I last updated this page on March 25, 2008. Send comments to tom@photoseek.com . Copyright 1999 by Tom Dempsey. Buy any image.

Neither earthquakes nor reckless taxi drivers stopped us from enjoying the amazing Republic of Turkey, where my wife and I encountered the friendliest people whom we have ever met. To our Western eyes, Turkey is more exotic than its well-touristed neighbor Greece. We hiked the Kaçkar Mountains, danced with Hemşin and Laz people, drank lots of tea, sailed the Aegean Sea, and even witnessed a total eclipse of the sun! We traveled for 6.5 weeks in Turkey, from July 24 to September 9, 1999.   Turkey offers a rich variety for travelers:

• Turkey has the lowest travel costs in Europe.
  
• Easy, cheap, and comfortable travel on the extensive bus system.
  
• Carol and I recommend traveling without a tour package to better experience the wonderful local hospitality and moments of serendipity. You will meet more people on your own.
  
• High quality gold jewelry costs half of US prices.
• Turkey offers fascinating historic cities where East meets West. İstanbul makes a fabulous destination for a week or more.
• Turkey offers majestic architecture and ruins from an amazing 9,000 years of Anatolian history (see Turkey Page 2).
  
• The Turks came to Anatolia from Central Asia after 1000 CE (and are not culturally related to Arabs or Persians).
  
• The sweeping story of Anatolia includes the Hittites, Romans, Saint Paul the Apostle, Süleyman the Magnificent ...
• Turkey was the the cradle of Christianity and now hosts popular Christian tours, such as to the birthplaces of Saint Paul the Apostle and Saint Nicholas ("Santa Claus" himself).
  
• Turkey's geography ranges from the warm and beautiful Turquoise Coast, to icy Mount Ararat 16,854 feet (5,137 meters).
• Turkey's people are the friendliest I have ever met:
• Turks actively practice the Muslim value of hospitality towards visitors, and serve you tea in little tulip-shaped glasses at every opportunity.
  
• When travelling on our own away from the big cosmopolitan cities, local folks often showered us with curious attention, making us feel like rock stars in the spotlight. On six different occasions, locals had us take a group photo to mail to them later.
  
• The people of Turkey hunger for connection with the world. Most Turks strongly desire joining the European Union (EU) to connect with the world and market their remarkable variety of food and industry.
• Advice for women:
  
• As a Western visitor, my wife Carol only needed a head scarf when entering a mosque.
• Carol and I dressed conservatively (see our rooftop dining photo above right) and had no problems with unwanted attention (aside from us feeling like rock stars pursued by curious fans).
  
• However, in smaller towns and rural areas, Carol felt uncomfortable culture shock by noticing mostly men and very few women on the streets. A common Muslim tradition in rural Turkey is for women to stay at home, or only go out in groups, conservately dressed, usually with a head scarf. This sex role difference is most pronounced in Turkey away from the cosmopolitan cities. We were relieved to experience an exception in the Kaçkar Mountains, where men & women mixed in a more relaxed fashion, and we danced with the local Hemşin and Laz people.
• Solo female travelers need to be extra confident in the face of assertive male attention in Turkey, and may enjoy the trip better by traveling with a companion of either sex (or with a group). American movies and TV shows shown worldwide have unfortunately portrayed American (or Western World) women as having loose morals, which can encourage amorous men.
• Turkey has low crime:
• The crime rate in Turkey is lower than in the United States.
  
• The risk of terrorism for tourists is very low -- no more risky than being struck by lightening. See my discussion of the Kurds (and more general "World Travel Risks").
  
• Tourism in Turkey has been hurt by negative press and misperceptions, and the resulting empty hotel rooms and uncrowded sights make Turkey very attractive for spontaneous visitors.
• The tragic August 17, 1999 earthquake in İstanbul's poorly-built suburbs did not damage the airport or any tourist areas. Your chances of experiencing an earthquake are no different than for visiting California. 
• Turkey has fresh & tasty food:
• Fresh peaches, watermelons, böreks, baklava, meatballs, breads, a hundred eggplant dishes, and more.
  
• Turkey is the world's biggest producer of hazelnuts, figs, & apricots.
  
