Geography of Turkey part of Turkey accounts for 95% of the country's area. It is also known as Asia Minor, Asiatic Turkey or the Anatolian Plateau. The term Anatolia is most frequently used in specific reference to the large, semiarid central plateau, which is rimmed by hills and mountains that in many places limit access to the fertile, densely settled coastal regions. The European portion of Turkey, known as Thrace (), encompasses roughly 3% of the total area but is home to more than 10% of the total population. Istanbul, the largest city of Thrace and Turkey, has a population of 11,372,613. Thrace
Thrace (theme) Krum (r. 803–814), Omurtag (r. 814–831), and Symeon (r. 893–927) the border moved by stages south of the Balkan mountains to roughly the line of the present Bulgarian frontier with Greece and Turkey. Thus, at around the start of the 10th century, the theme comprised essentially the eastern half of modern Eastern Thrace, although it extended north along the coast to include Anchialos. From the 11th century, Thrace and Macedonia appear to have been usually combined, as attested by numerous "strategoi" and judges ("kritai") holding jurisdiction over both themes. The name fell out of use as an administrative term in