Turkey proudly sits astride
two continents: a position that has given rise to a culture that reflects both
East and
West. It is a country where European aspirations sit comfortably alongside Asian traditions and the volatile atmosphere of the
Middle East morphs seamlessly into the relaxed outlook of the Mediterranean world.
Turks have only lived here since medieval times when they arrived as land-hungry nomads from Central Asia. Before that it was
Byzantine territory and Istanbul - then Constantinople - was the political center of a vast Christian
empire.
Romans,
Persians,
Lycians and
Phrygians were former occupants of the same territory, and earlier still,
Hittite tribes had built an Anatolian empire before collapsing around the time of the Trojan Wars.
Such a rich history has left an indelible mark and Turkey abounds with
historic sites and
archaeological wonders set in a varied and beautiful landscape. The
Mediterranean coastline is punctuated with well-preserved
Greco-Roman cities such as Pergamom and Ephesus, while the austere and rugged
Anatolian plateau has cave churches hidden away in the improbable
fairytale landscape of Cappadocia.
Istanbul, still very much the pulse of the nation, has even more to offer, with Roman aqueducts, Byzantine churches and Ottoman mosques and palaces.
With history at every turn, it is tempting to portray Turkey as a quaint, time-locked country that adheres to tradition but this is far from the truth. The modern republic's first leader,
Kemal Atatürk, saw to it that Turkey was reinvented as a modern secular state following the demise of the
Ottoman Empire. What you see today, thanks to Atatürk's comprehensive modernization, is a healthy combination of ancient tradition and contemporary outlook. This outlook sees little contradiction in having
modern European ways tempered by
Islam and time-honored traditions of hospitality.
GeographyTurkey borders the Black Sea and Georgia and Armenia to the northeast, Iran to the east, Iraq to the southeast, the Syrian Arab Republic and the Mediterranean to the south, the Aegean Sea to the west and Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest. Asia Minor (or Anatolia) accounts for 97% of the country’s area and forms a long, wide peninsula 1,650km (1,025 miles) from east to west and 650km (400 miles) from north to south. Two east-west mountain ranges, the Black Sea Mountains in the north and the Taurus in the south, enclose the central Anatolian plateau, but converge in a vast mountainous region in the far east of the country. It is here that the ancient Tigris and Euphrates rivers rise.
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