Balkans
Channel: 宇宙のすべての知識 プリンシピア
Date: 2019-01-27

Balkans, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4829 / CC BY SA 3.0

#Balkans
#Geography_of_Southeastern_Europe
#Peninsulas_of_Europe
#Regions_of_Europe
#Southeastern_Europe
#Turkish_words_and_phrases
Balkans

The Balkans, also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographic area in southeastern Europe with various definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the whole of Bulgaria from the Serbian-Bulgarian border to the Black Sea coast.

The Balkan Peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic Sea on the northwest, the Ionian Sea on the southwest, the Aegean Sea in the south and southeast, and the Black Sea on the east and northeast. The northern border of the peninsula is variously defined. The highest point of the Balkans is Mount Musala, , in the Rila mountain range.

The word "Balkan" comes from Ottoman Turkish "" 'chain of wooded mountains'; related words are also found in other Turkic languages. The origin of the Turkic word is obscure; it may be related to Persian "bālk" 'mud', and the Turkish suffix "an" 'swampy forest' or Persian "balā-khāna" 'big high house'.

From classical antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Balkan Mountains were called by the local Thracian name Haemus. According to Greek mythology, the Thracian king Haemus was turned into a mountain by Zeus as a punishment and the mountain has remained with his name. A reverse name scheme has also been suggested. D. Dechev considers that Haemus (Αἷμος) is derived from a Thracian word "*saimon", 'mountain ridge'. A third possibility is that "Haemus" () derives from the Greek word "haema" () meaning 'blood'. The myth relates to a fight between Zeus and the monster/titan Typhon. Zeus injured Typhon with a thunder bolt and Typhon's blood fell on the mountains, from which they got their name.

The earliest mention of the name appears in an early 14th-century Arab map, in which the Haemus mountains are referred to as "Balkan". The first attested time the name ...