ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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A transcontinental country is a state that extends over a continent.

The membership of a country to a continent rather than to another depends on the definition of a continent that is used: in fact there are various criteria of subdivision of the lands emerged; some follow purely geographical criteria, others also have historical and cultural criteria. The definition of a country as a transcontinental is therefore dependent on the pattern of subdivision on continents used.

A particular case of transcontinental country is that in which territory of the state includes overseas territories on other continents.

Asia-Europe

Total

Unlike other continents, Europe and Asia are closely welded to each other, for about 3000 km, so much so that from the purely geographical point of view one could speak of a single continent, namely Eurasia, of which Europe would be configured as an immense peninsula. Despite this, for reasons not only geographical, but also historical and cultural, Europe is normally considered a continent distinct from Asia, even though with a separation line not so clear. It is therefore always the problem of establishing which is the border between the two continents and consequently defining what are the transcontinental countries among them. The line of separation between Europe and Asia is not only a geographical issue, as in general for the boundaries between other continents, but also historical and cultural. That is why there are various conventions on this.

It is agreed that the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea and the Ural Mountains, but as far as the border line to be followed to reach the southern limit of the Urals to the Black Sea, there are more conventions, detailed in the following sections.

Ural Mountains - Ural River - Caspian Sea - Kuma-Manyč Depression - Black Sea - Bosphorus and Dardanelli - Aegean Sea
The line that follows the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Kuma-Manyč depression, the Black Sea, the Bosphorus Strait, the Dardanelli Strait and the Aegean Sea is the most followed conventional border in Italy, Russia and other countries. It was Zarina Anna I of Russia, in 1730, which officially adopted this separation between the two continents, on the basis of studies made by geographer Philip Johan von Strahlenberg and then supported by Peter Simon Pallas, biologist, and Carl Ritter, founder of scientific geography. In Anglo-Saxon sources, with the partial exception of the British Encyclopedia, there is often a different convention, which places the boundaries between the two continents along the Caucasus watershed, so as to make the continental border coincide with the political borders of Russia.

More in detail, the following conventional border includes in Europe the Novaja Zemlja and the Jugor peninsula, follows the Ural watershed, then the entire course of the Ural river, the nor coast