* Did you know that ... Modern Turkey was called Asia Minor and before that Anatolia?
* Did you know that ... lots of the names of towns world wide, for example Philadelphia, Paris, Antioch, Troy and even the name of the continent of Europe have their origin in Anatolia?
* Did you know that ... it was Alexander the Great who discovered the way to undo the Gordian knot near Ankara and that this double knot was used to produce Turkish carpets and that it is still called "Gördes Dügümü" which is exactly the Turkish expression for the Gordian knot?
* Did you know that ... two of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the Mausoleum of Harlicarnassus were built in Anatolia and the other five wonders are the Pyramids of Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria?
* Did you know that ... Anatolia had been the first area of settled Christianity and that the Garden of Eden from the first book of Genesis got its water from a river which was split into four rivers at its delta and that two of these rivers, the Tigris (Dicle) and the Euphrat Firath have their source in the mountains of eastern Turkey?
* Did you know that ... Mount Ararat is in Anatolia and that legend says the Ark of Noah landed here and that the word Ararat is the Hebrew (language of people from Israel) form for Urartu, which is the Assyrian word for the kingdom which existed here from 1100 to 700 B.C?
* Did you know that ... Saint Paul was born in Tarsus in Southern Turkey and he was trying to Christianize the people of Anatolia during his missions and most of his bible letters were also addressed to the people of Anatolia?
* Did you know that ... the seven churches mentioned in the Revelation of Saint John were in Anatolia: Ephesus (Efes), Smyrna (Izmir), Laodicea ad Lycum (Denizli, Goncali), Sardis (Sart), Pergamum (Bergama), Philadelphia (Alasehir) and Thyatira (Akhisar)?
* Did you know that ... Saint Santa Claus was born in Demre and he worked there as the first Bishop and it was also said that he was always helping the daughters of poor farmers with their dowry. Did you also know that the convention of giving presents on the evening of Saint Santa Claus was moved to Christmas night much later, but had its origin in this area?
* Did you know that ... it was the Seldjuks who introduced the first insurance ever to cover the losses of tradesmen when doing business?
* Did you know that . the first flying human being was a Turkish guy who was able to fly over the Bosporus with the help of wings in the 17th century, starting from the tower of Galata and landing in Üsküdar?
* Did you know that ... the historic train station of Sirkeci was built in Istanbul and this station was the destination of the famous ?Orient Express (King of Trains and Train of the Kings), which was in service between Paris and Istanbul from 1883 until 1977?
* Did you know that ... there are about 9000 different sorts of flowers growing in Turkey?
* Did you know that ... many of the items found during excavations carried out in Turkey/Anatolia can be seen in many different museums all over the world and that the Pergamon Museum of Berlin owns the Altar of Zeus, the Holy Gate of Athena from Pergamon, the statues of Priene and the biggest gate from Miletus and that the Temple of Artemis from Ephesus, the Mausoleum of Harlicarnassus and the Harpyie-Tomb from Xanthos are still to be seen in the British Museum?
Facts, you should know about Turkey