• Turkey is one of only 7 countries in the world that can feed itself without imports.
• Turkey is a democratic, secular, western-looking, rapidly modernizing, capitalistic, NATO ally of the USA.

Silk

For 4,000 years, the Chinese guarded the secrets of silk production and monopolized silk sales to the west. But in the sixth century CE, Russian monks smuggled silkworm eggs out of China in a hollow bamboo staff to the Byzantine Empire. In Emperor Justinian's reign, silk cultivation became a state industry which was continued by the conquering Ottoman Turks. Frequent wars between Ottoman Turk and Persian states hampered the imports of raw silk from Iran, which motivated local silk production centered on Bursa, which remains Turkey's silk center. As of 1999, Turkey is the world's second biggest silk producer (Malaysia is first), using 70% for rug making. A Turkish rug can be one of two types:

    1. a "carpet," which is double-knotted (in contrast to Iranian or Persian carpets which are single-knotted) then shaved to a flat surface, or
    2. a "kilim," which is woven, not knotted.
Left: A woman makes a Turkish carpet, which is double-knotted then shaved to a flat surface. Kuşadası is a resort town in the province of Aydın on the Aegean coast of Turkey.

Left: A customer inspects Turkish carpets, which are double-knotted (in contrast to Iranian or Persian carpets which are single-knotted) then shaved to a flat surface. Location: Kuşadası, Republic of Turkey.

Below: Silkworms eat mulberry leaves & spin a cocoon with a continuous strand 1 mile long. Workers twist about 35 strands into an extremely strong silk thread, which is twisted again into cords for rug making. For 4,000 years, the Chinese guarded the secrets of silk production and monopolized silk sales to the west. But in the 500's AD, Russian monks smuggled silkworm eggs out of China in a hollow bamboo staff to the Byzantine Empire. In Justinian's reign, silk cultivation became a state industry which was continued by the conquering Ottoman Turks. Frequent wars between Ottoman Turk and Persian states hampered the imports of raw silk from Iran, which motivated local silk production centered on Bursa, which remains Turkey's silk center. As of 1999, Turkey is the world's second biggest silk producer (Malaysia is first), using 70% for rug making.

İstanbul

İstanbul (right): First Bosporus Bridge (or Bosphorus) rises behind Ortaköy Mosque(Büyük Mecidiye Camii). In 1854, the architect of the Sultans' Dolmabahçe Palace designed the Ortaköy Mosque, in an eclectic-baroque style for Sultan Abdül Mecit.  

Built in 1973, the First Bosporus Bridge connects Europe with Asia and is one of the longest bridges in the world. İstanbul is the world's only city which spans two continents. 3% of the Republic of Turkey is in Turkish Thrace, in Europe on the Balkan Peninsula, and 97% of Turkey is Anatolia (Asia Minor/Anadolu).
      The Bosporus Strait separates Europe from Asia and has determined the history of İstanbul and its empires (or Istanbul Strait; in Turkish: İstanbul Boğazı; in Greek Βόσπορος). As the world's narrowest strait used for international navigation, the Bosporus connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara (which is connected by the Dardanelles to the Aegean Sea, and thereby to the Mediterranean Sea).

Ethnic harmony and conflict:
In the suburb of Ortaköy, a Jewish synagogue, Islamic mosque, and Christian church have been peaceful neighbors for centuries, through today. After Ottoman Turks conquered the city of Byzantium in 1453 and renamed it İstanbul, the Ottomans' millet system of distinct religious communities allowed Jews, Greeks, Armenians, and Kurds to continue to live in relative harmony for centuries, as they had in Byzantine times. In the 1400's and 1500's, many Jews who fled from the Spanish Inquisition took shelter in Ottoman İstanbul, which welcomed their advanced knowledge of science and economics. In modern times, many of these Jews were attracted to Israel, leaving only 24,000 in Turkey today. As the Ottoman Empire weakened and ethnic nationalism rose at the turn of the 20th century, Armenians, Greeks, and Kurds yearned to assert their own control over claimed homelands, and they separately fought bitter but unsuccessful battles against the staunch Turks.


