The Climate Zones
In Turkey you will find three different climate zones coming together: the Euro-Siberian, the Mediterranean and the Iranian-Taurus. Because of this curiosity - in comparison to other countries of the same size - there is an extraordinary variety of topography and vegetation with deserts, huge, high mountains, huge forests and grass lands. These completely different regions are a paradise for botanists and naturalists. About 9.000 different sorts of wild flowers grow??..
The Climate
Among the three climate zones, the Iranian-Taurus is the biggest and most impressive. This zone includes the steppe region of the Central Anatolian Plateau and shows remarkably dry summers but extremely cold winters with temperatures going down to minus 40 degrees Celsius and snow for about 120 days per year. The Euro-Siberian zone includes the areas around Istanbul and the Black Sea coast. Here you will find deciduous European-like forests with oak, ash and beech trees. The temperature during the summer seldom reaches more than 30 degrees.
If you look closely at the different types of rock you will easily find all sorts of indications of the timetable of the earth?s history. The area consists mainly of crystalline ground rocks, which were put under pressure by much younger rock layers which led to the folding of huge mountain chains. It is strange that there seems to no logic in the way this has been done. Sometimes a mountain chain just ends and another one starts or it finishes and becomes a huge plateau. You will find the highest mountains in the east, where they form a natural border with Georgia, Armenia and Iran. Mount Ararat, a former volcano, reaches a height of 5.165 metres, which makes it the highest mountain in Turkey.
Volcanoes have played quite an important role in the shaping of the central and the eastern part of Anatolia. In some parts of the country, the layers of the lava rocks are so young that there is still no good and useful earth on the top. In other regions, especially in Cappadokia, the volcanic ?tuff? stone has created natural wonders of really unbelievable rock formations. In the north and the west of the country countless thermal springs created by volcanoes can be seen. Even today there are extremely strong earthquakes. The earthquake lines, which mainly run in an east-west direction, are responsible for the rocky and indented coastline of the Aegean beaches. This is the reason for the creation of many islands and bays there.
Even the Bosporus and the Dardanelles were created by displacement forced by earth movements. The whole of the Black Sea coast is also the result of downward displacement. Quite typical of this landscape are the lakes, both salt water and fresh water, created as a result of the topography and the extremely high rainfall. The biggest lake, the Van Lake, is 7 times bigger than the lake at Geneva. It covers an area of 4.000 square kilometres. The local tourist information offices have more detailed information.