European Turkey consists of the provinces of Adrianople, Constantinople and Chatalja, and is separated from Asia by the Bosphorus at Constantinople and by the Dardanelles (Hellespont), the only political neighbor being Bulgaria, on the northwest.
PANORAMA OF THE BOSPHORUS AT THE NARROWEST PART
The Bosphorus, the straight connecting the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea, is so-called after Io, who swam over it in the shape of a heifer. On the western shore is the city of Constantinople. The Bosphorus at this point is about five hundred and fifty yards wide.
Physical Features.—Turkey in Europe is a mountainous country and the chief physical features as it is now limited is the strait of Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. The Bosphorus, which guards the approach to the Black Sea from the Sea of Marmora, is at the same time the focus of all maritime trade between the Mediterranean and Russia, etc., as well as of the overland routes from Europe into Asia Minor. It has fitly been likened to a tortuous river valley over whose wooded banks are scattered forts and towers, cities and villages, castles and parks. The southern gate of the Sea of Marmora is the Dardanelles, which gives an opening into the Ægean.
Turkey in Asia is still more mountainous. The two almost parallel ranges, Taurus and Anti-Taurus, which are the basis of its mountain system, cover almost the whole of the peninsula of Asia Minor or Anatolia with their ramifications and offshoots, forming the surface into elevated plateaus, deep valleys, and enclosed plains. From the Taurus chain the Lebanon range proceeds southwards parallel to the coast of Syria, and, diminishing in elevation in Palestine, terminates on the Red Sea coast at Sinai.
The Euphrates, Tigris, Orontes, and Kizil-Ermak are the chief rivers. (See Asia Minor.)
Climate.—The climate of Turkey in Asia is as varied as the physical features. The great plateau on the north has a distinctly continental climate, rigorous severe winters with intense scorching heat in summer; in the eastern part of the plateau region the mountains are covered with snow for two-thirds of the year, and some of the principal ranges are capped with perpetual snow; here the peasants build their dwellings underground to escape the severity of the seasons. Towards the west the winters are not quite so severe, but the variations of temperature are excessive.
Products and Industry.—The soil of European Turkey is for the most part very fertile, and the cultivated products include most of those usual in central and southern Europe—maize, rice, rye, barley, millet, besides tobacco madder, and cotton. The mineral products are iron in abundance, argentiferous lead ore, copper, sulphur, salt, alum, and a little gold; some deposits of coal have been found, but none are worked. Sheep-breeding is largely carried on.
In Asiatic Turkey the mineral wealth is great; coal and iron are found together in considerable quantities; rich mines of copper exist in the mountains on the south of the Black Sea, and in the Taurus near Diarbekir lead and silver are found at intervals along a line connecting Angora, Sivas, and Trebizond in the north, and the eastern Taurus in the south; green, black, and white marble, and the finest quality of granite, are to be had in many parts of the mountain section.