prerogative accorded in Islamic practice only to a sovereign, it can be considered that Osmanli became independent of the Mongol Khans.[30]
After the decline of the Ilkhanate from 1335–1353, the Mongol Empire's legacy in the region was the Uyghur Eretna Dynasty that was overthrown by Kadi Burhan al-Din in 1381.[31] Among the Turkmen leaders the Ottomans emerged as great power under Osman and his son Orhan I. Smyrna was conquered in 1330, and the last Byzantine possession, Philadélphia (modern Alaşehir), fell in 1390. The Anatolian beyliks were in turn absorbed into the rising Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. The Ottomans completed the conquest of the peninsula in 1517 with the taking of Halicarnassus (Bodrum) from the Knights of Saint John.
Modern times[link]
With the beginning of the slow decline of the Ottoman Empire in the early 19th century, and as a result of the expansionist policies of Czarist Russia in the Caucasus, many Muslim nations and groups in that region, mainly Circassians, Tatars, Azeris, Lezgis, Chechens, and several Turkic groups left their ancestral homelands and settled in Anatolia. As the Ottoman Empire further fragmented during the Balkan Wars, much of the non-Christian populations of its former possessions, mainly the Balkan Muslims, flocked to Anatolia and were resettled in various locations, mostly in formerly Christian villages throughout Anatolia.[32]
Anatolia remained multi-ethnic until the early 20th century (see the rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire). During World War I, the Armenian Genocide, the Greek genocide (especially in Pontus), and the Assyrian Genocide almost entirely removed the Armenian and Assyrian populations of Anatolia, as well as a large part of its ethnic Greek population. Following the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922, all remaining ethnic Anatolian Greeks were forced out during the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey. Since the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, Anatolia has become Turkey, its inhabitants being mainly Turks and Kurds (see demographics of Turkey and history of Turkey).
Demographics[link]
Almost 80% of the people currently residing in Anatolia are Turks. Kurds, with 15%, constitute a major community in southeastern Anatolia, and are the largest ethnic minority. Albanians, Arabs, Armenians, Syriacs, Bosnians, Circassians, Georgians, Greeks, Jews, Hemshin, Laz and a number of other ethnic groups also live in Anatolia in smaller numbers.
See also[link]
- Aeolis
- Alacahöyük
- Anatolian hypothesis
- Anatolian languages
- Anatolianism
- Anatolian leopard
- Anatolian Plate
- Anatolian Shepherd Dog
- Anatolian beyliks
- Ancient kingdoms of Anatolia
- Antigonid dynasty
- Attalid dynasty
- Bithynia
- Byzantine Empire
- Cappadocia
- Caria
- Çatalhöyük
- Cilicia
- Doris (Asia Minor)
- Empire of Nicaea
- Empire of Trebizond
- Ephesus
- Galatia
- Gordium
- Halicarnassus
- Hattusa
- History of Anatolia
- Hittites
- Ionia
- Lycaonia
- Lycia
- Lydia
- Midas
- Miletus
- Myra
- Mysia
- Pamphylia
- Paphlagonia
- Pentarchy
- Pergamon
- Phrygia
- Pisidia
- Pontus
- Rumi
- Saint Anatolia
- Saint Nicholas
- Sardis
- Seleucid dynasty
- Seljuk Empire
- Sultanate of Rum
- Seven Sleepers
- Troad
- Troy
- Turkey
- Urartu
- Zaza people
References[link]
- ^ "Anatolia comprises more than 95 percent of Turkey's total land area."
- ^ Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. 2001. p. 46. ISBN 0 87779 546 0. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Co_VIPIJerIC&pg=PA883&dq=anatolia+geographical+dictionary&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=true. Retrieved 18 May 2001.
- ^ a b c Stephen Mitchell, Anatolia: Land, Men, and Gods in Asia Minor. The Celts in Anatolia and the impact of Roman rule. Clarendon Press, Aug 24, 1995 - 296 pages. ISBN 978-0198150299 [1]
- ^ Ali Yiğit, "Geçmişten Günümüze Türkiye'yi Bölgelere Ayıran Çalışmalar ve Yapılması Gerekenler", Ankara Üniversitesi Türkiye Coğrafyası Araştırma ve Uygulama Merkezi, IV. Ulural Coğrafya Sempozyumu, "Avrupa Birliği Sürecindeki Türkiye'de Bölgesel Farklılıklar", pp. 34-35.
- ^ "Anatolia". Encyclopedia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/22897/Anatolia. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
- ^ "Anatolia entries from Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, The Columbia Encyclopedia, and A Dictionary of World History". Encyclopedia.com. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Anatolia.aspx. Retrieved 19 May 2012.
