Anatolia meaning

Anatolia Turkish : Anadolu , also known as Asia Minor , is a large peninsula or a region in Turkey , constituting most of its contemporary territory. Geographically, the Anatolian region is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean Sea to the west, the Turkish Straits to the north-west, and the Black Sea to the north.

Where is anatolia turkey

The eastern and southeastern boundary is either the southeastern and eastern borders of Turkey, or an imprecise line from the Black Sea to Gulf of Iskenderun. The ancient Anatolian peoples spoke the now-extinct Anatolian languages of the Indo-European language family, which were largely replaced by the Greek language during classical antiquity as well as during the Hellenistic , Roman , and Byzantine periods.

The major Anatolian languages included Hittite, Luwian , and Lydian, while other, poorly attested local languages included Phrygian and Mysian. Hurro-Urartian languages were spoken in the southeastern kingdom of Mitanni , while Galatian, a Celtic language , was spoken in Galatia , central Anatolia. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to an indefinite line running from the Gulf of Alexandretta to the Black Sea , coterminous with the Anatolian Plateau.

This traditional geographical definition is used, for example, in the latest edition of Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. Under this definition, Anatolia is bounded to the east by the Armenian Highlands , and the Euphrates before that river bends to the southeast to enter Mesopotamia. To the southeast, it is bounded by the ranges that separate it from the Orontes valley in Syria and the Mesopotamian plain.

Vazken Davidian terms the expanded use of "Anatolia" to apply to territory in eastern Turkey that was formerly referred to as Armenia which had a sizeable Armenian population before the Armenian genocide an "ahistorical imposition" and notes that a growing body of literature is uncomfortable with referring to the Ottoman East as "Eastern Anatolia".

Anatolia pronunciation

The use of Anatolian designations has varied over time, perhaps originally referring to the Aeolian, Ionian and Dorian colonies situated along the eastern coasts of the Aegean Sea , but also encompassing eastern regions in general. Such use of Anatolian designations was employed during the reign of Roman Emperor Diocletian r. In their widest territorial scope, Anatolian designations were employed during the reign of Roman Emperor Constantine I — , who created the Praetorian prefecture of the East, known in Greek as the Eastern Prefecture, encompassing all eastern regions of the Late Roman Empire and spanning from Thrace to Egypt.

Only after the loss of other eastern regions during the 7th century and the reduction of Byzantine eastern domains to Asia Minor, that region became the only remaining part of the Byzantine East , and thus commonly referred to in Greek as the Eastern part of the Empire. The Latinized form " Anatolia ", with its -ia ending, is probably a Medieval Latin innovation.

The oldest known name for any region within Anatolia is related to its central area, known as the "Land of Hatti" — a designation that was initially used for the land of ancient Hattians , but later became the most common name for the entire territory under the rule of ancient Hittites.