The Mediterranean Region ( tr, Akdeniz Bölgesi) is a
geographical region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
of
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
. The largest city in the region is
Antalya
Antalya () is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, fifth-most populous city in Turkey as well as the capital of Antalya Province. Located on Anatolia's southwest coast bordered by the Taurus Mountains, Antalya is the largest Turkish cit ...
. Other big cities are
Adana
Adana (; ; ) is a major city in southern Turkey. It is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The administrative seat of Adana Province, Adana province, it has a population of 2.26 million.
Adana lies in the heart ...
,
Mersin
Mersin (), also known as İçel, is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Mersin Province, Mersin (İçel) Province. It is made up of four municipalities and dis ...
,
Hatay
Hatay Province ( tr, Hatay ili, ) is the southernmost province of Turkey. It is situated almost entirely outside Anatolia, along the eastern coast of the Levantine Sea. The province borders Syria to its south and east, the Turkish province of ...
and
Kahramanmaraş
Marash (Armenian: Մարաշ), officially Kahramanmaraş () and historically Germanicea (Greek: Γερμανίκεια), is a city in the Mediterranean Region of Turkey and the administrative center of Kahramanmaraş Province. Before 1973, Kahrama ...
.
It is bordered by the
Aegean Region
The Aegean Region () is one of the 7 Geographical regions of Turkey, geographical regions of Turkey. The largest city in the region is İzmir. Other big cities are Manisa, Aydın, Denizli, Muğla, Afyonkarahisar and Kütahya.
Located in w ...
to the west, the
Central Anatolia Region to the north, the
Eastern Anatolia Region to the northeast, the
Southeastern Anatolia Region
The Southeastern Anatolia Region ( tr, Güneydoğu Anadolu Bölgesi) is a geographical region of Turkey. The most populous city in the region is Gaziantep. Other examples of big cities are Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır, Mardin and Adıyaman.
It is ...
to the east,
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
to the southeast, and the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...
to the south.
Subdivision
* Adana Section ( tr, Adana Bölümü)
**Çukurova - Taurus Mountains Area ( tr, Çukurova - Toros Yöresi)
**Antakya - Kahramanmaraş Area ( tr, Antakya - Kahramanmaraş Yöresi)
* Antalya Section ( tr, Antalya Bölümü)
**Antalya Area ( tr, Antalya Yöresi)
**Göller Area ( tr, Göller Yöresi)
**Taşeli - Mut Area ( tr, Taşeli - Mut Yöresi)
**Teke Area ( tr, Teke Yöresi)
Ecoregions
Terrestrial
Palearctic
The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa.
The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...
=
Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands
Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands is a terrestrial biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The predominant vegetation in this biome consists of grass and/or shrubs. The climate is temperate and ranges from Semi-arid climate ...
=
*
Central Anatolian steppe
The Central Anatolian steppe is a Palearctic ecoregion in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome. It covers an area of 24,934 km2.
Geography
The Central Anatolian steppe is located in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey ...
=
Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub
Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub is a biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The biome is generally characterized by dry summers and rainy winters, although in some areas rainfall may be uniform. Summers are typically hot in ...
=
*
Anatolian conifer and deciduous mixed forests
The Anatolian conifer and deciduous mixed forests is an ecoregion located in southwestern Anatolia, Turkey. It has a Mediterranean climate, and is part of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome.
Geography
The ecoregion covers the ...
*
Eastern Mediterranean conifer-sclerophyllous-broadleaf forests
Eastern may refer to:
Transportation
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
*Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991
*Eastern Air Li ...
*
Southern Anatolian montane conifer and deciduous forests
Provinces
Provinces that are entirely in the Mediterranean Region:
*
Adana
Adana (; ; ) is a major city in southern Turkey. It is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The administrative seat of Adana Province, Adana province, it has a population of 2.26 million.
Adana lies in the heart ...
*
Antalya
Antalya () is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, fifth-most populous city in Turkey as well as the capital of Antalya Province. Located on Anatolia's southwest coast bordered by the Taurus Mountains, Antalya is the largest Turkish cit ...
*
Mersin
Mersin (), also known as İçel, is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Mersin Province, Mersin (İçel) Province. It is made up of four municipalities and dis ...
