3383 TURKEY (Central Anatolia Region) - Mevlana Museum in Konya

Located in Konya, the Mevlâna Museum is the mausoleum of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian Sufi mystic also known as Mevlâna or Rumi. It was also the dervish lodge (tekke) of the Mevlevi order, better known as the whirling dervishes, about which I wrote here.This is one of the biggest pilgrimage centres in Turkey, and also the most visited museum, receiving 2.5 million visitors in 2017, most of them Turkish.

3171 TURKEY (Marmara Region) - Gökçeada map

Located north of the entrance of Dardanelles Strait, in the Aegean Sea (11 nautical miles from the Gallipoli Peninsula), Gökçeada (named under 29 July 1970 Imbros) is the largest island of Turkey, and has a population of 8,776 (2016). The island was primarily inhabited by ethnic Greeks from ancient times through to approximately the 1960s, and today is predominantly inhabited by settlers from the Turkish mainland.

3073 TURKEY (Central Anatolia Region) - Mevlevi Sema ceremony (UNESCO ICH)

The Mevlevi is an ascetic Sufi order founded in 1273 by the followers of the Persian poet and Islamic theologian Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi in Konya (capital of the Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate), from where it gradually spread throughout the Ottoman Empire. Today, they can be found in many Turkish communities throughout the world, but the most famous centres are in Konya and Istanbul. The Mevlevi are also known as the Whirling Dervishes due to their famous practice of whirling as a form of dhikr (remembrance of God).

0813, 3036 TURKEY - The map and the flag of the country

0813 Turkey map

Posted on 23.09.2013, 05.05.2017
Located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, mostly on Anatolia (in Western Asia) and on East Thrace (in Southeastern Europe), and owning the single entrance in the Black Sea, Turkey had always and still has a significant geostrategic importance. The area has been inhabited since the Paleolithic, including various Ancient Anatolian civilizations (the Hittites, Lycians, Lydians etc.) and Thracian peoples (Odrysians). 

3036 Turkey flag

Starting around 1200 BC, the coast of Anatolia was heavily settled by Aeolian and Ionian Greeks, who founded numerous important cities, such as Miletus, Ephesus, Smyrna (modern İzmir) and Byzantium (later Constantinople and Istanbul). Armenia included parts of eastern Turkey beginning in the 6th century BC. Anatolia was conquered by the Persian Achaemenid Empire during the 6th and 5th centuries BC, and in 334 BC fell to Alexander the Great, the area being Hellenized, and continuing with the Roman rule.

2812 TURKEY (Mediterranean Region) - Sabancı Central Mosque in Adana

With a capacity of 28,500 people, Sabancı Central Mosque in Adana is the largest mosque in Turkey. Its exterior and its interior decoration are similar to the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, though it has six minarets, similar to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque) in Istanbul. It was built between 1988 and 1998 by architect Necip Dinç in Neo-Ottoman style, upon a confiscated Armenian cemeter, on the banks of Seyhan River, on the intersection of the main arteries, railway lines and roads that connect Adana to the surrounding cities and towns,

1708 TURKEY (Marmara Region) - Karagöz and Hacivat (UNESCO ICH)

 

Bursa was the first capital of the Ottoman Empire, between 1335 and 1363, and for that reason represents one of the richest legacies of the early Ottoman art and architecture. On the other hand, the city is famous for its Iskender Kebap, one of the best dishes of world, for the candied chestnuts (Kestane Sekeri), and for its unique peaches. As for something to purchase, Bursa is a center of the silk trade (since first silk cocoons were brought here with the caravans of the Silk Road) and towel manufacturing. It is also the homeland of the very famous Turkish folklore figures, Karagöz and Hacivat shadow puppets.

1697 TURKEY - Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938)

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was a Turkish army officer, revolutionary, and the first President of Turkey, credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey. His surname, Atatürk (Father of the Turks), was granted to him in 1934 and forbidden to any other person by the Turkish parliament. Atatürk statues have been erected in all Turkish cities, and his face and name are seen and heard everywhere in Turkey; his portrait can be seen in all public buildings, in all schools and classrooms, on all school books, on all Turkish lira banknotes, and in the homes of many Turkish families.

1594 TURKEY (Central Anatolia) - Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia (UNESCO WHS)

Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia
Fairy chimneys in Devrent valley

Located on the central Anatolia plateau, in Cappadocia, within a volcanic landscape sculpted by erosion to form a succession of mountain ridges, valleys and pinnacles known as "fairy chimneys" or hoodoos, Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia cover the region between the cities of Nevşehir, Ürgüp and Avanos, the sites of Karain, Karlık, Yeşilöz, Soğanlı and the subterranean cities of Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu.

