Aegean Coast
Around the Sea of Marmara
Central Turkey
Istanbul
Mediterranean Coast
Aegean Coast
The Aegean coast is, in many ways, Turkey's most enticing
destination for visitors, home to some of the best of its classical
antiquities and the most appealing resorts. The north shore is a quiet,
rocky region, well endowed with Hellenistic remains but with few sandy
beaches - and so is spared the tourist excesses of the south. Tiny Assos
with its ancient ruins is one of the gems of the coast. Ayvalik , the
north's longest-established resort, makes an excellent place to stop for
a few days, with good beaches and easy access to Bergama a little inland,
with its unmissable ruins. Further south, the city of Izmir is for most
travellers an obstacle on the way to more compelling destinations, but
it is not without charm and serves as a base for day-trips to adjacent
sights and beaches. The territory to the south is home to the best
concentration of classical, Hellenistic and Roman ruins, notably Ephesus
, usually first on everyone's list of dutiful pilgrimages, and the
remains inland at Aphrodisias and Hierapolis - although the latter is
more often visited for the pools and rock formations of adjacent
Pamukkale . The coast itself is better down here, too, and although the
larger resorts, including Kusadasi and Marmaris, are beginning to be
lost to the developers, Bodrum and Çesme still have a certain amount of
charm.
Around the Sea of Marmara
Despite their proximity to Istanbul, the shores and
hinterland of the Sea of Marmara are relatively neglected by foreign
travellers. This is not altogether surprising: here Turkey is, at first
glance anyway, at its least exotic. But this may well be your first view
of the country and the area is not entirely without charm or interest.
The border town of Edirne , at the end of the Roman and Byzantine Via
Egnatia, later the medieval route to the Ottoman parts of Europe, was
once the Ottoman capital and is home to some of the finest early Ottoman
architecture. To the east the quaint country town of Iznik was briefly
the Byzantine capital and boats extensive ruins, while nearby Bursa - on
many routes towards the Aegean coast - was the first Ottoman capital and
aside from many fine buildings has an exquisite city centre. Many
visitors also stop off at the extensive World War I battlefields and
cemeteries of the Gelibolu peninsula (Gallipoli), using either the north
Marmara port of Gelibolu as a base, or, more commonly, Çanakkale - from
where it's also easy to visit the ruins of ancient Troy a little further
south.
Central Turkey
When the first Turkish nomads arrived in Anatolia during the
tenth and eleventh centuries, the landscape must have been strongly
reminiscent of their Central Asian homeland. The terrain that so pleased
the tent-dwelling herdsmen of a thousand years ago, however, has few
attractions for modern visitors: monotonous, rolling vistas of stone-strewn
grassland, dotted with rocky outcrops, hospitable only to sheep. In
winter it can be numbingly cold, while in summer, temperatures can rise
to unbearable levels.
It seems appropriate that the heart of original Turkish settlement
should be home to the political and social centre of modern Turkey -
Ankara , a modern European-style capital, symbol of Atatürk's dream of a
secular Turkish republic. The south-central part of the country draws
more visitors, not least for Cappadocia in the far east of the region,
where water and wind have created a land of fantastic forms from the
soft tufa rock, including forests of cones, table mountains and canyon-like
valleys, all further hewn by civilizations that have found the area
sympathetic to their needs. Further south still, Konya is best known as
the birthplace of the mystical Sufi Muslim sect and is a good place to
stop over between Cappadocia and the coast.
Istanbul
Arriving in ISTANBUL can come as a shock. Most visitors head
for the old city in and around Sultanahmet , where though you're still
technically in Europe, there are immediate differences: back streets
teem with traders pushing handcarts, stevedores carrying burdens twice
their size, and omnipresent shoeshine boys. Men still monopolize the
public bars and teahouses, while many women cover their heads, averting
their gaze. Yet this is merely one aspect of modern Istanbul; only a
couple of kilometres to the north you'll find the former European
quarter of Beyoglu , with its trendy bars and cutting-edge dance clubs,
while north again are the pavement cafés and restaurants of Ortaköy and
the swish Bosphorus suburbs of Arnavutköy, Bebek and Etiler. These days
the city has a social and cultural diversity to match any of its Western
counterparts.
