ABSTRACT
The traditional western, northern and southern limits of the continent of Europe are the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The eastern and southeastern limits, however, are mostly on land, and are therefore less obvious. The Ural Mountains and Ural River mark the eastern limit of Europe, but the former run through the centre of one of the major economic regions of Russia. The Caspian Sea, the boundary between former Soviet Transcaucasia and Iran, and the Black Sea mark the limit of Europe in the southeast. Both Russia and Turkey are divided in such a way that each is partly in Europe and partly in Asia. In this book the former Soviet Union, which accounts for nearly half of the area of Europe and a third of its population, is the subject of Chapter 7, while Turkey is included in Southwest Asia, in Chapter 13.
