Apamea, Syria
Apamea, on the right bank of the Orontes River, was an ancient Greek and Roman city. It was the capital of Apamene under the Macedonians, became the capital and Metropolitan Archbishopric of late Roman province Syria Secunda, again in the crusader time and since the 20th century a quadruple Catholic titular see. Amongst the impressive ancient remains, the site includes the Great Colonnade which ran for nearly 2 km making it among the longest in the Roman world and the Roman Theatre, one of the largest surviving theatres of the Roman Empire with an estimated seating capacity in excess of 20,000; the site is about 55 km to the northwest of Hama, overlooking the Ghab valley. After the conquest of the region by Alexander the Great and the subsequent wars between his generals, according to the new interpretation of a new historical and iconographic source for hellenistic history, a mosaic of Apamea discovered in 2011, proposed by Olszewski and Saad, the foundation of Pella, the Macedonian military camp took place in the fall 320 BC,just after the Treaty of Triparadeisos at the initiative of Antipater, Cassander's inspiration.
In view of this interpretation, the authors disagree with the earlier hypothesises attributing the foundation of Pella to Alexander the Great or to Antigonos I Monophtalmos. From about 300 BC Pella receive a new status of polis, was fortified and established as a city by Seleucus who named it after his Bactrian wife, Apama daughter of the Sogdian warlor Spitamenes; the site was enclosed in a loop of the Orontes which, with the lake and marshes, gave it a peninsular form whence its other name of Cherronêsos. It was located at a strategic crossroads for Eastern commerce and became one of the four cities of the Syrian tetrapolis. Seleucus made it a military base with 500 elephants, an equestrian stud with 30,000 mares and 300 stallions. After 142 BC, the pretender Diodotus Tryphon made Apamea the base of his operations. Q. Aemilius Secundus did a population survey of the city and its territory which belonged to it in AD 6, in which he counted "117,000 hom civ" – 117,000 citizen human beings, a figure, interpreted as giving a total population of either 130,000 or 500,000, depending on methods used.
In 64 BC Pompey marched south from his winter quarters at or near Antioch and razed the fortress of Apamea when the city was annexed to the Roman Republic. In the revolt of Syria under Q. Caecilius Bassus, it held out against Julius Caesar for three years till the arrival of Cassius in 46 BC. On the outbreak of the Jewish War, the inhabitants of Apamea spared the Jews who lived in their midst and would not suffer them to be murdered or led into captivity. Apamea was captured in 40 BC by the Pompeian-Parthian forces. Much of Apamea was subsequently rebuilt. From 218 until 234 AD the legion II Parthica was stationed in Apamea, when it abandoned support of the usurper Macrinus to the emperor and sided with Elagabalus' rise to the purple who defeated Macrinus in the Battle of Antioch. Apamea was destroyed by Chosroes I in the 6th century. During the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, the city fell in 613 to Shahrbaraz and was in Sasanian hands until near the end of the war. Following the Muslim conquest of Syria in the 638, Apamea was rebuilt and known in Arabic as “Afāmiya” or “Fāmiya”.
It was settled by the Arab tribes of Udhra. However, it only regained its importance under the rule of Aleppo-based Hamdanid dynasty, it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1152. In the Crusades it was still a flourishing and important place and was occupied by Tancred of Galilee. Both the Jerusalem Targumim considered the city of Shepham to be identical with Apamea. Since Apamea belonged to Rabbinic Palestine, the first-fruits brought by Ariston from that town were accepted for sacrifice in Jerusalem. Many remains of the ancient acropolis are still standing, consisting of the remains of the temples of a ornamental character and of which Sozomen speaks; the most significant collection of objects from the site, including many significant architectonic and artistic objects, that can be seen outside of Syria are in Brussels at the Cinquantenaire Museum. As a result of the civil war in Syria, the ancient city has been damaged and looted by treasure hunters. In April 2017, Al-Masdar News published satellite photographs revealing the site was covered in hundreds of holes dug by treasure hunters seeking ancient artifacts.
