Everything you need to know about Türkiye
Türkiye is the country either side of the straits: eighty-one provinces spread over two continents, a high plateau ringed by mountains, and a coast that runs from the Black Sea round to the Aegean. Learn the shape of it, the facts that make daily life legible from Istanbul to Gaziantep, and the first 101 words of the language the alphabet was rewritten for in 1928.
Read it, then make it stick
Geography of Türkiye
A high plateau ringed by mountains, with the Black Sea above it, the Mediterranean below it and the Aegean on its western side. The straits at Istanbul cut the country in two and are the only sea route out of the Black Sea.
Know the shape of the country
Three maps of Türkiye itself, drawn from the same files the rounds are played on. The eighty-one provinces are the frame everything else sits in; the cities and the water that has decided who held this land go inside it.
Places worth visiting
Essential · Church & mosque
Hagia Sophia
A Byzantine church and later a mosque, under a vast floating dome. The Blue Mosque faces it across the square.
Begin in Istanbul, then cross Anatolia to Cappadocia and the Aegean ruins, with the far east and the Black Sea to go further. Essential is our shortlist for a first trip, and worth a detour goes further. Select a pin to read about a place, then play the map and find them all.
Take Turkish with you
Greetings and politeness
Hello, please, thank you, sorry: the ten openers everything else builds on.
Keep going one country deeper
When you have had your fill of Türkiye, the countries in white have a guide like this one, and every other has maps of its own.
Europe
- Albania
- Andorra
- Armenia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czechia
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Georgia
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Italy
- Kosovo
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- North Macedonia
- Northern Cyprus
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- Vatican City
Asia
- Afghanistan
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh
- Bhutan
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- China
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Iraq
- Israel
- Japan
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Lebanon
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mongolia
- Myanmar
- Nepal
- North Korea
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palestine
- Philippines
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Syria
- Taiwan
- Tajikistan
- Thailand
- Timor-Leste
- Turkmenistan
- United Arab Emirates
- Uzbekistan
- Vietnam
- Yemen
North America
Africa
- Algeria
- Angola
- Benin
- Botswana
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cameroon
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Djibouti
- Egypt
- Eritrea
- Ethiopia
- Gabon
- Ghana
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Kenya
- Liberia
- Libya
- Madagascar
- Mali
- Mauritania
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Republic of the Congo
- Rwanda
- Senegal
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- Somaliland
- South Africa
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Tunisia
- Uganda
- Western Sahara
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe