From ancient times through the Byzantine Empire starting in the 4th century, the Crusades in the 11th to the 13th century, the Ottoman Empire to today; the crossroads of Europe to the Orient, with their exotic tales of Arabian nights, Kama Sutra, silks and spices, has always been at Byzantium, Constantinople, and Istanbul today. This is where the continents of Europe and Asia meet on the Bosporous which flows from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara through Dardanelles (Turkish Straights) to the Mediterranean.
I have always questioned the idea that Europe was a different continent than Asia, rather than a peninsula on the Eurasian continent. It seemed that continuity of landmass should define a continent, but then North America is connected to South America at Panama, and Africa is connected to Asia at the Red Sea and Suez. Though in both cases the connection is relatively small compared to the landmass. Only Australia and Antarctic are truly separate land masses. However, some geologist do refer to Eurasia as a single continent claiming it is a land mass on a single tectonic plate. But that doesn't hold up to scrutiny because parts of California would be a separate continent west of the San Andres fault, and Saudi Arabia and India would be separate from the Asia because they too are on separate tectonic plates.
In the end, the definition appears not to be hard and fast but based the norms of cultural divisions separated by physical barriers. Africa is separated from the similar cultures of Europe by the Mediterranean and of Asia by the Red Sea. Historically, the division of Eurasia was along the Gulf of Ob and the Ob river in northern Russia, arbitrarily due west then down Volga and Don rivers to the Black Sea, the Bosporous and into the Mediterranean. Today, in an attempt to add some rationality and alignment with more recent understanding of the physical and cultural barriers, the definition is from the Barents Sea in the arctic through Russia along the Ural mountains to the Caspian Sea, along the Caucasus mountains to the Black Sea and then the Bosporous and into the Mediterranean. However, there is still controversy about the location of the dividing line where it crosses the Caucasus. By some definitions Mt Elbus is the highest peak in Europe, and others Mt. Blanc is preeminent and Mt Elbus is in Asia dwarfed by the Himalayas.
However, when I think of cultural crossroads, I think of the area of mixing, not a geographic line. While the Bosporous in Turkey has been physical dividing line between continents for millennia, since the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 the region has maintained cultural continuity. However, the Balkan Peninsula, was subsequently conquered by the Ottomans and up to the gates of Vienna. It was then retaken by Christian Europe up to today's Turkish border with several enclaves of predominantly muslim territories remaining. The peninsula remains a mix of religions, ethnic groups, and languages contributing to a distinct cultural identity separate from Western Europe and Asia.
But again we come to a problem of definitions. Geographers define a peninsula as a long narrow land mass projecting into a body of water where the length of isthmus is less than any side of the land projecting into the water. Italy is a classic peninsula. The Balkan land mass is separated from central Europe by the Dinaric Alps and the Balkan Mountains creating a natural barrier. The land mass projecting into the Mediterranean is bounded anti-clockwise by the Adriatic Sea to the west, the Ionian Sea to the southwest, the Aegean Sea to the southeast, and the Black Sea to the east. The boundary that defines the isthmus is longer than any side projecting into the individual seas or combination up to the southern point on the Peloponnese, and therefore is technically not a peninsula. But norms and language prevail and peninsula it shall remain.
Balkan Peninsula boundaries
In 1918 Yugoslavia was officially formed as a kingdom of slavs after the dissolution of the Hungarian Empire at the end of WWI incorporating Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. This was not the entirety of the Balkan Peninsula, but a significant portion of its landmass. Albania, Bulgaria, and Greece maintained their own separate nationality. Yugoslavia, with multiple religions and cultures, went though significant political changes and conflicts though out its history. Still used today "Balkanization", refers to the fragmentation of an area, state, or region into multiple smaller, and often hostile, independent states.
The countries that today comprise the Balkans are: Albania, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia with parts of Greece, Romania and Turkey on the perimeter. In September and October of 2025 we visited our last of these countries: North Macedonia, Bulgaria and northern Greece.
Next Post: Previous travel to The Balkans
