Türkiye

Ali Tanoglu

This article presents the Atlas of Turkey, compiled by the Institute of Geography at Istanbul University under the direction of Professor Ali Tanoglu, comprising 60 map pages that illustrate the country's natural features, population, and economy. It focuses on the land-use map of Turkey and its key findings: cultivated land occupies a small proportion of the total area and is highly fragmented, primarily due to natural constraints such as aridity, high average elevation (1,132 m), mountainous limestone terrain, and limited water and arable soil, compounded by historical, social, and economic factors. The author argues that recent efforts to expand cropland at the expense of pastures and forests are unsustainable, given that forest cover barely reaches 13% of the national territory. Instead, policy should prioritize reducing fallow land, applying dry-farming techniques, and especially expanding irrigated agriculture, while emphasizing that farmer education remains the fundamental prerequisite for solving the land-use problem.

H. Paschinger

This review discusses the Atlas of Turkey, the country's first national comprehensive atlas, published in 1961 by the Faculty of Letters, University of Istanbul. The atlas contains 82 maps and 13 diagrams at scales ranging from 1:800,000 to 1:6,000,000, covering topics such as topography, geology, climate, vegetation, oceanography, population, land use, agriculture, mineral resources and industry, trade, transportation, and administrative divisions. Notably, climate maps are particularly abundant (41 maps), though some data originate from the early 1950s and are somewhat outdated. The reviewer notes an uneven distribution of maps across thematic areas, with the absence of a geomorphological map, a detailed vegetation map, and more refined maps of hydrology, industry, and transportation. Nevertheless, the atlas is regarded as a commendable pioneering achievement that will likely require a second edition soon.

Ena L. Yonge

This article provides a systematic summary review of approximately one hundred regional atlases from around the world, organized primarily by continent (or other large region) and then alphabetically by country within each group. The author begins by noting that the ever-increasing flood of atlases—national, regional, topical, and special—makes individual reviews impossible, thus necessitating summary evaluations to acknowledge important publications while respecting space constraints. The review covers representative works from Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, North America, and South America, encompassing road atlases, historical-geographical atlases, national atlases, climatic atlases, economic atlases, and school atlases. Each atlas is assessed in terms of its compiling institution, editors, scales, number of plates, content structure, cartographic techniques, printing quality, and scholarly value, with notable features and shortcomings highlighted. For instance, the European section evaluates works such as the Euroatlas, Atlas östliches Mitteleuropa, Atlas von Niederösterreich, Atlas de Belgique, Climatic Atlas of Czechoslovakia, Atlas of Denmark, and Atlas of Finland, while the American section covers state atlases from Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia, as well as national atlases from Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela. The article emphasizes that these atlases not only reflect the research standards of geography and cartography in their respective countries but also serve as vital references for regional planning, economic development, historical research, and education. The author concludes by acknowledging that no single individual can possess sufficient expertise across all aspects of geography, cartography, and linguistics to render definitive critical judgments, yet such summaries offer valuable guidance to scholars, with a forthcoming review of world atlases and special atlases announced.

Wolf Hütteroth

This article comprises two book reviews in geography. The first review discusses a study on ice-marginal landforms in the Valais, Switzerland, noting that the formation period and mechanisms of ice-marginal terraces there differ from those in the Eastern Alps, possibly dating to the Gschnitz rather than the Schlern period, and highlights difficulties in reconstructing former glaciers. The second review evaluates the 'Atlas of Turkey', acknowledging its value as the first Turkish national atlas, detailing its contents, especially the climatic maps, while also pointing out shortcomings in thematic maps on vegetation and population, as well as outdated statistical data.

W. Hütteroth

This article reviews the Atlas of Turkey (Türkiye Atlası), published in 1961 by the Geographical Institute of the University of Istanbul. As Turkey's first national atlas, it comprises 87 colored maps covering topography, geology, climate, vegetation, population, and land use. The review highlights strengths in climatic and population mapping but notes shortcomings in vegetation coverage, administrative unit references, and outdated statistical data. The author recommends future editions include more detailed regional maps and updated information, emphasizing the atlas's significant value for regional geographic research in Turkey.

Özer Soysal

This article provides a comprehensive evaluation of the Atlas of Turkey. Compiled by scholars from the Geography Department of Istanbul University, the atlas contains 77 maps and 18 diagrams covering topography, climate, vegetation, hydrology, population, agriculture, industry, trade, transportation, and administration. The article notes that although publication was delayed until 1961 due to technical and financial difficulties, and the atlas suffers from shortcomings such as lack of indexes, undated and unscaled maps, and occasional toponymic errors, it remains an authoritative and valuable addition to Turkish geographical reference literature. The author highlights the atlas's diversity of content and mixed provenance of sources, and recommends improvements in scale selection and content completion for future editions.

Cevat R. Gürsoy; Mesut Elibüyük

Marcel Bazin

This article reviews the development of national and regional atlases in Turkey. The tradition began in the 1930s with Faik Sabri Duran's Grand World Atlas, but the 1961 Atlas of Turkey, though ambitious, was quickly outdated due to obsolete data (e.g., population based on the 1935 census). The 1977 New Atlas of Turkey, published by the military, disappointed scholars due to limited thematic coverage, uneven content, and factual errors. Subsequently, Turkish geographers turned to scattered high-quality publications, such as maps in the Tübingen Atlas of the Middle East. The article concludes that Turkey's administrative structure, lacking intermediate levels, hinders regional atlas production, making regional synthesis manuals a more likely path forward.