Taurus Mountains

Relief of the Taurus Mountains

The Western Taurus Mountains form an arc around the Gulf of Antalya. It includes the Akdağlar, Bey Mountains, Katrancık Mountain, Kuyucak Mountains, and Geyik Mountains. The East Taşeli Plateau and Goksu River divide it from the Central Taurus Mountains. It has many peaks rising above 3,000–3,700 m (9,800–12,100 ft). Mt. Kizlarsivrisi, 3,086 m (10,125 ft), in the Bey Mountains is the highest peak in the Western Taurus.[3]

• 
  Termessos is an ancient city in the western Taurus
• 
  Antalya with the sunset and mountains in the west
• 
  Alanya, and the surrounding mountains

The Central Taurus Mountains are roughly defined to include northern Mersin Province and northwestern Adana Province. The highest point in the Central Taurus is Mt. Demirkazık (3,756m).[3] The Cilician Gates or Gülek Pass has been the principal pass through the Eastern Taurus since ancient times, connecting the coastal plain of Cilicia with Central Anatolia. The Tarsus-Ankara Highway (E90, O-21) passes through it. Mountain ranges in the Central Taurus include:

• Akçalı Mountains, western
• Bolkar Mountains, central, highest peak Mt. Medetsiz 3,524 m (11,562 ft)
• Aladaglar mountain range, central, highest peak Mt. Kızılkaya 3,771 m (12,372 ft)
• Tahtalı Mountains or Anti-Taurus Mountains
• Munzur mountain range, eastern, highest peak Mt. Akbaba 3,462 m (11,358 ft)
  • Mercan mountain range, within the Munzur

• 
  Aladağlar
• 
  Tahtalı Mountains
• 
  Gülek, Mersin Province
• 
  Railway viaduct, Adana Province
• 
  Near Mersin
• 
  Lake (Karagöl) near the summit

The Southeastern Taurus mountains form the northern boundary of the Southeastern Anatolia Region and North Mesopotamia. They include the Nurhak Mountains, Malatya Mountains, Maden Mountains, Genç Mountains, and Bitlis Mountains. They are in the watershed of the Euphrates River and Tigris River.

• 
  Malatya's Castle district and the Southeastern Taurus
• 
  Karakaya Dam.

The bull was commonly the symbol and depiction of ancient Near Eastern storm gods, hence Taurus the bull, and hence the name of the mountains. The mountains are a place of many ancient storm-god temples.[6] Torrential thunderstorms in these mountains were deemed by the ancient Syrians to be the work of the storm-god Adad to make the Tigris and Euphrates rivers rise and flood and thereby fertilise their land.[7] The Hurrians, probably originators of the various storm-gods of the ancient Near East, were a people whom modern scholars place in the Taurus Mountains at their probable earliest origins.

A Bronze Age archaeological site, where early evidence of tin mining was found, is at Kestel.[8] The pass known in antiquity as the Cilician Gates crosses the range north of Tarsus.

The Amanus range in southern Turkey is where the Taurus Mountains are pushed up as three tectonic plates come together. The Amanus is a natural frontier: west is Cilicia, east is Syria. There are several passes, like the Amanian Gate (Bahçe Pass), which are of great strategical importance. In 333 BC at the Battle of Issus, Alexander the Great defeated Darius III Codomannus in the foothills along the coast between these two passes.[9] In the Second Temple period, Jewish authors seeking to establish with greater precision the geographical definition of the Promised Land, began to construe Mount Hor as a reference to the Amanus range of the Taurus Mountains, which marked the northern limit of the Syrian plain.[10]

Iconic image of Armenian refugees at Taurus Pass

During World War I, the German and Turkish railway system through the Taurus Mountains proved to be a major strategic objective of the Allies. This region was specifically mentioned as a strategically controlled objective slated for surrender to the Allies in the Armistice, which ended hostilities against the Ottoman Empire.[11]