The Great Colonnade was situated along the main avenue of Apamea and ran for nearly 2 kilometres, making it among the longest in the Roman world. It was rebuilt after the original, dating from the Seleucid Empire, was devastated along with the rest of Apamea in the 115 AD earthquake. Reconstruction started and over the course of the second century the city was rebuilt, starting with the Great Colonnade; the colonnade was aligned along the north-south axis, making up the city's "cardo maximus". Starting at the city's north gate, the colonnade ran in an uninterrupted straight line to the south gate; the northern third of the colonnade's stretch is marked by a monumental votive column that stood opposite the baths. The colonnade passed through the centre of the city and several important buildings were clustered around it, including the baths, the agora, the Temple of Tyche, the nymphaeum, the rotunda, the atrium church and the basilica. On either side of the street a 6.15 metres wide colonnade ran its full length.
The columns were 9 metres (30 ft
Litani River
The Litani River, the classical Leontes, is an important water resource in southern Lebanon. The river rises in the fertile Beqaa Valley, west of Baalbek, empties into the Mediterranean Sea north of Tyre. Exceeding 140 km in length, the Litani River is the longest river in Lebanon and provides an average annual flow estimated at 920 million cubic meters; the waters of the Litani both originate and flow within the borders of Lebanon. It provides a major source for water supply and hydroelectricity both within Southern Lebanon, the country as a whole; the Litani River is named after the Canaanite deity Lotan, a seven-headed sea serpent and servant of the sea god Yam. The river that winds and coils like a serpent through the Beqaa Valley was believed to be the personification of the deity. Historians in the past have claimed that the location of Biblical Misrephoth Maim, the place to which Joshua chased the various tribes after their defeat at the waters of Merom, was the river-mouth of the Litani River, but it is unlikely as the name Litani predates that of the Biblical story.
The Litani was a natural frontier that prevented the Seleucids from encroaching on the Ptolemaic dominion in the Levant. After heading south parallel to the Syrian border, the course of the river bends westward. Near this bend, the Litani comes within five km of the Hasbani River; the portion of the river flowing west is called the Qasimiyeh. The Qasmieh-Ras-el-Aïn region, irrigated from the river's lower reaches from main irrigation canals, to south and north, is one of the largest irrigated areas in the nation, consisting of 32.64 km², shared among 1257 irrigating farmers, who concentrate on citrus crops and bananas. For the entire stretch of the Qasimiyeh as it flows into the Mediterranean Sea, the Litani River remains nearly parallel to the Israeli-Lebanese border. 10 km north of Tyre, the river is crossed by the ancient Leontes Bridge. In June 1941, the mouth of the river was the site of an attack by British commandos and Australian troops on Vichy French forces that became known as the Battle of the Litani River.
Qaraoun, an artificial lake of 11 square km, was created by the Litani River Dam, 60 meters high and 1,350 meters in length, completed in 1959. A spillway of 6503 meters carries the water to the underground station where generators produce a maximum of 185 megawatts of electricity, the largest hydroelectric project in Lebanon; the dam was intended to provide irrigation for 310 km² of farmland in South Lebanon and 80 km² in the Beqaa Valley. The office is at the southern end of the lake on the left side; the lakeside has a number of restaurants specializing in fresh trout. The Litani River Authority was formed in 1954 to facilitate the integrated development of the Litani River Basin. Shortly after its formation, the authority engaged in a massive hydroelectric development project that tapped the 850 meter head potential between Lake Qaraoun and the Mediterranean; this development has brought about major hydrological changes to the Litani River Basin, where the flows from its upper reaches above Lake Qaraoun, referred to as the Upper Litani Basin, are diverted through a system of tunnels and plants, to meet the Mediterranean several kilometers north of its original natural tailwater.
