Environment

                        Turkey's no footbridge between Europe and Asia. It's a 1700km (1050mi)
                        drive from Edirne on the Bulgarian border to Kars on the Armenian border
                        and a 1000km (620mi) hike from the Black Sea in the north to the
                        Mediterranean in the south. Ticking clockwise from the northwest, Turkey
                        shares borders with Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq and
                        Syria. The country is no desert-and-palm-tree album either: mountains,
                        rolling steppe, meandering rivers, rich agricultural valleys and a craggy,
                        beachy 8400km (5200mi) coastline all muck in to keep Turkey interesting.

                        There are still considerable forests in eastern Anatolia, the Black Sea area
                        and along the Mediterranean coast, west of Antalya. Great swaths of wild
                        flowers cover the steppes in spring making fine splashes of colour. Turkey
                        has similar animal life to that in the Balkans and much of Europe: bears,
                        deer, jackals, lynx, wild boars, wolves and rare leopards. The beautiful Van
                        cat is a native: it has pure white fur and different-coloured eyes - one blue,
                        one green. You're more likely to see cattle, horses, donkey, goats and
                        sheep though. Turkish shepherds are proud of their powerful, fierce,
                        Kangal sheep dogs which guard the flocks from wolves. Bird life is
                        exceptionally rich, with a squawking mess of eagles, vultures and storks
                        staking out airspace, as well as rare species such as the bald ibis.

                        The Aegean and Mediterranean coasts have mild, rainy winters and hot, dry
                        summers. In Istanbul, summer temperatures average around 28 to 30C (82
                        to 86F); the winters are chilly but usually above freezing, with rain and
                        perhaps a dusting of snow. The Anatolian plateau is cooler in summer and
                        quite cold in winter. The Black Sea coast is mild and rainy in summer, and
                        chilly and rainy in winter. Mountainous eastern Turkey is very cold and
                        snowy in winter and only pleasantly warm in high summer. The southeast is
                        dry and mild in winter and very hot in summer, with temperatures above 45C
                        (113F) not unusual.
 
 

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