Turkey

Turkey is a country that sits between Europe and Asia. Most of its land, a large area called Anatolia, is in Asia. A smaller part in the northwest is in Europe. A narrow sea called the Bosporus divides the two. Turkey's capital city is Ankara, but its biggest and most famous city is Istanbul. About 85 million people live in Turkey today.

The country is shaped a bit like a long rectangle. It is bordered by Greece and Bulgaria to the west, and by Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq, and Syria along its eastern and southern edges. It has long coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea, the Aegean Sea, and the Black Sea.

Turkey's land is full of mountains, beaches, and dry plains. Its tallest peak is Mount Ararat, which rises more than 16,000 feet. That is taller than any mountain in the mainland United States outside of Alaska. According to the Bible, Noah's Ark came to rest on Mount Ararat after the flood. People have searched its slopes for pieces of the ark for hundreds of years, but nothing has ever been confirmed.

Few places on Earth have as much ancient history packed into them. The city of Istanbul was founded around 660 BCE by Greek settlers. Later it became Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, for more than a thousand years. In 1453, the Ottoman Turks captured the city. The Ottoman Empire then ruled a huge stretch of land across three continents for about 600 years. Old mosques, churches, and palaces from both empires still stand side by side in Istanbul today.

Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 by a leader named Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. He turned the country from an empire into a republic. He changed the alphabet from Arabic letters to Latin letters, like the ones you are reading now. He also gave women the right to vote in 1934, before many countries in Europe did.

Turkish food is famous around the world. Kebabs, flatbreads, yogurt, and sweet baklava all come from Turkish cooking. Tea is the national drink, served in small tulip-shaped glasses. Turks drink more tea per person than anyone else on Earth.

Tourists visit Turkey to see places like the Hagia Sophia, a giant domed building that has been a church, a mosque, and a museum during its 1,500 years. In the region of Cappadocia, people once carved whole cities into soft volcanic rock. Hot-air balloons now float over those ancient carved homes every morning at sunrise.