Turkey: Regions, Cities & Travel Guide

What is Turkey known for?

Turkey is known as the country that spans two continents, its land divided between Europe and Asia. Two seas frame it. From the shores of the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the highlands of Anatolia, the nation draws travellers to Istanbul, Ankara, and Antalya, a crossroads of West Asia and Southeast Europe.

Where is Turkey?

Turkey occupies the broad peninsula of Anatolia in West Asia, with a smaller corner, East Thrace, reaching into Southeast Europe. It sits astride two continents. The Black Sea washes its northern coast, the Aegean Sea its west, and the Mediterranean Sea its south, so water rings the country on three sides.

Land closes the rest. To the east lie Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran, while Iraq and Syria run along the southeast and Greece and Bulgaria meet East Thrace in the west. Those borders enclose one of the larger countries of West Asia.

Turkey stretches from the European shore across the whole of Anatolia toward the eastern mountains, a long span from the Aegean Sea to the frontier with Iran. Its reach is wide. Istanbul straddles the strait between Europe and Asia, Ankara sits on the central Anatolian plateau, and İzmir and Antalya hold the western and southern coasts, the country arranged around this spread of cities between the seas.

What is the history of Turkey?

Turkey carries one of the longest records of settled history in West Asia, on land that has joined Europe and Asia for thousands of years. Empires rose here. Anatolia and East Thrace passed through many hands over the centuries, a meeting ground of continents whose cities and trade routes linked the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.

The ground holds deep memory. The modern state was founded in 1923 as the Republic of Türkiye. Ankara became its capital.

This new republic drew the country together across Anatolia and East Thrace, moving the seat of government inland from Istanbul to the Anatolian plateau, while Istanbul remained the largest city on the strait between Europe and Asia. Türkiye took its present shape.

What is Turkey like?

Turkey stands where the cultures of Europe and Asia meet, and daily life carries both threads. Turkish is the national language. It reaches across Anatolia and East Thrace, binding a country that is mostly ethnic Turks, with Kurds forming the largest minority, in a land where mosque and market have shaped town life for centuries across West Asia.

Faith and food run deep in the culture. The table is generous. Officially a secular state with a Muslim-majority people, Turkey blends the traditions of Anatolia with the influences of Southeast Europe, its cooking and hospitality known from the Aegean Sea coast to the eastern highlands.

The warmth toward guests is old and real.

What is the climate of Turkey?

Turkey has a temperate climate that shifts sharply from coast to interior. The seas soften the edges. Warm, dry summers and mild winters mark the Aegean Sea and Mediterranean Sea shores, while the high plateau of Anatolia swings to hot summers and cold, snowy winters far from the moderating water.

The interior runs to extremes.

How do you get to Turkey?

Turkey is entered by most visitors through Istanbul, the largest city and the country's main point of arrival between Europe and Asia. Its airports lead in. Overland routes cross the borders it shares with Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, while ferries and coastal roads reach the shores of the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and Ankara anchors the routes of the Anatolian interior.