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Eastern Anatolian Montane Steppe
The Eastern Anatolian montane steppe is a temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion. It is located in the Armenian Highlands, covering parts of eastern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, southern Georgia, and northwestern Iran. Geography The ecoregion occupies the Armenian Highlands, a plateau lying mostly between 1500 to 2500 meters elevation. The volcanic peaks Mount Ararat (5137 m) and Mount Süphan (4058 m) rise above the plateau. It covers portions of eastern Turkey, eastern and southern Armenia, Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, the Javakheti region of southern Georgia, and northwestern Iran. The highlands are bounded on the northeast by the Lesser Caucasus, on the northwest by the Pontic Mountains, and on the south by the Zagros Mountains. To the east the plateau descends towards the Aras-Kura lowlands, and in the Aras valley the ecoregion descends to 375 meters elevation. The northern part of the ecoregion is in the watershed of the upper Aras River ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Van
Lake Van ( tr, Van Gölü; hy, Վանա լիճ, translit=Vana lič̣; ku, Gola Wanê) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the far east of Turkey, in the provinces of Van and Bitlis in the Armenian highlands. It is a saline soda lake, receiving water from many small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains. It is one of the world's few endorheic lakes (a lake having no outlet) of size greater than and has 38% of the country's surface water (including rivers). A volcanic eruption blocked its original outlet in prehistoric times. It is situated at above sea level. Despite the high altitude and winter highs below , high salinity usually prevents it from freezing; the shallow northern section can freeze, but rarely. Hydrology and chemistry Lake Van is across at its widest point. It averages deep. Its greatest known depth is . The surface lies above sea level and the shore length is . It covers and contains (has volume of) . The western portion of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Süphan
Mount Süphan ( tr, Süphan Dağı, ku, Sîpanê Xelatê, hy, Սիփան, Sipan) is a stratovolcano located in eastern Turkey, immediately north of Lake Van. It is the second highest volcano in Turkey, with an elevation of , and has the third highest prominence of the Armenian Highlands, after Mount Ararat (5,137 m) and Mount Aragats (4,090 m). The mountain has two peaks, east and west, separated by a 1.5 km-wide basin; there are two small lakes in this basin. The eastern summit is much larger in area and consists of "a wide snow-covered platform of cairn-like bare rock peaks". From here, the whole northern shore of Lake Van is visible, along with Mount Ararat, the Murat Su plain, and even the Palandöken Dag south of Erzurum. The smaller western summit has fields of lava boulders. A narrow ridge connects the two peaks. All sides of the mountain are marked by lava "ribs". The slope is fairly gentle on all sides except the north. The remains of the small Urartian fort o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erzurum
Erzurum (; ) is a city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. The city uses the double-headed eagle as its coat-of-arms, a motif that has been a common symbol throughout Anatolia since the Bronze Age. Erzurum has winter sports facilities and hosted the 2011 Winter Universiade. Name and etymology The city was originally known in Armenian as Karno K'aghak' ( hy, Կարնոյ քաղաք), meaning city of Karin, to distinguish it from the district of Karin ( Կարին). It is presumed its name was derived from a local tribe called the Karenitis. Darbinian, M. "Erzurum," Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1978, vol. 4, p. 93. An alternate theory contends that a local princely family, the Kamsarakans, the Armenian off-shoot of the Iranian Kārin Pahlav family, lent its name to the locale that eventually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tabriz
Tabriz ( fa, تبریز ; ) is a city in northwestern Iran, serving as the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. It is the List of largest cities of Iran, sixth-most-populous city in Iran. In the Quri Chay, Quru River valley in Iran's historic Azerbaijan (Iran), Azerbaijan region between long ridges of volcanic cones in the Sahand and Eynali mountains, Tabriz's elevation ranges between above sea level. The valley opens up into a plain that gently slopes down to the eastern shores of Lake Urmia, to the west. With cold winters and temperate summers, Tabriz is considered a summer resort. It was named World Carpet Weaving City by the World Crafts Council in October 2015 and Exemplary Tourist City of 2018 by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. With a population of over 1.7 million (2016), Tabriz is the largest economic hub and metropolitan area in northwest Iran. The population is bilingual, speaking Azerbaijani language, Azerbaijani and Persian. Tabriz is a major heavy industrie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Urmia
Lake Urmia; az, اۇرمۇ گؤلۆ, script=Arab, italic=no, Urmu gölü; ku, گۆلائوو رمیەیێ, Gola Ûrmiyeyê; hy, Ուրմիա լիճ, Urmia lich; arc, ܝܡܬܐ ܕܐܘܪܡܝܐ is an endorheic salt lake in Iran. The lake is located between the provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan in Iran, and west of the southern portion of the Caspian Sea. At its greatest extent, it was the largest lake in the Middle East and the sixth-largest saltwater lake on Earth, with a surface area of approximately , a length of , a width of , and a maximum depth of . By late 2017, the lake had shrunk to 10% of its former size (and 1/60 of water volume in 1998) due to persistent general drought in Iran, but also the damming of the local rivers that flow into it, and the pumping of groundwater from the surrounding area. This dry spell was broken in 2019 and the lake is now filling up once again, due to both increased rain and water diversion from the Zab River by the Lake ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endorheic Basin
