Turkey Is Not Just for Christmas Quiz

Answer: Moldova

Some 97% of Turkey is situated in Asia Minor, and 88% of its population lives on the eastern side of the continental boundary. The remaining 3% of the country consists of Turkish Thrace, which is geographically part of southeastern Europe. That part of the country is more significant than its size suggests since more than 10 million Turks live there.
The Republic of Moldova is bordered by Romania to the West and by Ukraine on the other three sides. As Ukraine is considered wholly inside Europe, so Moldova clearly must be too. The photograph depicts the coat of arms of Moldova.
The four transcontinental countries other than Turkey and Russia are Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan (which lie across the Europe-Asia boundary) and Egypt (which has one foot each side of the Africa-Asia line).
Of Egypt's 27 governorates, 23 lie in Africa, two are on the Sinai Peninsula (which is in Asia) and two straddle the Suez Canal, which is the continental border. Around 4% of Georgia's population lives in the two historical regions that lie to the north of the Greater Caucasus watershed (the modern-day Europe-Asia divide). The same definition makes Azerbaijan a truly transcontinental country, with about half situated in Asia and half in Europe. Most of Kazakhstan is in Central Asia -- parts of two of the country's provinces (and 4% of its population) are located on the European (western) side of the Ural River.
There are plenty of countries that are transcontinental once you include their overseas territories -- for example, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Japan, Philippines, Australia, Yemen and others.

Answer: Caspian Sea

The Mediterranean Sea lies off Turkey's southern coast, the Aegean separates it from Greece to the west and the Black Sea lies to the north. The Turkish Straits in the northwest of the country, join the Sea of Marmara to the Aegean Sea via the Dardanelles and to the Black Sea via the Bosphorus, whilst at the same time separating European Turkey from Asia Minor.
Turkey has no coastline on the Caspian Sea. To reach the Caspian from eastern Turkey, you would need to travel across both Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The photograph, taken from the International Space Station, shows Istanbul with the Bosphorus joining the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea.

Answer: Syria

Turkey's longest land border is to the south, with Syria, which stretches for 511 miles. Its other borders are with Iran (310 miles), Iraq (206 miles), Armenia (167 miles), Georgia (157 miles), Bulgaria (149 miles), Greece (128 miles) and Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan enclave (6 miles). Prior to 1991, Turkey's second-longest border was 331 miles with the Soviet Union.
The border with Syria is not agreed by both sides since it includes the disputed former Ottoman Sanjak (province) of Alexandretta, now the Turkish province of Hatay.
The photo shows a Syrian Refugee camp near the Turkish border.

Answer: Mount Ararat

Judeo-Christian tradition claims Mount Ararat as the resting place of Noah's Ark. It is located in the extreme east of Turkey, near the borders with Armenia and Iran. At 16,854 feet, Mount Ararat is the highest point in Turkey and also in the whole Armenian plateau.

This snow-capped, dormant volcanic cone last erupted in 1840. It was first climbed by German naturalist and traveler Dr Friedrich Parrot in 1829. The photograph shows the twin peaks of Mount Ararat (right) and Little Ararat. Of the alternatives, Mount Killaraus is a mythical Irish peak that Arthurian legend claims is the source of the stones for Stonehenge. Mount Buzhou is the peak that Chinese mythology says supported the heavens -- in a fit of anger, water god Gong Gong smashed his head against the mountain requiring the goddess Nüwa to repair the sky.

The sacred Mount Meru is considered to be the center of all the physical and spiritual universes in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist teachings. Many temples are designed as a symbolic representations of Mount Meru.

Answer: Hagia Sophia

The name "Hagia Sophia" derives from the Greek, meaning 'Holy Wisdom'. The world's largest cathedral for more than a thousand years until the Seville Cathedral in Spain was completed in the the 16th Century, Hagia Sophia is one of the greatest surviving examples of Byzantine architecture.

