Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/769

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 SIA MINOR is the name commonly given by geographers to the portion of Western Asia which projects from the main mass of the continent towards the west, between the Black Sea and the eastern basin of the Mediterranean, and which at its north-western extremity approaches so closely to Europe as to be separated from it only by the two narrow straits of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. It is situated between 36 and 42 of N. lat., and between 26 and 40 of E. long., and is about equal in superficial extent to France, while it is but little inferior to the peninsula of Spain and Portugal, with which it offers some striking analogies. But while its boundaries on three sides the Black Sea on the N., the ^Egean Sea or Archipelago on the W., and the Mediterranean on the S. are clearly defined by nature, its eastern boundary is wholly arbitrary and uncertain. The ranges of mountains which extend from the Gulf of Scanderoon, at the north eastern extremity of the Mediterranean, across to the Black Sea near Trebizond, are so far from forming a continuous range like the Pyrenees, that they are broken into a number of irregular groups and masses, some of which may be regarded as continuations of the Taurus on the south, while others are connected with the highlands and moun tain ranges of Armenia on the north ; and the great river Euphrates forces its way through the central mass of moun tains, nearly at right angles to the general direction of the chain. Hence it is impossible to separate Asia Minor on this side from the adjoining regions of Armenia and Meso potamia by any real or physical boundary, and for this very reason the political limits have in all ages been very vague and fluctuating. For the purpose of geographical descrip tion it may suffice to take a line roughly drawn along the mountain ranges from the Gulf of Scanderoon or Issus to the Euphrates, between Samosata and Malatiyeh, thence to follow the line of that river to the point near Erzinjan where it first turns to the south, and thence to draw an imaginary line to the Black Sea, a little to the eastward of Trebizond. The tract extending along the coast eastwards from the latter city to Batoum, though included within the limits of Turkey in Asia, belongs in a geographical sense to Armenia rather than to Asia Minor. But whatever line of demarcation be assumed, it must be carefully borne in mind that it does not correspond to any natural boundary. The term Asia Minor, notwithstanding its ancient form, is of comparatively modern introduction, and was unknown to the principal Greek and Roman geographers. Orosius, who wrote early in the 5th century, was the first writer who employs the term in this sense, and he introduces it in a manner that shows it was not yet in general use. The name of Asia was, indeed, specially applied from a much earlier period by the Romans to the province which they constituted out of the Greek kingdom of Pergamus, and which was extended by subsequent additions till it com prised a large portion of the peninsula, but it was never at any time coextensive with the geographical region we are considering, nor do we find the distinctive epithet of Minor applied to it before the time of Orosius. The name of Anatolia, which is not unfrequently used by modern geographers as synonymous with Asia Minor, is obviously a Greek term derived from [ Greek ], the sunrise, and thus corresponding exactly to the modern term of &quot;the Levant.&quot; It appears to have first come into use under the Byzantine empire, and is first found in the works of Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the 10th century. It has been retained in general usage by the Turks, but is employed very irregularly, being sometimes applied in an administrative sense only to the portion of the peninsula westward of the Halys, at other times extended even be yond the limits which we have assigned to Asia Minor. The use of the latter appellation is therefore decidedly pre ferable as a geographical term. The territory comprised within the limits above proposed is about 650 English miles in length, from Malatiyeh on the Euphrates to the promontory opposite the Island of Scio; but if the line be drawn from Cape Sigeum, at the entrance of the Dardanelles, to the boundary beyond Trebizond, the distance amounts to more than 720 miles. Its greatest breadth from Cape Anamur (Anemurium) on the south coast, to Cape Kerembeh (Carambis) on the north, is just about G of latitude, or 420 English miles ; but a line drawn from the head of the Gulf of Scanderoon to the nearest point of the Black Sea (at Ordu) does not exceed 300 miles. This may, therefore, be considered as the isthmus by which the peninsula of Asia Minor is joined to the main continent. But very erroneous notions prevailed in ancient times, and even down to a comparatively recent date, with regard to the width from sea to sea, so that the peninsular character of the region to the west of it was greatly exaggerated. Herodotus stated that it was only five days journey for an active man from the east of Cilicia to Sinope on the EuxLne; other authors extended this to seven days ; and Pliny gives the distance from Ainisus to the Gulf of Issus at only 200 Roman miles (about 185 English miles). Even in the last century the great geographer D Auville diminished the width of the isthmus between the two seas by a whole degree, or about 70 English miles. Asia Minor, therefore, can only be termed a peninsula in the same vague and general sense in which that expres sion is applied to the peninsula of Spain and Portugal. It has been already observed that there are several points of analogy between the two, not only from their forming re spectively the westernmost portions of the two continents of Europe and Asia, and occupying much the same position in latitude, but still more in regard to their general conformation and structure. In both cases the interior of the country is occupied by a vast table-land, which forms, as it were, the nucleus of the whole, while ranges of mountains border this elevated tract on all sides, and these again are separated from the sea by valleys or plains at a low level, which are in many cases regions of surpassing fertility. The central plateau of Asia Minor is, however, more extensive than that of the Spanish peninsula, and occupies a much greater por tion of the whole country. Beginning on the east with Cappadocia, the whole of which extensive province is more than 3000 feet above the sea, it is continued to the foot of Mount Taurus, by the high table-lands of Lycaonia and Isauria, the former of which is even superior in elevation to Cappadocia ; while to the north of these two districts it comprises the whole of Galatia, and by far the greater part of Phrygia, together with portions of the adjoining provinces of Mysia and Bithynia. No part of this extensive region is situated less than 2000 feet above the sea, except where it is occasionally cut into by deep valleys on its northern or western borders. A tract of such great extent naturally presents great diversity of surface, and is not only varied by extensive undulations, and occasionally by deep valleys, but is traversed in different directions by numerous ranges of mountains, some of them rising to a considerable altitude above the ordinary level of the surrounding plains. These ranges separate the different portions of the gjeat central plateau from one another, and thus divide them into several basins, 