The Sea of Mamara links the Black and the Mediterranean Seas and separates European Turkey (Thrace) from Asiatic Turkey (Anatolia). Around 12,500 years ago, the Dardenelles Strait or Hellespont (A to B) had opened; but the Bosphorus (C to D) was still closed. (In the map the Bosphorus is shown as open.) Glacial meltwater overflowed from the Black Sea through the lowland gap from E to F, which was then a broad spillway flowing to the Sea of Mamara and then to the Mediterranean Sea.