These changes have resulted in the effective hydrological separation between the Upper Litani Basin and the lower reaches. The advent of a protracted civil strife in the 1970s followed by a prolonged occupation in the 1980s that lasted into the 1990s, have plunged the country into disarray, freezing development and investment in infrastructure; the subsequent return to normal conditions has encouraged the river authority to initiate several major water diversion projects from the Upper Litani Basin worth hundreds of millions of US dollars. Battle of the Litani River Operation Litani Ramadan, H. H. Beighley, R. E and Ramamurthy, A. S.. "Temperature and precipitation trends in Lebanon’s largest river: the Litani Basin”, American Society of Civil Engineers, Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 139, pp. 86–95. Ramadan, H. H. Ramamurthy, A. S. and Beighley, R. E. "Inter-annual temperature and precipitation variations over the Litani Basin in response to atmospheric circulation patterns”, Theoretical and Applied Climatology, Volume 108, Numbers 3-4, pp. 563–577.
Ramadan, H. H. Beighley R. E. and Ramamurthy A. S.. "Modeling Streamflow Trends for a Watershed with Limited Data: A case on the Litani Basin, Lebanon” Hydrological Sciences Journal, 57, pp. 1516–1529. Ramadan, H. H. Ramamurthy A. S. and Beighley R. E.. "Sensitivity of the Litani Basin’s runoff in Lebanon to climate change.” International Journal of Environment and Pollution. Bregman, Ahron. Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28716-2 Raad, Daoud, 2004. "Localized irrigation in Qasmieh-Ras-el-Aïn: a technique to be encouraged" pdf file Amery, H. A. 1993. "The Litani River of Lebanon", Geographical Review 83 pp229–237. Where the western Litani empties into the Mediterranean, on Wikimapia Old Feud Over Lebanese River Takes New Turn Assaf and Saadeh, Mark. "Development of an Integrated Decision Support System for Water Quality Control in the Upper Litani Basin, Lebanon", Proceedings of the iEMSs Third Biennial Meeting, "Summit on Environmental Modelling and Software". International Environmental Modelling and Software Society, Burlington, USA, July 2006
Beqaa Valley
The Beqaa Valley transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ and Becaa and known in Classical antiquity as Coele-Syria, is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. It is Lebanon's most important farming region. Industry flourishes in Beqaa that related to agriculture; the Beqaa is located about 30 km east of Beirut. The valley is situated between Mount Lebanon to Anti-Lebanon mountains to the east, it forms the northeasternmost extension of the Great Rift Valley, which stretches from Syria to the Red Sea. Beqaa Valley is 16 kilometres wide on average, it has a Mediterranean climate of wet snowy winters and dry, warm summers. The region receives limited rainfall in the north, because Mount Lebanon creates a rain shadow that blocks precipitation coming from the sea; the northern section has an average annual rainfall of 230 millimetres, compared to 610 millimetres in the central valley. Two rivers originate in the valley: the Orontes, which flows north into Syria and Turkey, the Litani, which flows south and west to the Mediterranean Sea.
From the 1st century BC, when the region was part of the Roman Empire, the Beqaa Valley served as a source of grain for the Roman provinces of the Levant. Today the valley makes up 40 percent of Lebanon's arable land; the northern end of the valley, with its scarce rainfall and less fertile soils, is used as grazing land by pastoral nomads migrants from the Syrian Desert. Farther south, more fertile soils support crops of wheat, corn and vegetables, with vineyards and orchards centered on Zahlé; the valley produces hashish and cultivates opium poppies, which are exported as part of the illegal drug trade. Since 1957 the Litani hydroelectricity project—a series of canals and a dam located at Lake Qaraoun in the southern end of the valley—has improved irrigation to farms in Beqaa Valley. Zahlé is the administrative capital of the Beqaa Governorate, it lies just north of the main Beirut -- Damascus highway. The majority of Zahlé's residents are Lebanese Christian, the majority being Melkite Greek Catholic, Maronite Catholic, Greek Orthodox Christians.
