A visit to many
countries in one
Turkey, this
wonderland!
With its so many and diversified splendors, a journey to
Turkey gives the amazed traveler the impression of visiting not only one but many and most
contrasting countries at the same time.
Geographically separating the continents of Europe and Asia, it is where the verdant
forests, vineyards and olive groves end to leave the ground to ocres and tawny browns of
fabulous steppes and majectic deserts of the Silk Route where nomads still wander.
Climatically,
with the large superficies of the country, the traveler will run from one surprise to the
other with the mild weather reigning in the Marmara region, the warm breeze whispering
through the pine forests, palm trees, citrus groves and oleander bushes of the Aegean and
the Mediterranean, the ever-misty and evergreen high plateaus of the Black Sea, the rough
winds waving the endless wheat fields of the central continental land and the high summits
of the East with their majestic white crowns around the year.
So spectacularly diversified in its landscape, the country is also abundant in its
archeological wealth. Historically, civilizations succeeded civilizations, all attracted
by the natural riches of the country, making it thus one of the earliest settlement areas
of the world, and to name but a few among them were the Hittites, Greeks, Romans,
Byzantines, Seljuks and Ottoman Turks who all left their invaluable vestiges
intertwiningly, side by side and even one on the top of the other. This is the motherland
of King Shuppiluliumast, the powerful Hittite, of Homer the writer, Herodotus the
historian, Strabo the geographer, Justinian the Great, Suleiman the Magnificent and
Ataturk.
Warriors, adventurers, merchants, travelers, and migrants alike were constantly attracted
by these extraordinary civilizations and this wonderful land, creating together with the
indigenous people, a mosaic of exceptional wealth, providing the propitious ground to
blend the familiar with the exotic, the dazzling modern with the traditionally ancient. It
would therefore be right to say that rather than separating two continents, Turkey unites
two contrasting worlds, with Istanbul, that rare multi-faceted diamond, right at the point
of their meeting.
Such a traffic and blend have also nourished a feeling of deep-rooted hospitality and wide
tolerance. No traveler could continue to remain a stranger in this paradise, the backyard
of archaic divinities which later witnessed the last days of the life of the Holy Virgin,
hosted an important Ecumenical Council in the 4th century and was from the 16th century to
the end of the Ottoman Empire, the seat of the Caliphate. It is also the homeland of the
whirling dervishes, a Muslim sect of great tolerance.
Today a major tourist destination with excellent accommodation facilities served by all
important airlines, Turkey, in addition to its exceptional wealth of history and nature,
offers an extreme variety of recreational facilities with a coastline of over 8,000 km and
four seas, its rivers, snowy mountains and a lot more.
Food in Turkey is excellent and of a great variety from the simple village kitchen to the
most refined tastes of the imperial Ottoman Cuisine together with special oriental sweets
and blancmanges not to neglect and the Turkish coffee not to forget!
Finally, shopping throughout Turkey is not only an excellent deal but also a lot of fun.
Busy, modern shopping malls offer all the great brands of the world but no travel is
complete without a stroll through the traditional labyrintine covered bazaars of the
country: there, tastefully created by that extraordinary blend of cultures and
handed down through generations, rugs and flat weaves (kilims), ceramics,
copperware, embroidery and objects in gold and silver, all of stunning beauty, wait for
their turn to adorn new houses abroad.
