Turkey Natural Environment

Turkey is situated at the western end of Asia and extends across the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus Straits into the eastern part of Europe.  The Asian part, the Anatolian peninsula, is about the size of Texas and is bounded by the Black Sea, Russia and Ukraine to the north, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran to the east, Syria, Iraq and the Mediterranean Sea to the south.  The European portion, called Thrace, is bounded by the Black Sea and Romania to the north, Greece, Bulgaria and the Aegean Sea to the west. 

Even though the country has broad coastal plains, more than half of the country is over 800 meters above sea level, with mountain ranges running in the east-west direction.  The highest mountain is the biblical Mount Ararat (over 5000 meters), and about 130 peaks are 4000 meters high.  Much of the centre of Anatolia is a dry plateau high above sea level punctuated by mountains.  In the Cappadocia region alone, there are four dormant volcanoes on the plain without sight of one another, all of which around 3000 meters or higher.  Many rivers run through the country into the Black Sea, Caspian Sea, and even into the Indian Ocean through the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.

Turkey is in a seismically active region, with fault lines running through various parts of the country, which have caused numerous earthquakes and destruction of human habitation and man-made structures over the centuries.

Anatolia is surrounded on three sides by the Black Sea, the Bosphorous and Marama Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea; in the extreme east is the land mass of Asia.  The European side is similarly surrounded by the seas and by the rest of Europe in the west.  Therefore, the sea has a great influence on Turkey's weather. 

In the south, the weather is typical of the Mediterranean climate, with hot dry summers and mild wet winters.  The further south one goes, the hotter is the weather. 

In the summer, the average temperature is in the high 20 degrees Celsius in Marama and in the low 30s in the Mediterranean.  In the winter, the average temperature is just below 10 degrees (Marama) and just above 10 degrees (Mediterranean).  Also, the relative humidity is quite high in the summer.

The Black Sea region tends to have warm summers (around 15 degrees average) and mild winters (average being just below 10 degrees), and has more rain throughout the year.

The central and eastern Anatolia region is a big land mass and generally has higher elevation than the rest of the country.  As a result, it tends to have very hot and dry summers and cold winters.  The average summer temperature is around 85 degrees on the central plateaus, and average winter temperature is just a few degrees above zero Celsius.  The difference between the day and night time temperatures can be quite big.  Relative humidity is lower than the other regions.