Asia Minor (Latin: ‘Little Asia’) is the historic name for Anatolia (Turkish: ‘Anadolu’, from Greek: ‘sunrise’), the peninsula of west Asia that is now the Asian part of Turkey. It is mainly an elevated plateau, largely mountainous, with a great salt lake (Lake Tuz) in the interior. It is bordered by the Aegean (west), the Sea of Marmara (northwest), the Black Sea (north), the Caucasus (northeast), the Armenian plateau (east), the Taurus Mountains (southeast), and the Mediterranean in the south. In the northwest, Asia Minor is separated from Europe by the Dardanelles Strait (=Hellespont), the Sea of Marmara (=Propontis) and the Bosporus Strait.
The central plateau rises from 600 to 1200 metres west to east. It is wedged between mountain ranges in the south and north, which converge in the east. True lowland is confined to a few narrow coastal strips along the Aegean, Mediterranean, and Black Sea coasts.
The ancient districts included: down the west coast Troad, Mycia, Lydia and Caria; along the north coast Bithynia, Paphlagonia and Pontus; across the centre Phrygia, Lycaonia, Galatia and Cappadocia; and along the south coast Lycia, Pamphylia and Cilicia. Three great rivers discharge into the Black Sea: the Sakarya emerges in Phrygia then passes through Galatia and Bithynia; the Halys (=Kizilirmak) emerges east of Sivas then flows west until it forms a wide bend (the Halys bend) to flow north between Paphlagonia and Pontus; and the Yesilirmak (=Iris) emerges north of Sivas then flows northwards through Pontus. The Tigris and the Euphrates have their headwaters in the mountains of eastern Anatolia.
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