Taurus Mountains

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Overview map

The Taurus Mountains ( Turkish: Toros Dağları, Kurdish: Çiyayên Torosê ) is a more than 1500 km long, situated in Turkey part of a complex chain alpidischen mountain system in Western Asia. It starts in the southwest of Turkey, where he largely follows the Mediterranean coast, and runs north from Syria to the eastern border of Turkey.

Structure of the Taurus

Basically, you divide the Taurus in the Western, Central and South-Eastern Taurus and the Taurus interior. A small-scale division can be done by naming the located in the Taurus region ( from west to east): Lycian Taurus, Cilician Taurus, Anti- Taurus ( or aladaglar ) and Armenian Taurus.

West Taurus

The Western Taurus (Turkish: Batı Toroslar ) extends from the Lycian peninsula starting in an arc about the level of Antalya, and then follows on the Mediterranean coast in the east. This part of the Taurus is also called Lycian Taurus. The highest mountain of the region is 3086 m with the nearby Elmalı in the Antalya region Kızlar Sivrisi Tepesi (36 ° 36'16 " N 30 ° 7'13 " E). In the Western Taurus is the Lycian Way, which runs between Antalya and Fethiye 509 km through the Toros Mountains and along the Lycian coast.

Central Taurus

The central Taurus (Turkish: Orta Toroslar ) extends in an arc from the Mersin Province in the west to the province of Kahramanmaras in the east. Here achieve numerous mountain heights 3000-3700 m. 40 km southeast of the city of Nigde is the highest mountain region of the central Taurus: the aladaglar Mountains, which was declared a National Park in 1995. The highest mountain is the Demirkazik Dagi ( 3756 meters ). He is considered the highest of the entire Taurus, the location in the Hakkari Dağları, so in the eastern part of the Taurus Uludoruk Tepesi is with 4135 m significantly higher. From the various sources is not clear whether the Hakkari Dağları include, for Osttaurus or not. In the north of the Erciyes Dagi aladaglar ( 3891 m) dominates the landscape. He counts as a volcano but geologically not the Taurus. North of Tarsus the Cilician Gates, the only pass lies in the fertile lowlands of Adana.

South East Taurus

The south-eastern Taurus (Turkish: Güney Dogu Toroslar ) extends from the north-south running only Dağları Mountains to the eastern border of Turkey where the Hakkari Dağları are. Counting the Hakkari Dağları with the Osttaurus, this would be the highest mountain region. Here there are two mountains go over 4000 m: the Cilo Dagi ( 4116 meters) and the already mentioned Uludoruk Tepesi ( 4135 m), second highest mountain in Turkey. In the Middle south of the south- eastern Taurus is the Atatürk Dam of - is the largest reservoir in Turkey - with the Euphrates as inflow.

Inner Taurus

The interior Taurus is a parallel to the central south-western Taurus extending in the north part of the Taurus. Here is the headwaters of the Euphrates and Tigris. To the north, the Inner Taurus passes into the Pontic Mountains.

Geology

The mountain ranges of the Taurus start as Zweitausender the Mediterranean ( Muğla, Antalya) and then turn to the northeast almost to the Black Sea and toward Armenia. They are divided into parallel chains and rich in places closer to the 4000 meters. The erosion along geological faults and by river valleys could not quite keep pace because the orogeny was especially fierce here with the alpiden uplift. The mountains are continued in a huge arc over the southeast Turkey and thousands of kilometers in the Persian Alborz and Zagros Mountains and the Hindu Kush. Many of these regions are periodically affected by earthquakes and volcanism, although with varying parts of the earth's crust.

Also occur in Osttaurus NE-SW parallel chain systems, as it is typical in Central Anatolia. To the east, they fan out more and more. The height of each mountain range is 3000-4400 m, the valley areas between the mountain ranges to 2000 m.

South of the mountain Süphan the Taurus chains stretch to Lake Van and Hakkari. However, the south-eastern foothills are lower by an average of 1000 m.

Within a radius of Lake Van - halfway between northern Iraq and Armenia - meet the two mountain areas to the Armenian Highlands. Here are all the chains of volcanoes can be powerful volcanic ceilings arise. In addition to the Ararat ( 5137 m) and Mount Suphan ( 4058 m), the volcano Nemrut ( 3050 m) and to the west of Erciyes Dagi ( 3891 meters) and the Hasan Dagi ( 3268 meters ) to mention.

The highlands are intensely folded and formed a variety of tectonic basins, some of which were by river sediments to levels. This can be found in the region also several large lakes.

Taurus off the plane