Turkish Regions

 The First Geography Congress held in Ankara between 6-21 June 1941 divided Turkey into seven regions after long discussions and work. These geographical regions were separated according to their climate, location, fauna and the flora, human habitat, agricultural diversities, transportation, topography, and so on. In

the end, 4 side regions and 3 inner regions were named according to their neighborhood to the four seas Turkey and positions in Anatolia. Most of the cities' borders are within the territory of a single region, but sometimes can be within two, even three regions (such as Sivas, Afyon, Kahramanmaras).

Approximate Real land occupied by the regions within the total of Turkey's whole territory, based on (approximately) Real 814,000 km2 considering the topographical formations instead of Projected 780,500 km2 (301,353 square miles):

# Region Sq Km Sq Mi

1 Eastern Anatolia 171,000 km2 66,023 mi2

2 Central Anatolia 162,000 km2 62,548 mi2

3 Blacksea 146,178 km2 56,439 mi2

4 Mediterranean 122,100 km2 47,143 mi2

5 Aegean 85,000 km2 32,818 mi2

6 Marmara 67,300 km2 25,984 mi2

7 Southeastern Anatolia 61,000 km2 23,552 mi2

Note: In today's maps, Real Area is computed after the calculations of the topography (elevations for example) of a country or region. Meanwhile, the Projected Area of a country or region is calculated on a birds' eye view without considering elevations. Projected Area and Real Area point to the same value for lakes and seas, but on the mountainous regions or countries, the Real Area value will be greater than Projected Area value. So, a greater value difference between these two mapping techniques means that country or region has many elevations (mountains).

To learn more about the provinces and historic sites of each region, please click the appropriate links or on the map above.