*
Burdur
Burdur is a city in southwestern Turkey. The seat of Burdur Province, it is located on the shore of Lake Burdur. Its estimated 2010 population is 78,389.
History
Ancient history
Whilst there is evidence of habitation in the province dating b ...
*
Hatay
Hatay Province ( tr, Hatay ili, ) is the southernmost province of Turkey. It is situated almost entirely outside Anatolia, along the eastern coast of the Levantine Sea. The province borders Syria to its south and east, the Turkish province of ...
*
Isparta
Isparta is a city in western Turkey and the capital of Isparta Province. The city's population was 222,556 in 2010 and its elevation is 1035 m. It is known as the "City of Roses".
Isparta is well-connected to other parts of Turkey via roads. Ant ...
*
Osmaniye
Osmaniye () is a city on the eastern edge of the Çukurova plain in southern Turkey and the capital of Osmaniye province.
Backed by the foothills of the Nur Mountains, Osmaniye lay on one of the old Silk Roads and was always a place of strategic ...
Provinces that are mostly in the Mediterranean Region:
*
Kahramanmaraş
Marash (Armenian: Մարաշ), officially Kahramanmaraş () and historically Germanicea (Greek: Γερμανίκεια), is a city in the Mediterranean Region of Turkey and the administrative center of Kahramanmaraş Province. Before 1973, Kahrama ...
Provinces that are partially in the Mediterranean Region:
*
Konya
Konya () is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium (), although the Seljuks also called it D ...
*
Niğde
Niğde (; grc, Νίγδη; Hittite: Nahita, Naxita) is a city and the capital of Niğde province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey at an elevation of 1,299 m. In 2017 the city population was 141,010 people.
The city is small with plenty ...
*
Kayseri
Kayseri (; el, Καισάρεια) is a large Industrialisation, industrialised List of cities in Turkey, city in Central Anatolia, Turkey, and the capital of Kayseri Province, Kayseri province. The Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality area is comp ...
*
Denizli
Denizli is an industrial city in the southwestern part of Turkey and the eastern end of the alluvial valley formed by the river Büyük Menderes, where the plain reaches an elevation of about . Denizli is located in the country's Aegean Region. ...
*
Gaziantep
Gaziantep (), previously and still informally called Aintab or Antep (), is a major city and capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Mediterranean Region, approximat ...
*
Muğla
Muğla () is a city in southwestern Turkey. The city is the center of the District of Menteşe and Muğla Province, which stretches along Turkey's Aegean coast. Muğla's center is situated inland at an altitude of 660 m and lies at a dista ...
*
Karaman
Karaman, historically known as Laranda (Greek: Λάρανδα), is a city in south central Turkey, located in Central Anatolia, north of the Taurus Mountains, about south of Konya. It is the capital district of the Karaman Province. According to ...
*
Kilis
Kilis is a city in south-central Turkey, near the Syria–Turkey border, border with Syria, and the administrative centre of Kilis Province.
History
Although there aren't any definite information related to its foundation, today's Kilis mainl ...
Geography
Mediterranean Region is a mountainous region.
Toros Mountains, a mountain chain from west to east, covers most of the region. Another chain is
Amonos Mountains
The Nur Mountains ( tr, Nur Dağları, "Mountains of Holy Light"), formerly known as Alma-Dağ, the ancient Amanus ( grc, Ἁμανός), medieval Black Mountain, or Jabal al-Lukkam in Arabic, is a mountain range in the Hatay Province of south ...
which run from north to south in the extreme east of the region. The mountains run in parallel to sea and in most places the mountains meet the sea except in coastal plains. The coastal plains were formed in the lower courses of the rivers. The most important coastal plain is
Çukurova
Çukurova () or the Cilician Plain (''Cilicia Pedias'' in antiquity), is a large fertile plain in the Cilicia region of southern Turkey. The plain covers the easternmost areas of Mersin Province, southern and central Adana Province, western Osman ...
