Turkey is a country rich in history, culture, full of smells and flavors. The country has places you’ll love; whether you are a lover of history or if you just want to know a culture completely different from the West.
Due to its strategic position, located between Europe and Asia as well as between three seas, Turkey has been a historical crossroads between Eastern and Western cultures and civilizations. Its territory has been home to several great civilizations.
Istanbul is one of the must-see points of this country. Over the years, if anything has characterized the city that was once the conquest of the capital, its decline and its rebirth. It is a city full of contrasts, where the modern coexists with the ancient, where it does not matter what religion you profess, because you can well find mosques, churches and synagogues. It is divided by a strait called the Bosphorus that links the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, which causes Istanbul to be found in both Europe and Asia.
Sultanameht is the old part of the city and contains the most touristic places. There you can visit the Topkapi Palace, which was once the seat of the Ottoman Empire and residence of the sultans and the harem. Nearby is Hagia Sophia, the most important and beautiful Byzantine building in the city; first it was a church, then a mosque and since 1930 a museum.
The shields emblazoned with some verses of the Qur’an were added by the Ottomans; who also covered the Byzantine lime mosaics, which helped their conservation, as is the case of the mosaic of Jesus and St. John the Baptist. In front of Hagia Sophia is the Blue Mosque, whose interior is covered with tiles from Iznik, a province that developed the manufacture and marketing of tiles. This was controversial at some point, since it equaled in minarets to the mosque of Mecca, so Sultan Ahmet was forced to give away one of them to avoid more problems. Visitors are allowed when it is not time for prayer, women must cover their hair and enter barefoot.
The Cistern or Submerged Palace is a complex that supplied water to the palace, with some chambers and columns; as well as a jellyfish head, whose water was brought from Serbia. And since we talk about water, one of the rituals not to be missed are the Turkish baths or hamam; there are still some of the golden age of Istanbul, cleanliness is a fundamental part of Islamic culture that is why Turkish baths were so important.
You can cross the Bosphorus on one of the many cruise ships that offer trips from the port of Eminönü. The journey takes about two hours and you can go down to eat. From there you can see the Naval Museum and the Dolmabahҫe Palace, which was built in 1853 as a reaction to the Ottoman past. It has a staircase whose railings are made of glass; it has 16 pavilions and 285 rooms, plus it was here that Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey died.
If you like shopping, in the Grand Bazaar – one of the oldest and largest bazaars in the world – you can find silk, copper and leather items, as well as carpets, belly dancing costumes, hookahs or the famous lamps; as well as spices or typical sweets. Haggling is an obligation, as sellers increase the price and expect one to negotiate with them; in fact, not doing so is considered disrespectful.
The Galata tower is another point you can visit. Built around 1340 by Genoese as a place of surveillance, it is located in Beyoglú, which was once the heart of international trade in the city. You can also see the ice cream sellers – or maraʂ dondurmasi – but unlike the ice creams we know, these have a peculiar consistency that makes them, let’s say, manageable, as if it were a dough. Ice cream vendors, dressed in typical costumes, have long metal rods that allow them to do some ingenious acts before delivering your dessert.
In all these places you can enjoy juices and fruits, sandwiches made with fish, kebabs, köftes -which are a kind of meatballs-, as well as the famous simit -large donuts with sesame-, salads and a wide variety of dishes, either with the street vendors or in cafes and restaurants. The typical breakfast consists of a couple of hard-boiled eggs, tomato and cucumber salad, black olives, cheese, bread, jams and tea; as well as the famous ayran, which is a liquid yogurt to which sometimes a little salt is added.
Pamukkale – which in Spanish is something like ‘cotton palace’ – is a place that, like Hierve el Agua in Oaxaca, is home to beautiful petrified waterfalls. It looks covered in snow due to the visual effect caused by some of the minerals in the region. Before entering the waters of Pamukkale, on the mountain you can visit the famous Hierapolis, an ancient spa town in which arches, baths and the Roman theater were built; the temples of Apollo and Plutonium, the three necropolises, the agora, the tomb of St. Philip discovered in 2011 and the Site Museum.
