The peoples and ideas emanating from within the realm which still bears the name of Turkey have left an indelible mark on the rest of the world. Crossed by some of the great highroads of history, the land is inspiring in every aspect in which it is regarded. Its heritage of memories and the prestige of a happier and grander past are undisturbed by marks of decadence. Most of the foundations of our progressive spirit were laid in that eastern region. From a purely scientific standpoint, its human grouping and surface configuration present highly interesting interdependence. The region is divisible into six major geographical sections. Each forms a background against which distinct types of the human family are displayed. The various groups differ from one another in religion and language, often even in race. A fringe of fresh and verdant coastland which surrounds the elevated shelf of Asia Minor is largely Greek and Christian. The only foothold which western thought, art or temper ever obtained in Asiatic Turkey is found within this wave-washed strip of land. The plateau-heart of Anatolia is predominantly Turkish and Mohammedan. The Christian element scattered on its steppe-like surface is unable to assert itself and yields to Oriental ascendancy. The high and broad mountain masses which border it on the east are the home of the Armenoids, generally Christians, sometimes Mohammedans, but almost always characterized by broad-headedness accompanied by a peculiar flattening of the back of the skull. Beyond this mountain barrier Asiatic Turkey becomes entirely Semitic, being mainly Arabian in speech and overwhelmingly Mohammedan in creed. Three main regions characterize this southern area. The long and narrow corridor of Syria became the highway which in antiquity bound the flourishing empires of the Nile basin to the powerful kingdoms of the Hittite highlands and the Mesopotamian lowlands. Its motley population, containing representatives of every race, is a relic of former to-and-fro human displacements along its trough-like extension. In the adjoining desert Bedouin tribes find their favorite tramping ground. The twin valley of Mesopotamia is the home of peoples in whom fusion of Semitic and Indo-European elements is observable.