1336 TURKEY - A belly dancer

Belly dance is a translation of the French term "danse du ventre", applied to the dance in the Victorian era, and originally referred to the Ouled Nail dancers of Algeria, whose dance used more abdominal movements than the dances described today as "belly dance". Actually is a misnomer, because every part of the body is involved in the dance; the most featured body part is usually the hips. Belly dance takes many different forms depending on the country and region, both in costume and dance style, and new styles have evolved in the West as its popularity has spread globally.

1124 TURKEY (Aegean Region) - Miletus

Situated on the western coast of Asia Minor, near the mouth of the Maeander River (from which come the word "meander") in ancient Caria, Miletus was considered the greatest and wealthiest of Greek cities before the Persian invasion in the middle of the 6th century BC. After a period of decline, it reached its greatest wealth and splendor during the Hellenistic era (323-30 BC) and later Roman times.

1046 TURKEY (Aegean Region) - Didyma

1046 The ruins of the Temple of Apollo at Didyma

Didim, a small town and a popular seaside holiday resort on the Aegean coast, on the north shore of the gulf of Güllük, is home of the antique city of Didyma with its Temple of Apollo, the Didymaion. Next to Delphi, Didyma was the most renowned oracle of the Hellenic world, first mentioned in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, and also the largest and most significant sanctuary on the territory of the great classical city Miletus. To approach it, visitors would follow the Sacred Way to Didyma, about 17 km long.

Entrance ticket to the Temple of Apollo at Didyma (2013)

Along the way, were ritual waystations, and statues of members of the Branchidae family, as well as animal figures. Some of these statues, dating to the 6th century BC are now in the British Museum, taken by Charles Newton in the 19th century. The 6th century Didymaion enclosed a smaller predecessor, its treasury being enriched by gifts from Croesus. Until its destruction by the Persians in 494 BC, the sanctuary was administered by the family of the Branchidae. The priestess, seated above the sacred spring, gave utterances that were interpreted by the Branchidae.

0873 TURKEY (Aegean Region) - Hierapolis-Pamukkale (UNESCO WHS)

0873 Travertine terrace formations at Pamukkale

Pamukkale (cotton castle) is a natural site, located in the River Menderes valley, which contains hot springs and travertines, terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing water. In this area, there are 17 hot water springs, and when the water, supersaturated with calcium carbonate, reaches the surface, carbon dioxide degasses from it, and calcium carbonate is deposited. Precipitation continues until the carbon dioxide in the thermal water reaches equilibrium with the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The chemical process is a trivial one, but the resulting landscape seems to be from another planet.

Entrance ticket to Hierapolis-Pamukkale (2013)

The hot springs of Pamukkale have been used as a spa since the 2nd century BC, and beside travertine terraces, around a Phrygian temple, was born the city Hierapolis (Holy City). Being part of the Seleucid Empire, Antiochus the Great sent there 2,000 Jewish families from Babylon and Mesopotamia, followed later by more from Judea. After Eumenes II annexed the city, it became a healing centre.

0869 TURKEY (Aegean Region) - Archaeological Site of Troy (UNESCO WHS)

0869 Archaeological Site of Troy - Odeon Troy IX

I don't think there is anyone in the modern world who have completed at least primary school and/or has a TV at home and never heard of Troy. If he didn't read the Iliad, at least he saw the movie with Brad Pitt or played a video game with the Trojan War. Perhaps the importance of this event was much exaggerated by Homer, but the legend crossed millennia and has inspired great artists throughout the world ever since.

Entrance ticket to Archaeological Site of Troy (2013)

Entrance ticket for children (free)
to Archaeological Site of Troy (2013)

Schliemann was the one who discovered the location of the ancient stronghold and began the first excavations, but his thirst for glory and gold made ​​him to find Troy several times, because the site revealed several cities built in succession. Now the layers of ruins in the citadel at Hisarlık are numbered from I to IX, with various subdivisions, and it is known that the hill was inhabited between 3000 BC and 500 AD. Troy VIIa (1300-1190 BC) has been identified with the Hittite Wilusa, and is generally (but not conclusively) identified with Homeric Troy.