Left: Rumelihisarı, or the "Fortress of Europe" or "Fortress on the Land of the Romans", is in Istanbul, in the Republic of Turkey, located on a hill at the European side of the Bosporus just north of the Bebek district, in the "Rumeli Hisari" quarter. Rumelihisarı was built by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II between 1451 and 1452, for controlling the narrowest reach of the Bosporus in a siege of Byzantine Constantinople, which he conquered in 1453. After just one year of use, it never again served as a fortress. The Bosporus strait forms the boundary between the European part (Rumelia) of Turkey and its Asian part (Anatolia).

Above: İstanbul, viewed from Galata Tower: The Golden Horn, one of the great natural harbors of the world, carries a large share of Turkey's trade through its connection to the Bosphorus Strait (out of the picture to the left).

İstanbul (right): Muslim women catch a bus near Yeni (New) Mosque. Turkey is 99% Muslim, mostly Sunni. 50% pray 5 times per day, and 6% are fundamentalist, influenced by Iran. But unlike Iran, the Republic of Turkey has a constitution which separates church from state. Turks, who came to Anatolia from Central Asia after 1000 CE, are not related to Arabs or Persians.

Left: We approach the Blue Mosque (or Sultanahmet Mosque) through attractive gardens.


Below: Sultanahmet (or Blue) Mosque interior and ceiling, was built 1609-1616 in İstanbul (Istanbul), Turkey.






Left: Architect Sinan, who wanted to exceed the grandeur of Hagia Sofia Cathedral, built Süleymaniye Imperial Mosque on Golden Horn harbor in İstanbul from 1550-1557. Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife are buried here. In the West, he is known as Suleiman the Magnificent. In the Islamic world, he is known as the Lawgiver (in Turkish "Kanuni"; making his formal Turkish name of Kanuni Sultan Süleyman), because he completely reconstructed the Ottoman legal system.

Southwest Turkey: The Turquoise Coast

Olympos

Left: Our Turkish gulet sailboat (the Cevri Hasan III) is anchored in Soguk Bay on the Turquoise Coast of the Republic of Turkey.
Left: The Church of Saint Nicholas is located in modern Demre (ancient Myra), Turkey. The present-day church was constructed mainly from the 8th century onward. A monastery was added in the second half of the 11th century. An ancient Greek marble sarcophagus had been reused to bury the Saint; but his bones were stolen in 1087 by merchants from Bari, Italy, where today his remains rest in the cathedral, Basilica of San Nicola. [Published in the Moon Turkey Handbook (external link) by Jessica Tamturk, to be published 2008 or 2009 by Avalon Publishing Group.]
 

Ephesus

The nearby sanctuary of Cybelle/Artemis helped the town of Ephesus (or Efes in Turkish) become a prosperous port and cultural center by 600 BCE. Greek goddess Artemis was akin to the Phrygian goddess Cybele, the ancient Anatolian mother goddess worshiped since Neolithic times. At various times, Ephesus was controlled by Lydia (King Croesus), Persians, Hellenists (Ancient Greeks from Athens), and Alexander the Great (334 BCE). Eventually Ephesus became capital (population 250,000) of the Roman Province of Asia Minor (ancient Greek Anatolia, or modern Turkish Anadolu). Ephesus declined from greatness as its port silted, and the city center moved to nearby Selçuk.

 Left: Ephesus: The Library of Celsus, built 114 CE, was named in honor of a Roman governor of Asia Minor (the area known as Anatolia in Greek). [Published in the Moon Turkey Handbook (external link) by Jessica Tamturk, to be published 2008 or 2009 by Avalon Publishing Group.]

Left: Corinthian order columns at the Great Theatre of Ephesus. [Published in the Moon Turkey Handbook (external link) by Jessica Tamturk, to be published 2008 or 2009 by Avalon Publishing Group.]


The Great Theatre of Ephesus, the largest outdoor theatre in the ancient world, was begun during Hellenistic times (probably during the reign of Lysimachos in the third century B.C.), and was altered and enlarged from 41-117 CE, by Roman emperors Claudius, Nero, and Trajan. The Greek builders dug out a space from Mount Pion (present-day Panayir Dagi) to fit the 30-meter (100-foot) high theater, which accommodated 25,000 people, or 10 percent of the population of Roman Ephesus at its peak. The theater exhibited the fights of wild beasts and of men with beasts. Some year soon after 51 CE, the Apostle Paul (Paul of Tarsus) delivered a Christian sermon condemning pagan worship in this theater, which roused the idol-making silversmiths and followers of the ancient Anatalian goddess Cybele to riot, almost killing Paul and his companions. After that, Paul avoided Ephesus. Over several centuries, the Cayster River filled the harbor of Ephesus with silt, creating a malaria-infested swamp, pushing the sea 4 kilometers away and cutting off the city's commerce and wealth. By the 6th century CE, Emperor Justinian decided to build the Saint John Basilica 3 kilometers away, which effectively moved the city center to Selçuk.

