The relief of Turkey Regions
Significant contrasts between the interior and the periphery of Turkey are manifested in its landform regions, climate, soils and vegetation. The periphery is divided into the Black Sea region, the Aegean and the Mediterranean region. The interior is also in three regions: the Pontus and Taurus Mountains divided, the Anatolian plateau and the Eastern Highlands. The seventh region of the country is the Arabian Platform in the southeast, adjacent to the Syrian border.
Black Sea Region
The Black Sea region has a steep, rocky coast with rivers that cascade through the gorges of the coastal mountains. A few larger rivers, this reduction by the Pontus Mountains (Dogukaradeniz Daglari), tributaries that flow in broad, elevated basins. Access from the coast is a few narrow valleys limited because mountain ridges form with heights 1525-1800 m in the west and 3000-4000 m in the east an almost unbroken wall separating the coast from the interior. The higher slopes in a northwesterly direction tend to densely forested. Because of these natural conditions of the Black Sea coast historically has been isolated from Anatolia.
Running from Zonguldak in the west to the east Rize, extends the narrow coastal strip in several places into fertile, intensely cultivated deltas. The Samsun area, close to the center, is an important tobacco-growing areas east of it are numerous citrus groves. East of Samsun, the area around Trabzon is world famous for the production of hazelnuts, and farther east the Rize region has numerous tea plantations. All areas, including slopes, where they are not too steep, or as a sown pasture. The mild, damp climate of the Black Sea coast makes commercial farming profitable. The western part of the Black Sea region, especially the Zonguldak area, is a center of mining and heavy industry.
Aegean Region
The European part of the Aegean region consists mainly of rolling plateau country well suited for agriculture. He receives about 520 millimeters of rainfall per year. Densely populated, this area includes the cities of Istanbul and Edirne. The Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea together is about 25 km long and averages 1.5 kilometers in width narrows, but in places less than 500 meters. Both the Asian and European banks rise steeply from the water and form a series of cliffs, coves, inlets and almost landlocked. Most of the banks are densely wooded and dominated by many small towns and villages. The Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean Sea together is about forty miles long and rises in the width in the south. In contrast to the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles has few settlements along its banks.
On the Asian side, the Aegean region has fertile soils and a typically Mediterranean climate with mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers. The broad valley lowlands contain about half of the country’s richest farmland. Major crops are olives, citrus fruits, nuts (especially almonds) and tobacco. The main valleys of the Kocaeli Valley, the Bursa Ovasi (Bursa Basin) are, and the Plains of Troy. The valley lowlands are densely populated, particularly around Bursa and Izmir, the third largest city and a major production center.
Mediterranean Region
The narrow coastal strip of the Mediterranean region, separated from Anatolia by the Taurus Mountains, the heights of 2000-2750 meters range are being updated intense. Fertile soils and a warm climate make the Mediterranean coast ideal for growing citrus fruits, grapes, figs, bananas, various vegetables, barley, wheat, and in irrigated areas, rice and cotton varieties. The Çukur Ova in the east is a plain that the most developed agricultural area is the Mediterranean region. It is an important cotton-growing center and also supports a large cotton-based textile industry. In general, the summers are hot and dry in the Mediterranean region. The weather, combined with the region numerous sandy beaches has encouraged the development of the tourist industry.
East are the vast plains around Adana, Turkey’s fourth largest city, ends up largely of reclaimed flood. In general, the rivers have not cut valleys to the sea in the western part of the region.Historically, movement inland was difficult from the western Mediterranean coast. East of Adana, much of the coastal plain has limestone features such as collapsed caverns and sinkholes. Between Adana and Antalya, the Taurus Mountains rise sharply from the coast to high altitudes. Other than Adana, Antalya, Mersin and the Mediterranean coast has few major cities, although it has numerous farming villages.
Pontus and Taurus Mountains
The Pontus Mountains (also called the North Anatolian Mountains) in the north are an interrupted chain of folded highlands that generally parallel the Black Sea coast. In the west, the mountains tend to be low, with elevations rarely exceeding 1,500 meters, but they rise in the south east to heights of more than 3,000 meters from Rize. Lengthy, trough-shaped valleys and basins characterize the mountains. Rivers flowing from the mountains toward the Black Sea.The southern slopes – facing the Anatolian Plateau – are mostly treeless, but the northern slopes contain dense growths of both deciduous and coniferous trees.
