The two main ranges extend along the west-east axis. These are the Pontic Range in the north and the Taurus Range in the south. Mount Ararat, Turkey's highest mountain, lying in the east, near the Armenia and Iranian border, reaches 5,137 meters. Turkey is a lake country having about 50 large and more than 200 small lakes. In general, the climate can be described as a dry, semicontinental Mediterranean variant.
Much contrast is observed between the inlands and the coastal lowlands.
In many areas, winter rainfall and summer drought is common, typical of the Mediterranean regime. In the inlands and in the east, January average temperatures remain below freezing point. The remainder of the country is covered with forests and woodlands. Eastern Black Sea coastlands, characterized by heavy rainfall, humid summers and mild winters have the richest type of woodland, namely the Pontic, or Colchian forest, with hornbeam, sweet chestnut, oriental spruce, and alder trees and a rich shrub layer of rhododendron, laurel, holly, myrtle, hazel- and walnut. The remainder of the Black Sea zone is covered with humid deciduous forest, with oriental spruce, beech, hornbeam, alder, oak, fir, and yew trees and with oak and pine in drier parts.