Visiting Cappadocia is one of the most unforgettable experiences for the senses of the most seasoned travelers. It is a unique region, which mixes all the splendor of the most brutal nature with a combination of art and heritage legacy of the passage of numerous villages through the area.
Many come just to make a balloon flight, but Cappadocia is not a place where justice can be done in a day or two; is a huge area that includes villages, valleys, abandoned and inhabited caves, underground cities… you have to be here to believe it.
The Turkish capital city Ankara is home to many historical sites, along with the main center of tourist and commercial attractions of the interior of the Anatolian Peninsula. It is paramount to be carried away by the magic of Ankara’s history and ancient society. Going to Ankara Castle allows you to see the 360 level of the metropolis. Located in the town of Ulus, this fortress was initially designed as a military protection although it currently stands out as a monument, one of the busiest in Ankara. Anıtkabir, is where the tomb of the first and second president of the Republic of Turkey, Ataturk, is located in a beautiful exhibition hall that attracts thousands of visitors. The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, one of the most awarded in the world, has samples sequentially from the Paleolithic period to the present day. It is a prologue to the ancient history of Turkey and Ankara. There you can see many antiquities and even Hittite figures, whose origin dates back to the thousand years before Christ. Kizilay is the true urban core, the authentic center of the city and also the epicenter of the different social and commercial centers. It is the square where different people tend to gather to eat, chat and let themselves be seen. One can find all the typical and international shops. It is also a very lively area at night, as nightclubs are concentrated around the square.
Ephesus was included in 2015 in the UNESCO World Heritage list for being an excellent example of urbanism adapted to the landscape, for being a testimony of cultural and religious traditions of local origin and also Hellenistic, Roman and Christian. It should be remembered that the Hellenistic temple of Artemis in Ephesus was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, next to the pyramids of Egypt, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Lighthouse of Alexandria and the statue of Zeus in Olympia.
Kusadasi in Turkey, cradle of Turkey’s first resort, the city of Aydin on the Aegean Sea. It is a district that has been growing in a short time with the tourist mobility that began in the 1960s, and that has one of the first and most important ports that always come to mind when thinking about this city.
Kusadasi, is undoubtedly the beauty of Turkey, Also, the Green Mosque, another Ottoman mosque of the fourteenth century, like the Great Mosque of Bursa, but this is much smaller, and one of the first examples of this type of architecture. It draws attention for its minaret in the northwest corner lined with enameled green, yellow, turquoise and purple tiles. The color of its only minaret is what gave its name to this small work of art.
And Koza Han, although it does not have the fame of the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul, it is an ideal historical market to get lost in its different stalls, where you will find high quality silk products, in fact, it is known as the Silk Market. It was built in the fourteenth century and still retains many elements of Ottoman architecture, although it had to be rebuilt on some occasions.
, which in addition to being connected to Aydin. This makes every tourist who visits Turkey want to know Kusadasi, a small paradise with its nightlife, breakfast tables next to the beach and many historical sites that will leave you wanting to know more and more this interesting destination.
Bursa has very attractive points. You can visit its Great Mosque, a historic Ottoman mosque built in the fourteenth century, which was built in Seljuk style and with an early Ottoman style of architecture by the will of Sultan Bayezid I. It is a colossal rectangular structure, with twenty domes arranged in four rows of five supported by twelve columns. It has two minarets in total.
Also, the Green Mosque, another Ottoman mosque of the fourteenth century, like the Great Mosque of Bursa, but this is much smaller, and one of the first examples of this type of architecture. It draws attention for its minaret in the northwest corner lined with enameled green, yellow, turquoise and purple tiles. The color of its only minaret is what gave its name to this small work of art.
And Koza Han, although it does not have the fame of the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul, it is an ideal historical market to get lost in its different stalls, where you will find high quality silk products, in fact, it is known as the Silk Market. It was built in the fourteenth century and still retains many elements of Ottoman architecture, although it had to be rebuilt on some occasions.
