The Balkans are in southern Europe. The Balkan Peninsula in
southeastern Europe is located between the Adriatic and Black Seas. The
natural landscapes of the region are mixed landscapes with many high
mountain ranges, as well as dense forests, plains and rivers.
Some strict geographic descriptions define the Balkan Peninsula as the
lands south of the Sava in Serbia and the Danube below Belgrade.
However, the description of the peninsula is not an appropriate division
when considering the historical-administrative and cultural division.
Slovenia is sometimes considered part of the Balkans, but more often
considered part of Central Europe. Greece occupies the southern tip of
the Balkan Peninsula; however, most of Greece's main tourist
destinations lie on its islands, which, along with a shared culture,
separate it from the Balkans. And the most southeast of the Balkan
Peninsula is Eastern Thrace - the European part of Turkey.
Albania
Bulgaria
Bosnia and Herzegovina
North Macedonia
Moldova
Romania
Serbia
Croatia
Montenegro
Kosovo
Pridnestrovian
Moldavian Republic
The modern name of the Balkan Peninsula comes from the name of the
mountains of the same name. The origin of the word Balkans is unclear;
it may be related to Persian bālk "mud" and the Turkish suffix -an
"marshy forest", or Persian balā-khana "big high house". Related words
are also found in Turkic languages. In modern Turkish, balkan means
"chain of wooded mountains".
The name was used mainly during the
Ottoman era. In antiquity, Stara Planina (the Balkan Mountains) was
called other Greek. Αἶμος, lat. haemus.
coast
The shores of the Balkan Peninsula are strongly dissected,
have small bays. The shores of the Adriatic and Aegean seas are the most
indented; The shores of the Black Sea are slightly indented. There are
many islands off the coast of the Balkan Peninsula (their total area is
21.5 thousand km²).
Relief
The relief of the Balkan Peninsula
is dominated by mountains stretching from the southwest to the
northeast. In the west of the peninsula is the Dinaric Highlands (on the
territory of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro; karst
landforms are widespread here), south of the Dalmatian Highlands (in
Albania, Greece and North Macedonia) - the Pindus Mountains; the latter
in the south pass into the mountains of the Peloponnese peninsula
(Greece). In the north of the peninsula (mainly in Bulgaria), the
mountains are represented by the Rila massifs (with the highest point of
the Balkan Peninsula - Mount Musala, 2925 m), Pirin (alpine-type
relief), Stara Planina (Balkan Mountains; border in the north with the
Danube Plain) and The Rhodopes (Rhodope Mountains), facing south to the
Aegean Sea. These mountains are mostly low and gently sloping. There are
few plains, they are located mainly along the outskirts of the peninsula
and in intermountain basins (the main ones are the Thracian,
Thessaloniki, Albanian and Thessaly lowlands; partly on the territory of
the Balkan Peninsula - the Middle Danube and Lower Danube plains).
Geologically, the Balkan Peninsula belongs to the Alpine folded
region (on its territory there are three ancient massifs formed in the
Precambrian era: Pelagonic, Rhodope and Serbo-Macedonian).
Climate
The climate in the north of the Balkan Peninsula and in the
central regions is temperate continental, with cold and snowy winters
and hot and dry summers. The average July temperature is 22°C; the
average temperature in January is -1 °C in the plains and -5 °C in the
mountains.
The climate in the south and west is subtropical
Mediterranean with hot summers and cool winters. The average July
temperature is 26°C; the average January temperature is 10 °C.
The climate in the northeast is oceanic and subtropical with warm
summers and cool winters. The average July temperature is 22°C; the
average January temperature is 5 °C.
In the mountains,
altitudinal zonality. The west is highly humid (annual precipitation
reaches 5000 mm), in the east and south there is much less precipitation
(sometimes less than 500 mm per year).
Hydrography
The rivers
are mostly mountainous, with numerous rapids and rifts; food is mainly
snow and rain (full-flowing in winter and spring; in summer, small
rivers in the south of the peninsula often dry up); have great energy
potential, are used for irrigation, the largest (Danube, Sava, Maritsa,
Iskar, Struma, etc.) are navigable. Tectonic, (Shkodra, Ohrid, Prespa,
etc.), karst, glacial lakes.
Flora and fauna
The vegetation of
the Balkan Peninsula is extremely diverse; many endemic species. In the
south, in the coastal belt, there is vegetation of the Mediterranean
type (pine and oak forests, shrubs), higher - broad-leaved forests,
deciduous shrubs. In the northern and central regions of the peninsula
there are broad-leaved forests (in the mountains - beech, fir and pine
forests). The upper border of the forest is at an altitude of 1800-2300
m. On the plain, the forests are largely reduced; steppe vegetation
occurs. The plains of the northern and eastern parts of the peninsula
are plowed up (the soils are poor, in some places strongly saline,
require irrigation; wheat, corn, tobacco, grapes are cultivated, in the
south - also olives and citrus fruits).
The fauna is also
diverse: there are many species of mammals (wolf, wild boar, fox, otter,
bear, wild cat, etc.), reptiles (lizards, snakes, Greek tortoise),
amphibians, birds, mollusks.
Minerals
The bowels of the Balkan
Peninsula are rich in stone (especially in Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and Turkey) and brown (widespread) coal. Oil and natural
gas deposits are rare (mainly in Romania, Serbia, Albania), so
hydroelectric power stations predominate in the energy system of the
peninsula. There are few iron ores, but there are often deposits of
non-ferrous metal ores (copper, zinc, tin, chromium, manganese,
magnesite, bauxite).