(Cilicia of the antiquity) in the eastern part of the region. It was formed by three rivers,
Berdan,
Seyhan
Seyhan is a district-municipality in the Adana Province of Turkey, core of the Adana urban area. Seyhan is home to 35 percent of the residents of Adana Province and almost half of the residents of the city of Adana. It is the fifth most populous ...
and
Ceyhan. Main lakes of the region, like
Lake Beyşehir
Lake Beyşehir ( tr, Beyşehir Gölü; anciently, Carallis or Karallis ( grc, Κάραλλις), or Caralis or Karalis (Κάραλις)) is a large freshwater lake in Isparta and Konya provinces in southwestern Turkey. It is located at around and ...
,
Lake Eğirdir and
Lake Burdur which form a closed basin are in the north west of the region.
The capital of each province is a city bearing the name of the province except
Antakya
Antakya (), historically known as Antioch ( el, Ἀντιόχεια; hy, Անտիոք, Andiok), is the capital of Hatay Province, the southernmost province of Turkey. The city is located in a well-watered and fertile valley on the Orontes Rive ...
which is the capital city of Hatay Province.
However, as the provinces are the administrative units their border lines do not exactly match that of the region. Thus the region includes also the eastern part of
Muğla Province
Muğla Province ( tr, , ) is a province of Turkey, at the country's south-western corner, on the Aegean Sea. Its seat is Muğla, about inland, while some of Turkey's largest holiday resorts, such as Bodrum, Ölüdeniz, Marmaris and Fethiye, are ...
as well as southern parts of the neighbouring provinces like
Konya Province
Konya Province ( tr, ), in southwest Central Anatolia, is the largest province of Turkey. The Province, provincial Capital (political), capital is the city of Konya. Its traffic code is 42.
The Kızılören solar power plant in Konya will be ...
,
Karaman Province
Karaman Province ( tr, ) is a province of south-central Turkey. It has an area of . A 2010 estimate puts the population at 232,633 people. According to the 2000 census, the population was 243,210. The population density is 27.54 people/km. The ...
and
Niğde Province. On the other hand, northern and eastern parts of Kahramanmaraş Province are not included in Mediterranean region.
Climate
The Mediterranean Region has a
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...
at the coast, with hot, dry summers and mild to cool, wet winters and a
semi-arid continental climate
Continental climates often have a significant annual variation in temperature (warm summers and cold winters). They tend to occur in the middle latitudes (40 to 55 north), within large landmasses where prevailing winds blow overland bringing som ...
in the interior with hot, dry summers and cold, snowy winters.
See also
*
Provinces of Turkey
Turkey is divided into 81 provinces ( tr, il). Each province is divided into a number of districts (). Each provincial government is seated in the central district (). For non- metropolitan municipality designated provinces, the central distr ...
*
Cilicia
Cilicia (); el, Κιλικία, ''Kilikía''; Middle Persian: ''klkyʾy'' (''Klikiyā''); Parthian: ''kylkyʾ'' (''Kilikiyā''); tr, Kilikya). is a geographical region in southern Anatolia in Turkey, extending inland from the northeastern coa ...
Images
File:Taşköprü'nün_Panoramik_Fotoğrafı.jpg, A view of Adana
Adana (; ; ) is a major city in southern Turkey. It is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The administrative seat of Adana Province, Adana province, it has a population of 2.26 million.
Adana lies in the heart ...
with the Roman era Stone Bridge
File:Hıdırlık Tower 03.jpg, A panorama of Antalya
Antalya () is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, fifth-most populous city in Turkey as well as the capital of Antalya Province. Located on Anatolia's southwest coast bordered by the Taurus Mountains, Antalya is the largest Turkish cit ...
with the Roman era Hıdırlık Tower
__NOTOC__
Hıdırlık Tower ( tr, Hıdırlık Kulesi) is a landmark tower of tawny stone in Antalya, Turkey, where Kaleiçi meets Karaalioğlu Park. History
It is believed that the ruling Roman Empire built it in the second century CE on a squ ...
File:Am Yachthafen.JPG, Kaleiçi
Kaleiçi is the historic city center of Antalya, Turkey. Until modern times, almost the entire city was confined within its walls. It has structures dating from the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuq Empire, Seljuk, Ottoman Empire, Ottoman an ...
