Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia, and Yugoslavia, as well as a small part of Turkey, all lie on the Balkan Peninsula.
The region has a population of about 55 million people.
The Balkans are sometimes referred to as Southeastern Europe.
Part of Greece is also on the Balkan Peninsula but Greece is not considered to be one of the Balkan states.
The Balkan region was the first area of Europe to experience the arrival of farming cultures from the Fertile Crescent in the Neolithic era.
The Name “Balkan” comes from a Turkish word which means “a chain of wooded mountains”.