The town of Anjar, situated in the eastern part of the valley, has a predominately Armenian Lebanese population and is famous for its 8th-century Arab ruins. The majority of the inhabitants of the northern districts of Beqaa and Hermel, are Lebanese Shia, with the exception of the town of Deir el Ahmar, whose inhabitants are Christians; the Baalbeck and Hermel districts have a Christian and Sunni minority situated further north along the border with Syria. The western and southern districts of the valley have a mixed population of Muslims and Druze; the town of Joub Janine with a population of about 12,000, is situated midway in the valley, its population is Sunni. Joub Janine is the governmental center of the region known as Western Beqaa, with municipal services like the serail, the main government building in the area, emergency medical services, a fire department, a courthouse. Other towns in the Western Beqaa district are Machghara, Kamed al Lawz, Qab Elias, Yohmor; these towns are all a mix of different Lebanese religious confessions.
Rachaiya al Wadi, east of the Western Beqaa district, is home to Lebanon's share of Mount Hermon and borders Syria also. The district's capital Rachaiya al Wadi, is famous for its old renovated souk and what is known as the castle of independence, in which Lebanon's pre-independence leaders were held by French troops before being released in 1943; the southern section of the district is inhabited with Druze and Christian Lebanese, while the other northern section is inhabited by Sunni Lebanese. Due to wars and the unstable economic and political conditions Lebanon faced in the past, with difficulties some farmers still face today, many previous inhabitants of the valley left for coastal cities in Lebanon or emigrated from the country altogether, with the majority residing in the Americas or Australia; the ancient Roman ruins of Baalbek, an ancient city named for the Canaanite god Baal. The Romans renamed Baalbek "Heliopolis" and built an impressive temple complex, including temples to Bacchus, Jupiter and the Sun.
Today, the ruins are the site of the Baalbeck International Festival, which attracts artists and performance groups from around the world. The Umayyad ruins of Anjar Our Lady of Bekaa, a Marian shrine located in Zahlé, with panoramic views of the valley. Lebanon's tallest minaret, located in the town of Kherbet Rouha The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Bechouat Phoenician Ruins, located in the village of Kamid al lawz Roman Ruins, located in the town of Qab Elias The Aammiq Wetland habitat for a myriad of migrating and resident birds and butterflies The Pyramid tower of Hermel at the northern end of the valley The famous Wadi Arayesh area of Zahlé, consisting of beautiful open air restaurants and arcades located on the river side of the Berdaouni river, a stream linking to the Litani The Beqaa Valley is home to Lebanon's famous vineyards and wineries. Wine making is a tradition. With an average altitude of 1000 m above sea level, the valley's climate is suitable to vineyards. Abundant winter rain and much sunshine in the summer helps the grapes ripen easily.
There are more than a dozen wineries in the Beqaa Valley, producing over six million bottles a year. Beqaa Valley wineries include: Château Ka Château Kefraya Château Khoury Château Ksara Château Marsyas Château Musar
Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient Greek city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. Its ruins lie near the modern city of Antakya and lends the modern city its name. Antioch was founded near the end of the fourth century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals; the city's geographical and economic location benefited its occupants such features as the spice trade, the Silk Road, the Royal Road. It rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the Near East; the city was the capital of the Seleucid Empire until 63 B. C. when the Romans took control. From the early 4th century the city was the seat of the Count of the Orient, head of the regional administration of sixteen provinces, it was the main center of Hellenistic Judaism at the end of the Second Temple period. Antioch was one of the most important cities in the eastern Mediterranean of Rome's dominions, it covered 1,100 acres within the walls of which one quarter was mountain, leaving 750 acres about one-fifth the area of Rome within the Aurelian Walls.
Antioch was called "the cradle of Christianity" as a result of its longevity and the pivotal role that it played in the emergence of both Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianity. The Christian New Testament asserts, it was one of the four cities of the Syrian tetrapolis, its residents were known as Antiochenes. The city was a metropolis of a quarter million people during Augustan times, but it declined to relative insignificance during the Middle Ages because of warfare, repeated earthquakes, a change in trade routes, which no longer passed through Antioch from the far east following the Mongol invasions and conquests. Two routes from the Mediterranean, lying through the Orontes gorge and the Beilan Pass, converge in the plain of the Antioch Lake and are met there by the road from the Amanian Gate and western Commagene, which descends the valley of the Karasu River to the Afrin River, the roads from eastern Commagene and the Euphratean crossings at Samosata and Apamea Zeugma, which descend the valleys of the Afrin and the Quweiq rivers, the road from the Euphratean ford at Thapsacus, which skirts the fringe of the Syrian steppe.
