THE ROAD TO TURKEY
Written by MOTORBIKE EUROPE Road Writers -
European Turkey represents 3% of the country. Turkey's territory is more than 1,600km in length, and 800km wide, with an almost rectangular shape. Turkey is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and Mediterranean in the south.
The European part of Turkey to the northwest, is Eastern Thrace, which forms the border between Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria. The Asian part of the country, Anatolia, consists of a high central plateau with narrow coastal plains, between Köroğlu and the Eastern Black Sea mountain range to the north, and the Taurus Mountains to the south.
Eastern Turkey has a more mountainous landscape, and is home to the sources of many rivers, including the Euphrates, Tigris and Aras, and contains Lake Van and Mount Ararat, Turkey's highest point, with its 5,165 meters above sea level.
Turkey is geographically divided into seven regions: Marmara, the Aegean region, the Black Sea region, the Central Anatolian region, the Eastern Anatolian region, the Southeastern, and Mediterranean region. The uneven north Anatolian terrain running along the Black Sea, resembles a long, narrow belt. This region comprises approximately one-sixth of Turkey's land mass. As a general trend, the inland Anatolian plateau becomes increasingly rugged, as it progresses eastward.
Turkey's varied landscapes are the product of complex earth movements, which have shaped the region for thousands of years, and still manifest themselves in fairly frequent earthquakes and occasional volcanic eruptions. The Bosporus and the Dardanelles owe their existence to the fault that rides through Turkey, which led to the creation of the Black Sea. This fault line, which runs across the north of the country, from east to west, caused a major earthquake in 1999.
Spend some days in Istanbul, a thriving and overwhelming city of stark contrasts, a trading gateway to Asia, where you can find anything and everything you're looking for... and probably more.
