Which peninsula makes up most of the land area of Turkey?

The Anatolian Peninsula makes up most of Turkey’s land area. Also called Anatolia or Asia Minor, it is the westernmost part of Asia and forms the Asian portion of modern Turkey.

Anatolia is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Aegean Sea to the west. The Turkish Straits and the Sea of Marmara separate it from Turkish Thrace in Europe. Istanbul spans both sides of this geographic divide, while Ankara, Turkey’s capital, lies in the interior.

The peninsula has been a major crossroads for thousands of years. Ancient civilizations including the Hittites, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, and Seljuks ruled or influenced parts of it before the rise of the Ottoman Empire. Anatolia was also an early center of agriculture during the Neolithic period.

A common mix-up is treating Turkey as entirely European or entirely Asian. Turkey is transcontinental: most of its land is in Anatolia, while a much smaller section lies in southeastern Europe.