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( Asia Minor)
Anatolia (Turkish Anadolu, Greek ??at???a, Anatolía) or Asia minor is a region of the Middle East, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. It is a geographic region bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Aegean Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, Greater Syria (Upper Mesopotamia) to the southeast and Transcaucasia and the Iranian plateau to the east. The name Anatolia comes from the Greek A?at??? (?natolí), "rise (i.e. sunrise)," or ??at???a (Anatolía), "(land) of the sunrise" or simply the "East."[1] It likely dates back at least 3,000 years, from the Ionian settlement period in the 1st millennium BC. (See also Ionian League). The Byzantine Greek term Anatolicon ("Eastern") signified the lands to the East of Europe and of the Roman Empire's late-era capital city of Constantinople, also New Rome, (now Istanbul).[2] The etymology of the word supports the idea that Anatolia was a peninsula bordered by the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Eastern Taurus Range. The Turkish form Anadolu derives from the Greek version—both which predated the growth of Constantinople across the Bosporus strait to both continental shores. Turkish folk etymology further breaks down the geographical term into two words Ana ("mother") and Dolu ("full"). Thus, the name means "Full of Motherliness" and is used to advance a pedagogical ideal Women's contribution of mother's milk to national masculine bravery.[3] Less literally, the term is sometimes interpreted as Mother of Cities, referring to Constantinople, perhaps dating to the pre-Islamic era when the Byzantine Empire was the biggest international power known in that part of Asia, and occupied the entire region. The Anatolian peninsula is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean Sea (itself an arm of the Mediterranean) to the west, and the bulk of the Asian mainland to the east.
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