Turkey is such a vast country, full of colour and contrast, that it has something to offer pretty much every kind of tourist. Having travelled there extensively, I would love to tell you about some of my favourite places to visit, in the hope that you might learn to love it as much as I do.
**A Very Brief History** Because of its strategic position as the bridge between Europe and Asia, Turkey has been ruled my many empires. This is part of the reason that Turkey offers such a rich variety of sites of cultural and historical interest.
The first known human inhabitants started to show up around 7500 BC, but the first truly great civilisation was the Hitites who dominated Bronze Age Anatolia and fought with Egypt for control of Syria. The Greeks and Persians also controlled Turkey briefly before Alexander the Great conquered the region. After Alexander’s death, the Roman Empire brought stability to the area for a long time. The Islamic dynasties took over, and the great Seljuk empire took control in the 11th Century, and though shaken by the Crusades, held power until the long standing Ottoman Empire took over.
From 1920 to 1922 Turkey fought a war of independence and the republic was created in 1923. Turkey is now a multiparty democracy with a President and a Prime Minister.
**Geography and climate** Turkey has a land area of nearly 800,000 square kilometres (twice the size of California) and a coastline stretching for more than 7,000 kilometres from the Black Sea in the North to the Mediterranean in the south. It shares borders with Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq and Syria.
Straddling the continents of Europe and Asia, Turkey is a study in contrasts. Virtually every kind of geography and weather conditions can be found, from the snow-capped Siberian climate of the Anatolian mountains, to vast hot plains, fertile river valleys and the temperate Mediterranean coastal regions.
This means Turkey can offer the tourist many different kinds of holiday, from typical beach holidays to water sports and diving breaks, skiing, nature holidays (particularly bird watching, as Turkey has a remarkable bird population) and tours of some of the most ancient and complete sites of historical and cultural interest in the world.
**Language** The ancient Turkish language and its many regional variations were revamped and integrated, and the written form
adapted to the Latin alphabet, in 1928. In most tourist areas and major cities, local people speak excellent English, and often French. However, I have always found that the Turkish people love to hear visitors attempt to talk to them in their own tongue. Conversational Turkish is not difficult to pick up and it is nice to try to learn at least a few useful phrases. One of the first ones I learned was “bir buyuk sheshe su lutven”, or “a small bottle of water please”, a very useful phrase in the incredibly hot interior.
**Currency** Who wants to be a millionaire? The Turkish lire is silly, silly Monopoly money. There are more than 2.5 million Turkish Lire to the GB Pound, which makes it incredibly confusing for the visitor. Locals tend to knock off noughts with alacrity. The important thing is to familiarise yourself with the denominations of the notes as best you can, and get used to counting noughts.
**Cost of Living** Eating out is cheap in Turkey compared with home, and on a par with the Greek islands. A meal for two with wine will probably set you back between five and ten pounds depending on what you eat. Look out for local specialities.
**Travelling** Package tours to Turkey are cheap and plentiful (especially at the moment!) However, Turkey is a really easy place in which to be an independent traveller. Getting from city to city is cheap and simple, as Turkey has good roads and an excellent long-haulbus service, similar to our National Buses but much better! Your bus ticket will usually include the cost of any meals required during your journey. When we travelled from Fethiye to Izmir overnight, stops for drinks and breakfast were included in the price. The bus was air conditioned, surprisingly comfortable, and ran to a strict timetable. We were the only tourists on the bus, but were treated wonderfully. The small local dolmus buses run in and around resorts, making it easy and cheap to get around, although taxis are quite reasonable and fares are government controlled.
**Religion** Ninety eight per cent of the population is Muslim, though there are practising Christian and Jewish communities in the major cities. Mosques are everywhere (there are over two thousand in Istanbul alone) and you will get used to the sounds of the muezzims calling the faithful to prayer five times a day, including very early in the morning (whether live or on a very scratchy sounding recording!)
**Cuisine** Meals often begin with Meze, a selection of hot and cold appetisers, like vegetables in olive oil, cheese pastries and home made soups. This will be followed by grilled fish or spiced meat kebabs, or chicken dishes, with salads and pilaff rice or bulgur wheat. The meals often end with milky puddings or honeyed sweetmeats and strong, thick Turkish coffee. One of my favourite dishes is Chicken with Cheese, where strong local goat cheese is melted over chicken breasts. It is really delicious. And of course, no Turkish meal is complete without an overflowing basket of Ekmek, slices from rustic white domed bread loaves.