A single route proceeds south in the Orontes valley. The settlement called Meroe pre-dated Antioch. A shrine of the Semitic goddess Anat, called by Herodotus the "Persian Artemis", was located here; this site was included in the eastern suburbs of Antioch. There was a village on the spur of Mount Silpius named Iopolis; this name was always adduced as evidence by Antiochenes anxious to affiliate themselves to the Attic Ionians—an eagerness, illustrated by the Athenian types used on the city's coins. Io may have been a small early colony of trading Greeks. John Malalas mentions an archaic village, Bottia, in the plain by the river. Alexander the Great is said to have camped on the site of Antioch, dedicated an altar to Zeus Bottiaeus; this account is found only in the writings of Libanius, a 4th-century orator from Antioch, may be legend intended to enhance Antioch's status. But the story is not unlikely in itself. After Alexander's death in 323 BC, his generals divided up the territory. After the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, Seleucus I Nicator won the territory of Syria, he proceeded to found four "sister cities" in northwestern Syria, one of, Antioch, a city named in honor of his father Antiochus.
He is reputed to have built sixteen Antiochs. Seleucus founded Antioch on a site chosen through ritual means. An eagle, the bird of Zeus, had been given a piece of sacrificial meat and the city was founded on the site to which the eagle carried the offering. Seleucus did this on the 22nd day of the month of Artemisios in the twelfth year of his reign. Antioch soon rose above Seleucia Pieria to become the Syrian capital; the original city of Seleucus was laid out in imitation of the grid plan of Alexandria by the architect Xenarius. Libanius describes the first arrangement of this city; the citadel was on Mt. Silpius and the city lay on the low ground to the north, fringing the river. Two great colonnaded streets intersected in the centre. Shortly afterwards a second quarter was laid out on the east and by Antiochus I, from an expression of Strabo, appears to have been the native, as contrasted with the Greek, town, it was enclosed by a wall of its own. In the Orontes, north of the city, lay a large island, on this Seleucus II Callinicus began a third walled "city", finished by Antiochus III.
A fourth and last quarter was added by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. From west to east the whole was about 6 kilometres in diameter and a little less from north to south; this area included many large gardens. The new city was populated by a mix of local settlers that Athenians brought from the nearby city of Antigonia and Jews; the total free population of Antioch at its foundation has been estimated at between 17,000 and 25,000, not including slaves and native settlers. During the late Hellenistic period and Early Roman period, Antioch's population reached its peak of over 500,000 inhabitants and was the third largest city in the Empire after Rome and Alexandria. In the second half o
Shaizar
Shaizar is a town in northern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located northwest of Hama. Nearby localities include, Tremseh, Kafr Hud and Halfaya. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Shaizar had a population of 5,953 in the 2004 census. During the Crusades, the town was a fortress, ruled by the Banu Munqidh family, it played an important part in the Muslim politics of the crusades. Shaizar is located at a strategically vital crossing point on the Orontes River, 28 km to the northwest of Hama. In the Amarna letters itis mentioned as Sezar. To the Greeks it was known as Sidzara, but during the Seleucid empire it was renamed Larissa, after the town of the same name in Thessaly from which many colonists came, it reverted to its earlier name under the Roman Empire and was known as Sezer under the Byzantine Empire. The Crusaders rendered the city's name in Latin as Caesarea; this name had not been used in any earlier period, was derived from the Crusaders mistakenly identifying this city as being Caesarea Mazaca, a place renowned in Christian history as the home of Saint Basil of Caesarea.