, the historic city centre of Antalya
Antalya () is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, fifth-most populous city in Turkey as well as the capital of Antalya Province. Located on Anatolia's southwest coast bordered by the Taurus Mountains, Antalya is the largest Turkish cit ...
File:Alanyafromcastle.JPG, Alanya
Alanya (; ), formerly Alaiye, is a beach resort city and a district of Antalya Province on the southern coast of Turkey, in the country's Mediterranean Region, east of the city of Antalya. As of Turkey's 2010 census, the city had a population of ...
Antalya Province
Antalya Province ( tr, ) is located on the Mediterranean coast of south-west Turkey, between the Taurus Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea.
Antalya Province is the centre of Turkey's tourism industry, attracting 30% of foreign tourists visit ...
File:Tip of the Alanya peninsula.jpg, Alanya Castle and the tip of the Alanya
Alanya (; ), formerly Alaiye, is a beach resort city and a district of Antalya Province on the southern coast of Turkey, in the country's Mediterranean Region, east of the city of Antalya. As of Turkey's 2010 census, the city had a population of ...
peninsula
Antalya Province
Antalya Province ( tr, ) is located on the Mediterranean coast of south-west Turkey, between the Taurus Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea.
Antalya Province is the centre of Turkey's tourism industry, attracting 30% of foreign tourists visit ...
File:Kalkan 01.jpg, Kalkan
Kalkan is a town on the Turkish Mediterranean coast, and an important tourist destination. The area includes historical sites (such as Tlos and Kekova) and fine beaches (including Patara Beach and Kaputaş Beach).
Kalkan is an old fishing town, ...
, Kaş
Kaş (; el, Αντίφελλος, translit=Antífellos, translit-std=ISO) is a small fishing, diving, yachting and tourist town, and a district of Antalya Province of Turkey, 168 km west of the city of Antalya. As a tourist resort, it is re ...
Antalya Province
File:Kemer beach, Antalya.jpg, Kemer
Antalya Province
File:Manavgat1-birger-kuehnel.jpg, Manavgat Waterfall
Antalya Province
File:Olympos_beach.jpg, Mt. Olympos (Mt. Tahtalı)
Antalya Province
File:Köprülü Kanyon.JPG, Köprülü Canyon
Köprülü Canyon ( tr, Köprülü Kanyon) is a canyon and a National Park in the Province of Antalya, Turkey. Covering an area of , it was established as a national park by the Ministry of Forest on December 12, 1973.
The canyon is deep in so ...
Burdur Province
File:Salda Gölü 2.jpg, Lake Salda
Burdur Province
File:Mersin Halkevi.jpg, Mersin
Mersin (), also known as İçel, is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Mersin Province, Mersin (İçel) Province. It is made up of four municipalities and dis ...
city centre
File:Mersin Yenişehir promenade.JPG , Mersin
Mersin (), also known as İçel, is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Mersin Province, Mersin (İçel) Province. It is made up of four municipalities and dis ...
coastal promenade
File:AntakyaCarsi.JPG, Antakya
Antakya (), historically known as Antioch ( el, Ἀντιόχεια; hy, Անտիոք, Andiok), is the capital of Hatay Province, the southernmost province of Turkey. The city is located in a well-watered and fertile valley on the Orontes Rive ...
Hatay Province
Hatay Province ( tr, Hatay ili, ) is the southernmost province of Turkey. It is situated almost entirely outside Anatolia, along the eastern coast of the Levantine Sea. The province borders Syria to its south and east, the Turkish province of A ...
File:IskenderunShorelineWithMountain092012.jpg, İskenderun
İskenderun ( ar, الإسكندرونة, el, Αλεξανδρέττα "Little Alexandria"), historically known as Alexandretta and Scanderoon, is a city in Hatay Province on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.
Names
The city was founded as Ale ...
Hatay Province
File:Lake Egirdir.jpg, Lake Eğirdir
Isparta Province
File:Kayaözü Creek, Kahramanmaraş 30.JPG, Kayaözü Creek
Kahramanmaraş Province
References
External links
*
{{Coord, 37, 00, N, 34, 00, E, type:adm1st_source:kolossus-itwiki, display=title
Regions of Turkey
Mediterranean