Breakfast seems a little strange to British taste because it mainly consists of cold meats, cheeses and salads, cold boiled eggs, and a thin, watery and rather greasy chicken soup.
Sadly, the number of places where you can get an English breakfast or sausage and chips is on the increase. I’d rather sample the local cuisine myself, and each region has its own specialities and delicacies.
**Resorts** Turkey has many, many tourist resorts, so I shall just mention the main ones.
The southern Mediterranean coastal resorts of Alanya, Antalya, Kas and Side are wonderful for beach and diving holidays. The beautiful coastline has many wrecks and travertines suitable for divers. The coastline is also dotted with caves and tiny secluded bays that can be visited only by boat. Many local people earn a living by providing tours of the coastline in small motorboats, and it is cheap and easy to find a boat for hire in most of the coastal resorts. This area also has some beautiful waterfalls, like the Duden and Kursunlu falls. These falls are worth visiting not because of their size but because of their spectacular scenery.
You can’t travel far in this area without tripping over ancient cities and historical sites. One of the best is the Aspendos theatre on the Alanya-Antalya highway. It was built in the second century AD and seated 7,000 people. It is one of the best-preserved theatres in the world and is now used to stage concerts and plays.
Bodrum and Gumbet on the West coast are more known as party towns, although parts of the resorts are more family orientated. Bodrum has no beaches. I must admit this isn’t an area I have visited or really been interested in.
The resort of Olu Deniz on the South coast is one of the most beautiful areas of outstanding natural beauty that Turkey has to offer. The main attraction is the stunning lagoon. Tourists are able to swim in the lagoon and sunbathe on its shores, but there is a small fee payable, which is levied by the Government and goes towards protecting the environment.
Olu has gorgeous long stretches of beach and a stunning calm azure sea that is wonderful for families with children. Again, it is a super place for boat trips and stopping off at secluded coves for bathing, beachcombing and snorkelling. One of my favourite boat trips, which happened to be on my honeymoon, took us around the lagoon and then around the coast, ending with a beach barbecue. We ate fish just out of the sea, tossed in a little flour, cooked over an open fire and served with a drizzle of lime juice and eaten with our fingers and hunks of fresh bread and ripe tomato. It was one of the most delicious meals I have ever tasted, eaten on a beach of white sand with the golden sun beating down on our backs and the turquoise ocean lapping at our toes. It was my idea of heaven.
Olu is not really suitable for the elderly or people in wheelchairs, as it is very, very hilly indeed and a long steep hill has to be negotiated to get down to the beach from the resort hotels. Buses and taxis are available to take you up and down the hill, but if you are fit enough, the walk is bracing!
The town of Fethiye, a fifteen or twenty minute bus ride from Olu, has a beautiful marina where you can sit with a cup of Chai (Turkish tea) and watch the boats and the people go by. The town also has an excellent market where you can buy souvenirs such as traditional tea sets, leather and wooden goods, rugs, linens, spices and even livestock! Just across the road from the market we found a fantastic little café that sold delicious traditional Turkish snacks, flatbreads stuffed with spiced minced lamb.
**Places to Visit**
--Istanbul-- The cosmopolitan city of Istanbul (not Constantinople), split in two by the Bosphorous, is known as The Rome of the East and The Gateway to the Orient because of it’s unique position, lying partly in Europe and partly in Asia.
Istanbul is bustling, a bit smelly in places, and teeming with life. It has fantastic museums, including the Basilica of St. Sophia, now called the Ayasofya Museum. It is an amazing building, built by Constantine the Great and reconstructed by Justinian in the 6th century. Its enormous dome towers 55 meters above the ground and is 31 metres in diameter.
The Sultanahamet Mosque, known as the Blue Mosque is one of the most celebrated stops on the tourist trail. It was built in the early 17th century on the orders of Sultan Ahmet the First. It was the first mosque to be built with six minarets, according to legend, by accident! The Sultan wanted his minaret to be made of gold, to rival the Basilica of St Sophia opposite, but the words for “gold” and “six” are similar, and the architect misheard. Apparently the Sultan was thrilled with the mistake when he saw the six slender spires and the architect kept his head! The name Blue Mosque comes from the stunning blue Iznik tiles that adorn the ceilings. The atmosphere inside the mosque is truly amazing, but I think the most fantastic thing is the quality of the light, which comes from 260 stained glass windows. You should check prayer times before visiting though, as the mosque is closed to tourists during the five daily periods of prayer. Prayer times vary so you should check during your visit. You should also remember that it is a holy place and you need to remove your shoes and place them in a plastic bag on entering.