- ^ "Euxine-Colchic deciduous forests" WWF scientific report. Accessed May 25, 2008. [2]
- ^ "Northern Anatolian conifer and deciduous forests" WWF scientific report. Accessed May 25, 2008. [3]
- ^ "Central Anatolian deciduous forests" National Geographic ecoregion profile. Accessed May 25, 2008 [4]
- ^ "Central Anatolian steppe" WWF scientific Report. Accessed May 25, 2008. [5]
- ^ "Eastern Anatolian deciduous forests" WWF scientific report. Accessed May 25, 2008. [6]
- ^ "Anatolian conifer and deciduous mixed forests" WWF scientific report. Accessed May 25, 2008 [7]
- ^ Aegean and Western Turkey sclerophyllous and mixed forests" WWF scientific report. Accessed May 25, 2008 [8]
- ^ "Southern Anatolian montane conifer and deciduous forests" WWF scientific report. Accessed May 25, 2008 [9]
- ^ "SEastern Mediterranean conifer-sclerophyllous-broadleaf forests" WWF scientific report. Accessed May 25, 2008
- ^ [10]
- ^ "Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon". http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%237638.
- ^ "On the First Thema, Called Anatolikon. This theme is called Anatolikon or Theme of the Anatolics "ανατολικόν θέμα", not because it is above and in the direction of the east where the sun rises, but because it lies East of Byzantium and Europe." Constantine VII Porphyogenitus, De Thematibus, ed. A. Pertusi. Vatican: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1952, pp. 59–61.[clarification needed]
- ^ John Haldon, "Byzantium, a History", 2002. PAge 32.
- ^ a b Freeman, Charles (1999). Egypt, Greece and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-872194-3.
- ^ Howgego, C. J. (1995). Ancient History from Coins. ISBN 0-415-08992-1.
- ^ Asia Minor Coins - an index of Greek and Roman coins from Asia Minor (ancient Anatolia)
- ^ Angold, Michael (1997). The Byzantine Empire 1025-1204. p. 117. ISBN 0-582-29468-1.
- ^ H. M. Balyuzi-Muḥammad and the course of Islám, p.342
- ^ John Freely-Storm on Horseback: The Seljuk Warriors of Turkey, p.83
- ^ Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, Gary Leiser-The origins of the Ottoman empire, p.33
- ^ Peter Partner-God of battles: holy wars of Christianity and Islam, p.122
- ^ Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire, p.13
- ^ Artuk-Osmanli Beyliginin Kurucusu, 27f
- ^ Pamuk-A Monetary history, p.30-31
- ^ Clifford Edmund Bosworth-The new Islamic dynasties: a chronological and genealogical manual, p.234
- ^ Justin McCarthy,"Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821-1922",1996,ISBN 0-87850-094-4
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'Consuelo Luz' is a Chilean-Cuban singer of Sephardic, Mapuche and Basque origins. Daughter of a Chilean Sephardic mother and a Cuban father from the Basque Province of Spain.
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Biography[link]
Although raised Catholic, Consuelo was made aware of her Jewish ancestry at an early age. Her parents were diplomats, which had her growing up in many countries, including Greece, the Philippines, Spain, Italy and Peru. She studied Spanish through the Overseas Cambridge University in Lima, Peru and later studied Literature and Music at the New School for Social Research in New York. Further studies included drama at the Stella Adler Theater Studio. In 1974, she moved her family to Taos, New Mexico where she met Rabbi Chavah Carp, who presented her with a collection of ancient Ladino prayers with text and music and asked her to sing them at community festivals and services. This sparked Consuelo's interest in Ladino music and inspired her first Sephardic CD, Dezeo in 2000. Since then Consuelo has performed internationally and produced and released many more recordings.
Personal life[link]
Consuelo has two sons and a daughter. She is involved with the Ha Makom Congregation in Santa Fe, a center for progressive Judaism run by Rabbi Malka Drucker.
Discography[link]
CD'S: Dezeo, Yo Sé Que Yo Amo, Missing Water, Adio. COMPILATIONS: A Jewish Odyssey (Putumayo), Buddha Bar 2, 10 Corso Como, Chill Out in Paris 2. FEATURED IN: Tulku, A Universe To Come, Ecclesia, Je Nous Aime. PREVIOUS ALBUMS RELEASED ON CASSETTE ONLY: Se Fue La Nina, Love Spirit Come
External links[link]
Consuelo Luz's Official Website
References[link]
↑ HR Music
| Persondata | |
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| Name | Luz, Consuelo |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | |
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http://wn.com/Consuelo_Luz
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consuelo_Luz
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
