Places of Interest in Turkey
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Sight Seeing in Antalya
Pergamum King Aktallos II. ordered his soldiers to discover
the retreat of heaven on earth. Upon this command, the solders
had wandered around till they came to the place of Antalya
and exclaimed " This is heaven". Then founded
city "Attalia". Stretching out along the coastline
of Antalya, Alanya, Manavgat-Side, Kemer, Kas, Finike, Serik,
Demre and many other destinations expect you for a holiday
never to be forgotten...
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| Antalya is the chief city
on Turkey's central Mediterranean coast. As well as several
km of pebble beaches and a historic Roman-Ottoman core, Antalya
is a good base from which to explore the quieter beach towns
and more spectacular ancient cities of the region. Side, 75km
(47mi) east of Antalya, is the increasingly popular beach
town once chosen by Mark Antony and Cleopatra for a romantic
tryst. Alanya, 115km (71mi) east of Antalya, is another sea-sun-sand
joint with a mini-Miami feel. Patara is a party town a few
hundred km south-west of Antalya. The beach here is a simply
splendid 20km (12mi) long and there are Roman ruins in amongst
the dunes. The towns along the Mediterranean coast are all
linked by bus and dolmus services (especially frequent in
summer). |
Sight Seeing in Istanbul
Straddling the Bosphorus, its skyline studded with domes
and minarets, Istanbul is one of the truly great romantic
cities. Its history tracks back from Byzantium to Constantinople
to its place at the head of the Ottoman Empire. Today it
hums as Turkey's cultural heart and good-time capital.
The heart of historical Istanbul is Sultanahmet, the district
centred on the Byzantine Hippodrome in the oldest part of
the city. The city is best explored on foot, as most sights
are within easy walking distance of one another. If the
pace does get too much, a çay bahçe (tea garden)
is never too far away.
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Sight Seeing in Ankara
Turkey's capital is a sprawling urban mass in the midst
of the Central Anatolian steppe. It's very different from
the Ottoman town of Angora which preceded it on this site,
a quiet place where long-haired goats were raised and their
fleece knitted into fluffy jumpers. Since 1920 when Atatürk
set up his provisional government here, Ankara's main business
has been government but several significant attractions
make it worth a short visit.
Most visitors head straight for Hisar, the Byzantine citadel
atop the hill east of the old city, and the nearby Museum
of Anatolian Civilsations. A couple of km to the south is
Atatürk's mausoleum, a monumental building, spare but
beautiful, that echoes the architecture of several great
Anatolian empires. The Presidential Mansion is preserved
as Atatürk used it, with decor and furnishings of the
1930s including billiard table and cigar-and-brandy nook.
There's a lot of ancient history around too. Roman Ankara
was a city of some importance, and Roman ruins are dotted
in amongst the mosques and monuments of Muslim Anatolia.
Most of the cheaper hotels and restaurants are in old Ankara,
a km or so northeast of the train station.
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Sight Seeing in Ephesus.
Of Turkey's hundreds of ancient cities and classical ruins,
Ephesus is the grandest and best preserved. Indeed, it's
the spunkiest classical city on the Mediterranean. Ephesus
was Ionia, a flourishing cultural centre during the Greek
Empire, and a busy provincial capital during Roman times.
Ionia's Temple of Diana was counted among the Seven Wonders
of the World, and the city was generally renowned for its
wealth and beauty.Sts Paul and John took up the quill in
Ionia and the Virgin Mary is said to have spent her twilight
years here. A walking tour of the ruins will take at least
half a day, and if you're here in summer, start early, because
it gets stinking hot by high noon. Places you'll come across
include the Grotto of the Seven Sleepers, in which seven
persecuted youths slumbered for two centuries, then woke
up and ambled down to town for a meal; the colossal Harbour
Gymnasium; the grand marble-paved Arcadian Way; the impressive
Temple of Hadrian and a scattering of Roman fountains, pools,
brothels, libraries and public toilets.
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Sight Seeing in Capadoccia
Cappadocian Region displays a beautiful combination of nature
and history. The geographic movements had formed the "peribacalari"
and during the historical development process, mankind had
settled and inhabited these natural wonders, fairy chimneys
and carved houses and churches inside these formations and
adorned these settlements with frescos, carrying the traces
of the thousands of years of their civilizations. The current
Cappadocian Region is an area covering Nevsehir, Aksaray,
Nigde, Kayseri and as for the more narrow rocky Cappadocian
Region, Üçhisar, Ürgüp, Avanos, Göreme,
Derinkuyu, Kaymakli, Ihlara.
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Sight Seeing in Harran
Harran, in southeastern Anatolia, is one of the oldest continuously
inhabited spots on earth. The hills around the town are
surrounded by crumbling walls and topped with ruined buildings
and it all looks so deeply ancient that it's not hard to
believe Abraham was one of Harran's early inhabitants. There's
a fortress on the eastern side of the town, and some good
mosaics in the 8th century Ulu Cami (a mosque).
Today's residents, some of whom still live in quaint beehive-shaped
mud houses, get by on a mix of farming, smuggling and the
sniff of wealth as water starts to filter through from the
vast Southeast Anatolia Project (a dam). There's not much
in the way of accommodation in Harran; most visitors base
themselves in Urfa, 37km (23mi) west, which has good bus
connections to the rest of Turkey.
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Sight Seeing in Troy
Compared to Ephesus, Troy is quite dull. Some say that it
loses something without Brad Pitt running around, others
see this as an improvement on the representation. Either
way Troy is no stunner - the drawcard is its sheer history.
Excavations have revealed nine ancient cities on the site,
with Troy VI or VII believed to be the setting for The Iliad.
When amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated
Troy in 1871, the pants of classical studies boffins around
the world became decidedly damp. Up to this time, Homer's
Iliad was assumed to be based on legend, but post-digs,
Troy became the Homeric city of Ilium, site of an epic battle
between the Achaeans (Greeks) and the Trojans in the 13th
century BC. Excavations by Schliemann and others have revealed
nine ancient cities, one on top of another, dating back
to 3000 BC. Troy VI (1800-1275 BC) is the city of Priam
and the one that engaged in the Trojan War.
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