The interior is decorated with numerous items of great artistic value: transformation of the building into a museum led to the removal of the carpets that had covered the marble floor decorations for centuries, and of the plaster covering many of the mosaics. The photo is the exterior of the building on a snowy winter's day.

Answer: Edirne

Built by architect Mimar Sinan between 1569 and 1575 at the peak of Ottoman military and cultural power, the Selimiye Mosque was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011. It is located in the city of Edirne (formerly called Adrianople) in Eastern Thrace in northwestern Turkey. Edirne was the Ottoman Empire's third capital city from 1413 to 1453, before Constantinople (Istanbul) became the empire's new capital.

Answer: Sultan Ahmed Mosque

Known as the Blue Mosque because of the tiles on its interior walls, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque was built in the early 17th Century during the reign of Ahmed I after whom it is named.
The alternatives are three more Ottoman mosques. The Eyüp Sultan Mosque is the 15th-Century tomb and mosque of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, also in Istanbul. The Jezzar Pasha Mosque, built in 1781, is in Acre, Israel. The Mosque of Muhammad Ali, built in 1848, is one of the most visible landmarks in Cairo, Egypt.

Answer: Galatasaray Spor Kulübü

The full name of the new stadium is the "Ali Sami Yen Spor Kompleksi Türk Telekom Arena". Located in the Şişli district on the European side of Istanbul, the Türk Telekom Arena is the new home of Galatasaray S.K. The stadium was named as having the "world's loudest crowd roar" in 2011 by the 'Guinness World Records' (although that record was broken in 2013 by fans of the Seattle Seahawks NFL team).
Galatasaray is a multi-sport club particularly noted for their soccer and basketball teams. By winning the 2000 UEFA Europa League, Galatasaray became the first Turkish team to win a European soccer trophy. Fenerbahçe Spor Kulübü is another major soccer team is Istanbul. Their 50,000-capacity home ground, the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, is in the Kadıköy district of Istanbul on the northern shore of the Sea of Marmara. Beşiktaş Jimnastik Kulübü provide Istanbul's third major soccer franchise. They play their home games at the 32,000-seater BJK İnönü Stadium. A new stadium for Beşiktaş, which will hold more than 41,000 and is to be named the Vodafone Arena, is under construction. Eczacıbaşı VitrA is the leading team in the Turkish Women's Volleyball League. They have been Turkish League champions more than 25 times and were European champions in 1999. They play their home matches at the Eczacıbaşı Spor Salonu hall in Istanbul.

Answer: Second behind only Alaska

Turkey is ranked 37th largest of the world's countries, slightly smaller than Pakistan, Namibia and Mozambique and just larger than Chile, Zambia, Burma and Afghanistan. Less than 5% of Turkey's total area is water. In terms of U.S. states, Turkey is a little over 10% larger than the second-largest state, Texas, but less than half the size of the largest, Alaska, which has a total land and water area of 663,000 square miles.
I couldn't think of an appropriate photo clue for this question, so added a fairly spectacular NASA photograph of Turkey taken from Space.

Answer: Kızılırmak

The Kızılırmak (Turkish for 'Red River') is also known as the Halys River. Used to provide hydroelectric power and as a source of irrigation for rice-growing, the Kızılırmak rises at more than 5,000 feet near the town of İmranlı in Sivas Province in central Turkey.

It flows first southwest, then northwest and finally north and northeast before emptying into the Black Sea at the ancient settlement of Bafra in the Samsun Province. Of the alternatives, the Sakarya River (aka Sangarius) flows 515 winding miles before discharging into the Black Sea just to the east of the Bosphorus.

The Büyük Menderes flows 341 miles through southwestern Turkey before emptying into the Aegean Sea near the site of the ancient Ionian city of Miletus. The Ceyhan River (once called the Pyramus) travels 316 miles in a steadily southwesterly direction toward the Mediterranean where it forms a delta that has become an important refuge for wetland birds.