Shaizar's ruins are known as Saijar in modern Arabic. Shaizar is mentioned as Sezar in the Amarna letters; the region was conquered by Alexander the Great in 333-332 BC. Diodorus Siculus records local legends attributing the establishment of the town by one of his cavalry regiments originating from Thessaly. During the Seleucid dynasty the town was renamed Larissa, after the town in Thessaly from which many colonists came; the Roman armies led by Pompey conquered Syria in 64 BC. Syria was occupied by Republican-Parthian forces under the Parthian prince Pacorus I; the city remained part of the Christianised empire, known as the Byzantine Empire, under the name of Sezer. Shaizar fell to the Arabs in 638 and passed from Arab to Byzantine control, it was sacked in 969 by Byzantine emperor Nicephorus II, was captured by Basil II in 999, after which it became the southern border of the Byzantine Empire and was administered by the Bishop of Shaizar. A Fatimid castle was standing at Shaizar by the time.
It was lost to the Banu Munqidh in 1081. The Byzantines failed to recover it; the Crusaders arrived in Syria in 1098 during the First Crusade. The interaction between the Crusader states and the Banu Munqidh rulers of Shaizar consisted of a series of wars and alliances; the Munqidhites controlled territory east of Shaizar, across the al-Ansariyah mountains to the Mediterranean coast, from the coastal cities of Latakia in the north to Tortosa in the south. During the First Crusade, the emir assisted the crusaders passing through his land, giving them horses and food and other provisions. After the crusade it was bordered by the crusader Principality of Antioch and was subject to raids from both Antioch and the County of Tripoli; when the Crusaders conquered Qalaat al-Madiq, a fortress to the northwest of Shaizar and overlooking ancient Apamea, in 1106, the Banu Munqidh clan harasseed them from their base in Shaizar. In 1106 the Munqidhite emirs Murshid and Sultan defeated William-Jordan of Tripoli, in 1108 and 1110 they had to bribe Tancred of Antioch to leave.
In 1111, Baldwin I of Jerusalem, Bertrand of Tripoli besieged Shaizar for two weeks, but returned home when the army of Mawdud of Mosul cut off their access to food and water. Tancred built a castle nearby on Tell ibn Ma'shar, in order to keep Shaizar under close watch; when Ridwan of Aleppo died in 1113, Shaizar was attacked by his Hashshashin supporters. Shaizar participated in Ilghazi's campaign against Antioch in 1119; when Baldwin II of Jerusalem was taken captive by the Ortoqids outside Edessa in 1123, he was held at Shaizar until his release the next year. As Shaizar was a friendly state, Baldwin was allowed to visit his daughter there, but Shaizar was friendly to its Muslim neighbours, in 1125 was incorporated into the territory of Bursuq of Mosul; when Zengi succeeded in Mosul in 1127 and claimed Aleppo as well, Shaizar recognized his suzerainty. In 1137, Byzantine emperor John II Comnenus arrived to impose Byzantine authority on Antioch, promised Raymond of Antioch a principality consisting of Shaizar, Aleppo and Hama if Antioch was returned to the Empire.
In April the Byzantine army besieged Shaizar, but Raymond and Joscelin II of Edessa did not assist the emperor, Zengi soon arrived to relieve the fortress in May. The emir preferred Byzantine control to Zengid, offered to recognize John as his overlord. Neither John or Zengi really enforced their authority there and Shaizar remained independent; the emirate lasted until the enormous earthquake of 1157, during which the citadel collapsed, killing the entire family, who had assembled there to celebrate a circumcision. The only survivors out of the whole family were the wife of emir, the emir's nephew Usama, the famed poet-knight, on a diplomatic mission to Damascus. Referring to the crusader siege of Shaizar in 1157, William of Tyre writes: "The city of Shayzar lies upon the same Orontes river which flows by Antioch, it is called by some Caesarea, by them is believed to be the famous metropolis of Cappadocia over which the distinguished teacher St. Basil once presided. For that Caesarea is a fifteen days journey or more from Antioc
Turkey
Turkey the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country located in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. East Thrace, located in Europe, is separated from Anatolia by the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorous strait and the Dardanelles. Turkey is bordered by Bulgaria to its northwest. Istanbul is the largest city. 70 to 80 per cent of the country's citizens identify as Turkish. Kurds are the largest minority. At various points in its history, the region has been inhabited by diverse civilizations including the Assyrians, Thracians, Phrygians and Armenians. Hellenization continued into the Byzantine era; the Seljuk Turks began migrating into the area in the 11th century, their victory over the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 symbolizes the start and foundation of Turkey. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, when it disintegrated into small Turkish principalities. Beginning in the late 13th-century, the Ottomans started uniting these Turkish principalities.