Below: A child stands behind rock billboards announcing Roman gladiator contests held in the Great Theatre of Ephesus.

Left: The Great Theatre of Ephesus.

Cappadocia & Central Anatolia

The Persian name "Cappadocia" does not exist on official road maps, but describes one of Turkey's major tourist destinations, the 100-mile-wide square east of Kayseri, in Central Anatolia. As much as 10 million years ago, three volcanoes covered this area in ash, which hardened into a soft rock called tuff. This volcanic tuff has eroded into fantastic shapes which the Turks call "fairy chimneys." Cappadocia once included most of central Anatolia (between Ankara and Malatya, between the Black sea and the Taurus Mountains, and centered at Kayseri), and was the center of the Hittite Empire and later a Roman province mentioned in the Bible. For thousands of years, people have carved caves and entire underground cities into the tuff formations. Early Christians thrived here, hid from 7th-century Arab armies, and made unique rock churches carved from tuff, with frescoes added in the 1000's to 1100's. In 1985, UNESCO listed Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia as a World Heritage Area.

Left: Cappadocia: Uçhisar Castle is carved into volcanic tuff.  [photo published in Wilderness Travel 2001 Catalog of Adventures]

Below: A dancer of the traditional Spoon Dance, which is performed from Konya to Silifke.

Below: Dancers perform the Spoon Dance, which is a tradition from Konya to Silifke, in the Republic of Turkey.  [Published in the Moon Turkey Handbook (external link) by Jessica Tamturk, to be published 2008 or 2009 by Avalon Publishing Group.]


Left: Volcanic ash layers nourish an orchard in Cappadocia.

    Below right: Goreme, Cappadocia, Turkey: Ceiling of early Christian cave church, carved into volcanic tuff. The artwork dates from about 1000 CE. [Published in the Moon Turkey Handbook (external link) by Jessica Tamturk, to be published 2008 or 2009 by Avalon Publishing Group.]

Left: A friendly family encounter, in Amasya, a central Anatolian town dating from the Hittite Empire (about 1300 BCE). (Published in Jan./Feb. 2001 Sierra Magazine, Sierra Club Outings.)

Eastern Turkey

Black Sea Coast:

Left: The 1000-year-old Monastery of the Virgin Mary at Sumela is among the most impressive sights of Turkey's Black Sea coast. The monastery clings to a cliff above a cool evergreen forest in Altindere National Park.






Below: This colorful old Christian fresco ceiling is at Sumela Monastery, under restoration in this 1999 image. The 1000-year-old Monastery of the Virgin Mary at Sumela is among the most impressive sights of Turkey's Black Sea coast. The monastery clings to a cliff above a cool evergreen forest in Altindere National Park.  [Published in the Moon Turkey Handbook (external link) by Jessica Tamturk, to be published 2008 or 2009 by Avalon Publishing Group.]


Left: The Hagia Sophia (or Ayasofya Müzesi; or Aya Sofya) was founded 1263 CE and converted into a museum in 1964, in the city of Trabzon (formerly Trebizond, an historic port city dating from 746 BCE, near the eastern end of Turkey's Black Sea coast).

Below: Carol sits by the door to the Hagia Sophia (or Ayasofya Müzesi; or Aya Sofya) in the city of Trabzon. 
     Trabzon, the largest port on Turkey's Black Sea coast, welcomes the rapidly growing trade with Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan & Iran. The highway eastwards was being expanded from 2 to 4 lanes when we passed through in 1999. Freshly harvested hazelnuts lined the sides of the two-line roads to Trabzon from the West, along with many weird looking nut vacuume machines.






