Discover Türkiye

Coastlines: Türkiye is surrounded by sea on three sides: the Black Sea in the north, the Mediterranean Sea in the south and the Aegean Sea in the west. In the north-west there is an internal sea, the Sea of Marmara, between the straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, which are important waterways that connect the Black Sea with the rest of the world. Including its islands, the coastline of Türkiye is 8,333 km long.

Flora and fauna: As the climate and topography vary greatly in Türkiye, so do the flora and fauna. The Black Sea region is renowned for its forests of leaf-bearing and coniferous trees and for the apples, pears, cherries (which originated in Türkiye), hazelnuts, mandarin oranges, tobacco and tea that are grown there. Along the eastern Mediterranean shores the local vegetation is tropical, with flourishing banana, palm and citrus trees, sugar cane and cotton. On the western Mediterranean, Aegean and Marmara coasts olive, citrus and pine trees are found along the mountains, and on the steppes of Central Anatolia natural pastures with scattered forested areas. In Europe there are 11,500 kinds of flowering flora; in Türkiye this number is 9,000, but 3,000 of these grow only in Türkiye.

Geographical regions: Türkiye is divided into seven geographical regions: the Black Sea region, the Marmara region, the Aegean region, the Mediterranean region, Central Anatolia, and the East and South-east Anatolia regions.

Language: The Turkish language is spread over a large geographical area in Europe and Asia; it is spoken in the Azeri, Turkmen, Tatar, Uzbek, Bashkir, Nogay, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Yakut, Chuvash and other dialects. The oldest written records of Turkish are found upon stone monuments in Central Asia, in the Orhun, Yenisey and Talas regions within the boundaries of present-day Mongolia, and belong to the years 725, 732 and 735 AD. After the formation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, a Latin alphabet using Turkish phonetics was adopted in 1928.

Location: Türkiye straddles the borders of Europe and Asia, with the majority of the country in South-west Asia; it has a total area of 780,580 sq. km. The country is bordered to the east by Georgia, Armenia and Iran, with Iraq, Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; the Aegean Sea, Greece and Bulgaria are to the west, and the Black Sea forms the northern border.

Climate: Although Türkiye is situated in a geographical location where climatic conditions are quite temperate, the diverse nature of the landscape, and in particular the existence of the mountains that run parallel to the coasts, result in significant differences in climatic conditions from one region to the other. While the coastal regions enjoy milder climates, the inland Anatolian plateau experiences hot summers and cold winters with limited rainfall.

Population: The population of Türkiye is characterised by youth and dynamism. Although the official language is Turkish, English is widely spoken, especially in tourist areas; there are many high schools and universities where the curriculum is based on English, and German and French are other commonly spoken foreign languages. Istanbul, which was the capital of three empires, is Türkiye's largest city; Ankara is the capital, and the next largest cities are Izmir, Bursa and Antalya.