Istanbul is the only city in the world to have played capital to
consecutive Christian and Islamic empires, and retains features of both,
often in congested proximity. Byzantium , as the city was formerly known,
was an important trading centre, but only gained real power in the
fourth century AD, when Constantine chose it as the new capital of the
Roman Empire . Later, as Constantinople , the city became increasingly
dissociated from Rome, adopting the Greek language and Christianity and
becoming, effectively, the capital of an independent empire. In 1203 the
city was sacked by the Crusaders, and when the Byzantines, led by
Michael VIII Palaeologus, regained control in 1261, many of the major
buildings had fallen into disrepair, with the empire itself greatly
diminished in size. As the Byzantines declined, the Ottoman Empire
prospered, and in 1453 the city was captured by Mehmet the Conqueror,
who shortly after began rebuilding works. In the following century, the
victory was reinforced by the great military achievements of Selim the
Grim and by the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent, whose conquests
helped fund the greatest of all Ottoman architects, Mimar Sinan. By the
nineteenth century, however, the glory days of Ottoman domination were
firmly over. Defeat in World War I was followed by the War of
Independence , after which Atatürk created a new capital in Ankara -
although Istanbul retained its importance as a centre of trade and
commerce. In recent years , the population of the city has reached
twelve million, a fifth of the country's total, and is still on the rise,
adding further to the cacophony and congestion.
The city is divided in two by the Bosphorus , which runs between the
Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, dividing Europe from Asia. At right
angles to it, the inlet of the Golden Horn cuts the European side in two.
The old centre of Sultanahmet, occupying the tip of the peninsula south
of the Golden Horn, is home to the city's main sightseeing attractions:
the cathedral of Aya Sofya , Topkapi Palace and the Blue Mosque , and as
such many people find that they spend all their time here. Annoying
hustlers mean first impressions can be negative - but thankfully
omnipresent tourist police have done much to clear out the worst, and
will respond quickly to any problems you may have. Further west near the
explorable city walls lies the Kariye Camii , which contains the city's
finest surviving Byzantine mosaics and frescoes. Across the Golden Horn
to the north, the Galata Tower offers superb panoramic views over the
city.
The City
The old imperial centre of Istanbul stretches from the Sultanahmet
district northwest to the Süleymaniye mosque complex, the covered bazaar
and the remains of the city walls. To the north, across the Galata
Bridge, the old Levantine areas of Galata and Pera are home to one of
the city's most famous landmarks, the Galata tower. Close by is the
entrance to the Tünel , an underground funicular railway running from
Karaköy up to the start of Istiklâl Caddesi, home to many of the city's
restaurants and much of the nightlife, and on to Taksim Square , the
heart of modern Istanbul.
Mediterranean
Coast
The first stretch of Turkey's Mediterranean Coast , dominated
by the Arkdag and Bey mountain ranges of the Taurus chain and known as
the " Turquoise Coast ", is perhaps its most popular, famed for its
pine-studded shore, minor ruins and beautiful scenery. Most of this is
connected by Highway 400, which winds precipitously above the sea from
Marmaris to Antalya. In the west of the region, Dalyan is renowned for
its beach - a breeding ground of loggerhead turtles - as well as being a
characterful small resort. West, Fethiye , along with the nearby lagoon
of Ölüdeniz , is a full-blown regional centre, and gives good access to
some of the pick of the region's Lycian ruins, the best of which -
Xanthos and Patara - are close to one of the coast's nicest beaches. The
region's second major resort, Kas , smaller than Fethiye but no less
popular, is a good base for scenery which becomes increasingly
spectacular until you reach the site of Olympos , close to another fine
beach. Further along, past the port and major city of Antalya , the
landscape becomes less dramatic but is home to yet more impressive ruins,
notably those of the old Pamphylian cities of Perge and Aspendos . Side
, too, has its share of antiquities, although it's better known as a
tourist resort, as is the former pirate refuge of Alanya , set on a
spectacular headland topped by a stunning Selçuk citadel. Beyond here
you're entering the relatively undiscovered reaches of eastern Turkey. |