--Pamukkale and Heirapolis-- Pamukkale and Heirapolis in the West, about three hours drive from the resort of Bodrum, is my favourite place to visit in Turkey. It is a remarkable natural phenomenon caused by calcium deposits - the word Pamukkale means “cotton castle” and if you ever go there you will understand why. As you approach the site, it looks like a vast snow topped cliff, but once you get closer you can see the 100 metre high plateau with its scallop shaped basins of calcium rich water and its “frozen” waterfalls. It really is quite a remarkable sight.
Nearby the ruins of the ancient city of Heirapolis, founded in 190 BC by Eumenes II, King of Pergamon, are well worth a visit, particularly for the necropolis, one of the best preserved ancient burial grounds in the country. The best part of Heirapolis for me, however, is the Roman hot springs, surrounded by beautiful lush gardens. You can actually swim in the crystal clear warm waters, amongst the ancient ruins of columns and statues. It really is one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had in my life, swimming in glorious sunshine over massive fallen carved marble columns and ancient paved walkways, with the scent of tropical flowers all around you. You have to go there and experience it for yourself. Floating in the mineral rich, buoyant water, surrounded by historical ruins, was one of the most peaceful moments of my life. The water is said to have excellent healing properties too.
--Cappadoccia-- Although a bit off the tourist trail, the central Turkish region of Cappadoccia is well worth a visit to see the “Fairy Chimneys”, a surreal yet beautiful landscape of natural rock formations. Made of volcanic stone, the region has been continuously inhabited for the last 4,000 years and has 40 underground cities carved and tunnelled out of the soft rock.
For the last 2,000 years, Cappadoccia has been home to Christian settlements and the underground cities and tunnels were their hiding place. Inside the caves in which the settlers dwelled and worshipped there is quite remarkable art. There are nearly 1,000 cave churches in the area, all carved from solid rock. Artisans sculpted soaring domes and vaults, columns and other architectural ornamentation for their churches. It is a fascinating place to visit, though I can pretty much guarantee you won’t believe your eyes.
--Ephesus-- Ephesus is the best preserved classical city in the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the most complete Roman theatre you will ever see, and it is enormous, hence it’s name, The Great Theatre. Begun by Emperor Claudius and completed by Emperor Trajan, it seated 24,000 people. You can climb to the top of the great, curved and banked amphitheatre and have someone stand in the centre and whisper, and you will hear them!
From there, you find yourself strolling down the marble paved Sacred Way, where you can see excavations of the city’s remarkable water and sewage system, and great ruts in the marble roadway from the ancient wheeled chariots which used to take people to and from the amphitheatre. If you close your eyes you can almost imagine the roar of the crowd, the sounds of the orchestra, the smell of wine flowing, Christians and lions.
At the other end of the Sacred Way you will find the façade of the Ephesus library, which has been fully restored. This is a remarkable site, enormous and elegant with its huge pillars and statuary. The library was built by Julius Aquila in AD135
Leading off from the library is Curetes Street, a Roman street, complete with stunning mosaics. You find yourself wandering in and out of Roman houses (you can even sit on a Roman public toilet or take a look at how underfloor heating worked). You might want to take a look at the public baths (yes they really did have a vomitarium) or the local brothel. You will also see a statue of the Goddess Nike (and no, she wasn’t the Goddess of training shoes, she was the Goddess of victory and that’s where the sports company’s name came from).
I should warn you that it can get incredibly hot at Ephesus and there is very little shade and nowhere to buy water or drinks of any kind, so it is wise to make sure you have a hat, sunscreen and plenty of water with you.
**Turkish People** The Turkish people have always been incredibly friendly towards British tourists. Sadly, with the war in Iraq, with which most Turks do not agree, seems likely to colour our relationship with these wonderful people. I hope that there won’t be anti-British feeling when I next visit Turkey, but I fear there may be. Only time will tell.
I’ve really only scratched the surface of what this incredible country has to offer. I hope I’ve shown you that there is more to it than sunshine, beaches and discos. It is a country of contrasts, culture and an incredible historical heritage and I can’t imagine anyone visiting not loving it as much as I do.
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