0859 TURKEY (Aegean Region) - A zeibek from the Aegean Region

I found this little marvel in one of the souvenir shops located near the temple of Apollo in Didim, one of those stalls studded with thousands of articles, where the kitsch coexist peacefully with authentic handicraft. When he saw me skimming discontented through the postcards displayed on the wire rack at the entrance, the seller (who was probably also the owner) invited me inside. "I have others too. Maybe you will find among them something to your liking", he said, leaving me in front of other racks, filled with hundreds of common postcards, not a few of them discolored, bent, and stained by flies. I ransacked among them more than half an hour, but I haven't regretted, because I found this postcard and another one, with a belly dancer. "Oh, is from our area, an outlaw or something like that," said the man staring at the image. "I didn't even know that I have it."

0827-0829 TURKEY (Aegean Region) - Ephesus (UNESCO WHS)

0827 Ephesus - The Library of Celsus

Founded as an Attic-Ionian colony in the 10th century BC, on the site of the Bronze Age city Apasa, Ephesus was famed for the Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BC), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Around the year 650 BC it was conquered by the Lydians, and in the middle of the 6th century BC was incorporated into the Achaemenid Empire, but in 479 BC the Ionians, together with Athens, overthrew the Persians. In 356 BC the temple was burned down, according to legend, by a lunatic, being restored by inhabitants.

0828 Ephesus - Hadrian Temple

 

A few decades after Alexander the Great liberated the city, the river Cayster silted up the harbor and the inhabitants were forced to move to a new settlement, 2km further on. In the next period Ephesus became part of the Seleucid Empire, then came under Egyptian rule, and finally under the one of the king of Pergamon, later being one of the largest cities of Roman Asia Minor. The city and temple were destroyed by the Goths in 263 AD, and this marked the decline of its splendor.

0829 Ephesus - Heracles Gate

Rebuilt by Constantine I, it remained the most important city of the Byzantine Empire in Asia after Constantinople in the 5th and 6th centuries, till was again partially destroyed by an earthquake in 614. Its importance declined when the harbor was silted up (today, it is 5km inland). Sacked by the Arabs several times, and conquered by Seljuk Turks in 1090, it returned in 1097 under the control of Byzantine Empire, which kept it until 1308. Incorporated into the Ottoman Empire for the first time in 1390, and for the second in 1425, it was completely abandoned in the 15th century. Nearby Ayasuluğ was renamed Selçuk in 1914.

Entrance ticket to Ephesus (2013)

Entrance ticket for children (free) to Ephesus (2013)

Built in honor of the Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, an Ancient Greek who served as governor of Roman Asia (105-107) in the Roman Empire, Library of Celsus was completed in 135 AD by Celsus' son, consul Gaius Julius Aquila. Celsus paid for the construction of the library with his own personal wealth, and is buried in a sarcophagus beneath it. It once held nearly 12,000 scrolls. The interior of the library and all its books were destroyed by fire in the devastating earthquake that struck the city in 262.

0550 TURKEY (Marmara Region) - Historic Areas of Istanbul - The Blue Mosque (UNESCO WHS)

Until the conquest of Constantinople (1453), which meant not only the end of the Byzantine Empire, but also a turning point for both the Ottoman Empire and the history of Europe and the Middle East, the Ottoman Turks were just some warriors preoccupied rather by the subjection of the neighbors, than by culture and civilization. This doesn't mean, however, that they didn't respected the achievements of those with who they came into contact. For almost 400 years Byzantine architectural artifacts such as the church of Hagia Sophia served as models for many of the Ottoman mosques.

0489 TURKEY (Marmara Region) - Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge

If I'm not mistaken, in present there are only three bridges linking two continents: Suez Canal Bridge (which cross the Suez Canal at El Qantara, in Egypt, so link Africa and Asia), Bosphorus Bridge and Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge (which cross  the Bosphorus strait at Istanbul, in Turkey, so link Europe and Asia). In this postcard is the last one, also known as the Second Bosphorus Bridge, which was, when was completed (in 1988), the 6th longest suspension bridge span in the world.

0345 TURKEY (Southeastern Anatolia Region) - Nemrut Dağ (UNESCO WHS)

Just as after the death of Alexander the Great the empire created by him was divided, but without being lost Hellenistic influence (quite the contrary), after the defeat of the Seleucid Empire by the Romans in 189 BC, at the Battle of Magnesia, it began to fall apart and new kingdoms were formed on its territory. One of these states was Hellenistic Kingdom of Commagene, which occupied the region between the Taurus Mountains and the Euphrates. Because Mithridates I Callinicus (100-69 BC) married the Syrian Greek Princess Laodice VII Thea, his descendants could claim ties with both Alexander the Great and the Persian kings, the kingdom becoming more Greek then Persian.