Based on the Mediterranean coast, is the bull (Taurus Daglari) Turkey second chain of folded mountains. The range rises straight from the coast and trends generally in an easterly direction until it reaches the Arabian Platform, where it reaches arc around the northern side of the platform. The Taurus Mountains are more rugged and less dissected by rivers than the Pontus Mountains and historically as an obstacle to human movement inland from the Mediterranean coast, where it served out of mountain passes such as the Cilician Gates (Gulek Bogazi), northwest of Adana.
Frequently interspersed throughout the folded mountains, and located on the Anatolian Plateau, are well-defined basins, which the Turks call ova. Some are nothing more than a widening of a stream valley, others are like the Konya Ovasi large pool of inland drainage or are the result of limestone erosion. Most of the basins take their names from cities or towns located at their edges. Where a lake has formed in the basin, the water is usually saline as a result of the internal drainage – the water has no access to the sea.
Anatolian plateau
Stretching inland from the Aegean coastal plain, takes the Anatolian plateau, the area between the two zones of folded mountains, extending east to the point where the two ranges converge.The plateau-like are semi-arid highlands of Anatolia as the heartland of the country. The region varies in altitude of 600 to 1,200 meters from west to east. The two largest basins on the plateau of the Konya Ovasi and the basin are occupied by the great salt lake, Tuz Gölü. Both basins are characterized by inland drainage. Wooded areas are confined to the northwest and northeast of the plateau. Rain-fed cultivation is widespread, with wheat the most important crops. Irrigated agriculture is limited to areas surrounding rivers and where there is sufficient groundwater available. Important irrigated crops include barley, corn, cotton, fruit, grapes, poppy seeds, beets, roses, and tobacco. There are also extensive grazing throughout the plateau.
The Anatolian Plateau receives little annual precipitation. For instance, the semiarid center of the plateau receives an average annual rainfall of only 300 millimeters. The actual rainfall from year to year is irregular and sometimes can be less than 200 millimeters, leading to a significant reduction in crop yields for both rain-fed and irrigated agriculture. In years of low rainfall, has the losses can be high. Overgrazing, soil erosion has contributed to the plateau.During the summer months, 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 extreme heat, in almost no rainfall in summer and cold weather with heavy snow winter.
Eastern Highlands
Eastern Anatolia, where the Pontus and Taurus Mountains converge, is rugged country with higher elevations, a more severe climate and more rainfall than on the Anatolian plateau. The region, known as the Anti-Taurus, and the average elevation of its peaks over 3,000 meters.Mount Ararat, at 5166 meters the highest point in Turkey, is located in the Anti-Taurus. Many of the Anti-Taurus peaks apparently extinct volcanoes recently, to judge from the extensive lava flows. Turkey’s largest lake, Lake Van in the mountains at an altitude of 1546 meters. The headwaters of three major rivers arise in the Anti-Taurus: the east-flowing Aras, which empties into the Caspian Sea, the south-flowing Euphrates and the south-flowing Tigris, which finally enters the Euphrates in Iraq before emptying into the Persian Gulf. Several small streams flow into the Black Sea or landlocked Lake Van also originate in these mountains.
Most of eastern Anatolia comprises the area historically known as Kurdistan. In addition to its rugged mountains, the area for the harsh winters with heavy snowfall is known. The few valleys and plains in these mountains are generally support productive and diverse agriculture. The main basin is the Mus-valley, west of Lake Van. Dell also lie at the foot of the majestic mountains along the river corridors.
Arabian Platform
The Arabian Platform is in southeast Anatolia south of the Anti-Taurus Mountains. It is a region of rolling hills and a broad plateau surface that extends into Syria. Increases gradually decrease from about 800 meters in the north to about 500 meters to the south. Traditionally, wheat and barley were the main crops of the region, but the inauguration of the new large irrigation projects in the 1980s has led to greater diversity and agricultural development.
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