An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes or swamps, permanent or seasonal, that equilibrate through evaporation. They are also called closed or terminal basins, internal drainage systems, or simply basins. Endorheic regions contrast with exorheic regions. Endorheic water bodies include some of the largest lakes in the world, such as the Caspian Sea, the world's largest inland body of water. Basins with subsurface outflows which eventually lead to the ocean are generally not considered endorheic; they are cryptorheic. Endorheic basins constitute local base levels, defining a limit of erosion and deposition processes of nearby areas. Etymology The term was borrowed from French ''endor(rh)éisme'', coined from the combining form ''endo-'' (from grc, ἔνδον ''éndon'' 'with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia, south of the fertile plains of Southern Russia in Eastern Europe, and north of the mountainous Iranian Plateau of Western Asia. It covers a surface area of (excluding the highly saline lagoon of Garabogazköl to its east) and a volume of . It has a salinity of approximately 1.2% (12 g/L), about a third of the salinity of average seawater. It is bounded by Kazakhstan to the northeast, Russia to the northwest, Azerbaijan to the southwest, Iran to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southeast. The sea stretches nearly from north to south, with an average width of . Its gross coverage is and the surface is about below sea level. Its main freshwater inflow, Europe's longest river, the Volga, enters at the shallow north end. Two deep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kura (Caspian Sea)
The Kura is an east-flowing river south of the Greater Caucasus Mountains which drains the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus east into the Caspian Sea. It also drains the north side of the Lesser Caucasus while its main tributary, the Aras, drains the south side of those mountains. Starting in northeastern Turkey, it flows through Turkey to Georgia, then to Azerbaijan, where it receives the Aras as a right tributary, and enters the Caspian Sea at Neftçala. The total length of the river is . People have inhabited the Caucasus region for thousands of years and first established agriculture in the Kura Valley over 4,500 years ago. Large, complex civilizations eventually grew up on the river, but by 1200 CE, most were reduced to ruin by natural disasters and foreign invaders. The increasing human use, and eventual damage, of the watershed's forests and grasslands, contributed to a rising intensity of floods through the 20th century. In the 1950s, the Soviet Union started b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Sevan
Lake Sevan ( hy, Սևանա լիճ, Sevana lich) is the largest body of water in both Armenia and the Caucasus region. It is one of the largest freshwater high-altitude (alpine) lakes in Eurasia. The lake is situated in Gegharkunik Province, at an altitude of above sea level. The total surface area of its basin is about , which makes up of Armenia's territory. The lake itself is , and the volume is . It is fed by 28 rivers and streams. Only 10% of the incoming water is drained by the Hrazdan River, while the remaining 90% evaporates. The lake provides some 90% of the fish and 80% of the crayfish catch of Armenia. Sevan has significant economic, cultural, and recreational value. Its sole major island (now a peninsula) is home to a medieval monastery. Sevan was heavily exploited for irrigation of the Ararat plain and hydroelectric power generation during the Soviet period. Consequently, its water level decreased by around and its volume reduced by more than 40%. Later two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aras (river)
, az, Araz, fa, ارس, tr, Aras The Aras (also known as the Araks, Arax, Araxes, or Araz) is a river in the Caucasus. It rises in eastern Turkey and flows along the borders between Turkey and Armenia, between Turkey and the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan, between Iran and both Azerbaijan and Armenia, and, finally, through Azerbaijan where it flows into the Kura river. It drains the south side of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains while the Kura drains the north side of the Lesser Caucasus. The river's total length is and its watershed covers an area of . The Aras is one of the longest rivers in the Caucasus. Names In classical antiquity, the river was known to the Greeks as Araxes ( gr, Ἀράξης). Its modern Armenian name is ''Arax'' or ''Araks'' ( hy, Արաքս). Historically it was also known as ''Yeraskh'' ( xcl, Երասխ) and its Old Georgian name is ''Rakhsi'' (). In Azerbaijani, the river's name is ''Araz''. In Persian and Kurdish its name is (''Aras''), a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zagros Mountains
The Zagros Mountains ( ar, جبال زاغروس, translit=Jibal Zaghrus; fa, کوههای زاگرس, Kuh hā-ye Zāgros; ku, چیاکانی زاگرۆس, translit=Çiyakani Zagros; Turkish: ''Zagros Dağları''; Luri: ''Kuh hā-ye Zāgros'' ''کویا زاگرس'') are a long mountain range in Iran, northern Iraq, and southeastern Turkey. This mountain range has a total length of . The Zagros mountain range begins in northwestern Iran and roughly follows Iran's western border while covering much of southeastern Turkey and northeastern Iraq. From this border region, the range continues to the southeast under also the waters of the Persian Gulf. It spans the southern parts of the Armenian highland, the whole length of the western and southwestern Iranian plateau, ending at the Strait of Hormuz. The highest point is Mount Dena, at . Geology The Zagros fold and thrust belt was mainly formed by the collision of two tectonic plates, the Eurasian Plate and the Arabian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pontic Mountains
The Pontic Mountains or Pontic Alps (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Kuzey Anadolu Dağları'', meaning North Anatolian Mountains) form a mountain range in northern Anatolia, Turkey. They are also known as the ''Parhar Mountains'' in the local Turkish language, Turkish and Pontic Greek languages. The term ''Parhar'' originates from a Hittite language, Hittite word meaning "high" or "summit". In ancient Greek, the mountains were called the Paryadres or Parihedri Mountains. Geography The range runs roughly east–west, parallel and close to the southern coast of the Black Sea. It extends northeast into Georgia (country), Georgia, and west into the Sea of Marmara, with the northwestern spur of the Küre Mountains (and their western extension the Akçakoca Mountains) and the Bolu Mountains, following the coast. The highest peak in the range is Kaçkar Dağı, which rises to . The North Anatolian Fault and the Northeast Anatolian Fault, which are east–west-running strike-slip faults, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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