After Mehmed II conquered Constantinople in 1453, Ottoman expansion continued under Selim I. During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent the Ottoman Empire encompassed much of Southeast Europe, West Asia and North Africa and became a world power. In the following centuries the state entered a period of decline with a gradual loss of territories and wars. In an effort to consolidate the weakening social and political foundations of the empire, Mahmut II started a period of modernisation in the early 19th century, bringing reforms in all areas of the state including the military and bureaucracy along with the emancipation of all citizens. In 1913, a coup d'état put the country under the control of the Three Pashas. During World War I, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian and Pontic Greek subjects. Following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states; the Turkish War of Independence, initiated by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his colleagues against occupying Allied Powers, resulted in the abolition of monarchy in 1922 and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, with Atatürk as its first president.
Atatürk enacted numerous reforms, many of which incorporated various aspects of Western thought and customs into the new form of Turkish government. The Kurdish–Turkish conflict, an armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and Kurdish insurgents, has been active since 1984 in the southeast of the country. Various Kurdish groups demand separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan or to have autonomy and greater political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey. Turkey is a charter member of the UN, an early member of NATO, the IMF and the World Bank, a founding member of the OECD, OSCE, BSEC, OIC and G-20. After becoming one of the first members of the Council of Europe in 1949, Turkey became an associate member of the EEC in 1963, joined the EU Customs Union in 1995 and started accession negotiations with the European Union in 2005 which have been stopped by the EU in 2017 due to "Turkey's path toward autocratic rule". Turkey's economy and diplomatic initiatives led to its recognition as a regional power while its location has given it geopolitical and strategic importance throughout history.
Turkey is a secular, unitary parliamentary republic which adopted a presidential system with a referendum in 2017. Turkey's current administration headed by president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of the AKP has enacted measures to increase the influence of Islam, undermine Kemalist policies and freedom of the press; the English name of Turkey means "land of the Turks". Middle English usage of Turkye is evidenced in an early work by Chaucer called The Book of the Duchess; the phrase land of Torke is used in the 15th-century Digby Mysteries. Usages can be found in the Dunbar poems, the 16th century Manipulus Vocabulorum and Francis Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum; the modern spelling "Turkey" dates back to at least 1719. The Turkish name Türkiye was adopted in 1923 under the influence of European usage; the Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world. Various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period.
Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family. In fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated; the European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has been inhabited since at least forty thousand years ago, is known to have been in the Neolithic era by about 6000 BC. Göbekli Tepe is the site of the oldest known man-made religious structure, a temple dating to circa 10,000 BC, while Çatalhöyük is a large Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement in southern Anatolia, which existed from approximately
River mouth
A river mouth is the part of a river where the river debouches into another river, a lake, a reservoir, a sea, or an ocean. The water from a river can enter the receiving body in a variety of different ways; the motion of a river is influenced by the relative density of the river compared to the receiving water, the rotation of the earth, any ambient motion in the receiving water, such as tides or seiches. If the river water has a higher density than the surface of the receiving water, the river water will plunge below the surface; the river water will either form an underflow or an interflow within the lake. However, if the river water is lighter than the receiving water, as is the case when fresh river water flows into the sea, the river water will float along the surface of the receiving water as an overflow. Alongside these advective transports, inflowing water will diffuse. At the mouth of a river, the change in flow condition can cause the river to drop any sediment it is carrying; this sediment deposition can generate a variety of landforms, such as deltas, sand bars and tie channels.
Many places in the United Kingdom take their names from their positions at the mouths of rivers, such as Plymouth and Great Yarmouth. Confluence River delta Estuary Liman
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Orontes". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