Left: With its dramatic mountain-and-riverside setting, its charming old houses, mosques and antiquities, Amasya is one of the most interesting cities in Central Anatolia, in the Repubic of Turkey. Amasya is a provincial capital on the Yesilirmak (Green River) with steep rock cliffs rising above. Ancient tombs of the kings of Pontus (3rd century BCE), are carved into the sheer rock cliffs, and are floodlit at night.

Left: Ayder, Kaçkar Mountains, Turkey: Hemşin and Laz men and women dance the horon to the music of the tulum (bagpipe) in a mountain forest.
     One of the highlights of our trip was dancing for several hours with these very friendly people! The Hemşin and Laz people wear their Islamic faith more lightly than other areas of Turkey. The equal mixing of men and women was a relief to us, because elsewhere in the trip, we felt tense in response to the traditional Muslim separation of sexes. The tension of cultural submersion, however, adds to the education and excitement of travel.
     The slow circle of the horon dance probably comes from the Bacchic dances of early Greece. (Bacchus was the Greek god of grapes and wine.) Hemşin and Laz historically originate from the mountains of Georgia and Armenia, and are known for their fierce independence. Today in Turkey, the Hemşin are renowned as pastry cooks.

Left: The Kaçkar Mountains offer wonderful hiking through alpine villages and meadows blooming with pretty orange crocus flowers (below) in August.

Below right: We began a day hike of 8 miles round trip from this village (Yukarı Kavrun Yaylası), in the Kaçkar Mountains of Turkey. We ascended 2,300 feet through a hillside of dwarf rhododendrons and purple gentians to meadows filled with orange crocuses at an elevation of 9,800 feet.



Left: a waterfall in the Kaçkar Mountains.

Left: A field of orange crocus flowers blooms in August in the Kaçkar Mountains. Glacier-clad Mt. Kaçkar rises to 12,900 feet on the right.


Left: This 10th century Georgian Church was built during the reign of Magistros, and now serves as a mosque, at the town of Barhal (officially known as Altıparmak in Turkish; or Altiparmak), near Yusufeli.

Below: This small village is along a river at 3800 feet elevation near Yusufeli, in the Republic of Turkey.  [Published in the Moon Turkey Handbook (external link) by Jessica Tamturk, to be published 2008 or 2009 by Avalon Publishing Group.]


Left: In Northeast Turkey, the Tortum Stream irrigates a dry valley, supporting a village with a mosque. (The Tortum Stream flows into the "Grand Canyon" of Turkey, the Çuruh River Valley, which offers some world-class scenery and white-water rafting.)  [Published in the Moon Turkey Handbook (external link) by Jessica Tamturk, to be published 2008 or 2009 by Avalon Publishing Group.]

Mount Nemrut or Nimrod

Left: Zeus's head with bodies seated above, at sunrise on the East Terrace. Mount Nimrod (Nemrut Dağı), near Malatya.

Left: The head of Zeus glows at sunrise.

Left: Yeni Kale (New Castle), is a Mameluke fortress from the 13th century CE, located on a cliff top at Kahta Kalesi village, near Eski Kahta (also called Kocahisar) village, near the city of Adiyaman.

Below: Carol explores Yeni Kale (New Castle), which we recommend as a good side trip near Mount Nemrut, located on a cliff top at Kahta Kalesi village, near Eski Kahta (also called Kocahisar) village, near the city of Adiyaman.

Below: Yeni Kale (New Castle) is silhouetted against the sun.  [Published in the Moon Turkey Handbook (external link) by Jessica Tamturk, to be published 2008 or 2009 by Avalon Publishing Group.]

Total Solar Eclipse

As the moon completely blocks the sun, you can see solar prominences (orange or pink gas jets larger than the earth) and the corona, which is a thousand times dimmer than the sun's photosphere. I photographed this eclipse on August 11, 1999 at Sivas, in Eastern Turkey. Sivas coincidentally experienced another total solar eclipse in on March 29, 2006 (4 minutes long, twice the average, visible from Antalya through Sivas, plus countries outside Turkey).

