Turkish Delights
By Robert Haru Fisher
Turkey is both a delightful tourist target and a surprising one. The entire country is easy to enjoy, not for just its amazing diversity and smoothly functioning tourism industry, but for its outstanding cuisine and plethora of opportunities for things to do. It's surprising because the nation straddles the border between Europe and Asia, a foot in each continent, and makes of this unusual situation a successful and compelling lesson for the rest of the world. On the verge of full acceptance in the European Union, this is a country that knows how to please its visitors, with the vibrant bustle of a cosmopolitan city in Istanbul, and historic monuments in the vastness of the bulk of the nation's land area just across the Bosphorus and the Straits of Dardanelle. You can expect many pleasant surprises from a nation whose largest city, Istanbul, has been the capital of two famous empires—the Roman (eastern Roman Empire) becoming the Byzantine (330-1453), and the Ottoman (1453-1923)...(more)
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AT-A-GLANCE:
| • Capital: |
| |
• Ankara |
| • Population: |
| |
• 70,413,958 |
| • Largest City: |
| |
• Istanbul (approximate
population of 11.3 million) |
| • Neighboring
Countries: |
| |
• Turkey borders
eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest, Greece to the west,
Georgia, Armenia and the Nakhichevan enclave of Azerbaijan to
the northeast, Iran to the east, Iraq and Syria to the
southeast. In addition it borders the Black Sea to the north,
Aegean Sea and Marmara Sea to the west and the Mediterranean Sea
to the South. |
| • Language: |
| |
• Turkish. English is widely spoken in
major cities and resort areas.
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| • Size: |
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• 780,580
square km |
| • Currency: |
| |
• New Turkish Lira (TRY) (1 USD
= 1/5395 TRY) |
| • Upcoming
Events: |
| • Fun Fact: |
| |
• The word “turquoise” comes from “turc,” meaning Turkish, and was
derived from the beautiful color of the Mediterranean Sea on the southern Turkish coast.
• The most valuable silk carpet in the world is in the Mevlâna Museum in Konya. Marco Polo’s journeys in the 13th century took him to Turkey, and he remarked that the “best and handsomest of rugs” were to be found in Turkey.
• The Dutch got their famous tulips from Turkey. Bulbs were first brought to Europe from Istanbul in the 1500s and became so popular that by 1634 Holland was infected with “tulipmania” - people invested money in tulips as they now do in stocks. In the early 18th century countless tulips of all varieties adorned Istanbul. It was a period of peace, lavish entertainment and creativity now referred to as “The Tulip Age,” and the
tulip remains a symbol of Turkey
• St. Nicholas, known as Santa Claus today, was born and lived in Demre (Myra) on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. The village contains the famous Church of St. Nicholas with the sarcophagus believed to be his tomb.
• The first man ever to fly was Turkish. Using two wings, Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi flew from the Galata Tower over the Bosphorus to land in Usküdar in the 17th century.
• Turkey has almost as many species of wild flowers as the rest of Europe combined
– more than 9,000 species, nearly 3,000 of which are
indigenous only to Turkey.
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| • Tourist Office
(U.S.A.): |
| |
• Turkish Culture and Tourism
Offices
New York at: 212-687-2196 or
Washington D.C. at: 202-612-6800
www.tourismturkey.org or www.kulturturizm.gov.tr |
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