Anatolia: Historical Claims to Fame Greek Anatolia (meaning "The East") is what the Romans called Asia Minor, and the Turks now call Anadolu.  The Asian peninsula of Anatolia encompasses twice the land area of California, and has hosted the following astounding drama of human history (listed sequentially in time): the world's first city, Çatal Höyük, 7000 BCE (Palaeolithic times, the Old Stone Age). the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, possible homeland of the Indo-European language and people. the Hittite Empire (mentioned in the Bible), which rivalled ancient Egypt. İzmir (ancient Smyrna): Home of Homer (born around 700 BCE), founder of western literature. Troy: In Homer's Iliad, Troy was called Ilium, where Paris killed Achilles by a shot in the heel in the Trojan War, about 1250 BCE, giving us the expression "Achille's Heel." Homer described a Trojan Horse filled with soldiers to crack Troy's defenses, but the earthquake of 1250 probably did the damage. The Trojan Horse may actually have been built as a "thank you" to Poseidon the Earth-Shaker. two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: The Mausoleum was the striking tomb of ruler Mausolus of Halicarnassus (or modern Bodrum) who died in 353 BCE, giving us the modern term, "mausoleum." The original Mausoleum was lost to earthquakes and crusaders. Temple of Artemis (Anatolian mother goddess) was four times bigger than the Parthenon in Greece, but all that remains today is a stone column in a marsh. important Roman sites and some of the most famous Greek (Hellenistic) ruins: Ephesus, Troy, Pergamum, Miletus, Halicarnassus, and others. Turkish baths, which evolved from Greek and Roman baths. Diogenes, who founded the Cynics (412?-323 BCE). the first cultivation of cherry trees. the inventions of parchment (at Bergamon) and the envelope. where Julius Caesar spoke the famous Latin phrase "veni, vidi, vici" or "I came, I saw, I conquered"  in 47 BCE near Zile & Amasya, after a battle against King Pharnaces II (who was trying to reestablish the Pontic Kingdom of his ancestors by attacking the Roman provinces of Galatia, Armenia, and Cappadocia). Anatolia is the cradle of Christianity: Urfa (or Şanlıurfa): Possible birthplace of Patriarch Abraham, who first heard God in Harran and ultimately fathered three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Tarses: Birthplace of the foremost champion of Christianity, Saint Paul the Apostle, who used Roman roads to spread Christianity in Anatolia from the years 45-58 CE. Ephesus: where Saint Paul the Apostle preached Christianity for 27 months, and later Saint John took care of Mary, Mother of Jesus, for the last 5 years of her life. Antioch (now Antakya, or Hatay): where the term "Christian" was invented, St. Peter preached, and Christian thought thrived from 100 CE until the Arab conquest in the year 642. The 7 Churches of the Revelation (of Asia), early centers of Christianity: Ephesus (now Efes), Smyrna (İzmir), Pergamum (Bergama), Sardis (Sart), Philadelphia (Alaşehir), and 2 others. Mount Ararat (Arı Dağı): 16,800-foot volcano, highest point in Turkey. Biblical landing place of Noah's Ark. Patara: Birthplace of Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus), who was Christian Archbishop of Myra (modern Demre). Constantinople (now İstanbul), where Constantine the Great declared equal rights for all religions, then elevated Christianity and accepted baptism on his deathbed. Within 20 years, Christianity went from persecuted faith to state religion. Emperor Justinian built Hagia Sofia, the greatest church in Christendom for nearly 1000 years and one of the architectural marvels of all time. Seljuk Turkish Empire: In the year 1097, Seljuk Turks beat the Byzantine Empire at Manzikert (near Erzurum), founding the Kingdom of Rum. Turkish tribes then settled Anatolia. The Pope called for the First Crusade to drive out the Muslims, but too late. Famous Seljuks include: Omar Kyayyam, poet. Aladdin Keykubad, ruler. Whirling Dervishes founder Celaleddin Rumi, or Mevlana, the mystic "Shakespeare of Islam," a Turk writing in Persian and teaching universal love. the first known coffeehouses (in 1554 İstanbul). the world's first successful human glider flight, by Hazerfan Ahmet Celebi, launched from İstanbul's Galata Tower.

Copyright 1999 by Tom Dempsey. Photographs or text may not be copied without permission. Buy Custom Prints.
References:  1) Turkey, Lonely Planet Publications, 1999.  2) Turkish Reflections, by Mary Lee Settle, 1991.  3) Insight Guides: Turkey, APA Publications (HK) Ltd, 1998.

Turkey (Page 1 of 2)