For thousands of years Anatolia alternated between eastern and western civilisations always coming and going with different leaders, different religions and different political ideas: Hethites, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Seldjuks, Mongolians, Knights of the Cross and Osman people have all left their traces which can still be seen today. Sultans once led an empire stretching from Hungary to Algiers.
Turkey is able to offer something special to all of its visitors:
Holiday at one of the beaches of the Aegean or Mediterranean coasts with their still quiet and empty bays on more than 1.500 km of coastline;
Fans of nature will enjoy the huge variety of different plants and animals all across Turkey. At the national park of “Kuþ Cenneti” (Birds Paradise) on the Marmara Sea, there is a resting area for different species of pelicans and herons on their way to their winter resorts. Other national parks allow really rare animals to survive, for instance, the Anatolian cheetah or the wild horses. At some places on the Mediterranean the last survivors of the sea turtle, Caretta Caretta, are still breeding.
Different activities
Sports fans will also find a huge variety of activities on offer. There are mountains up to 5000 metres in height for backpackers, lots of well equipped ski resorts for winter sports and picturesque areas on the Mediterranean for divers. For the adventurous sportsmen there is wild water rafting, para-gliding or canyoning (walking through wild canyons).For seaside fans there are lots of five-star hotels and even golf in Turkey is getting more and more well-known around the world. The beautiful places around Belek are becoming more famous than even the places in Portugal.
More independent travellers can find small villages in the Anatolian mountains or valleys that no stranger would expect to find. They will find lovely, friendly people living simple and poor lives still keeping to strict traditions and very religious. If you accept them, you will always have real friends.
In some of the lonely mountain valleys you will meet nomads and their flocks. They are the last real, original Turkish people because they came from the steppes of Central Asia during the tenth century as far as the Black Sea coast.
The biggest open-air museum in the world.
For people who are interested in history and like to visit ancient places, Turkey could be called the biggest open-air museum in the world. Even Greece cannot offer more proof of the past than Turkey. Troja, Pergamon, Sardis, Aspendos and the ancient world capital Ephesus are the most well-known places, built by the first Greeks as settlers on the western coast about 1200 BC. Apart from these places, there are lots of churches, palaces and castles of the Byzantine kings (4th to 15th century) and all the really beautiful relics of the Islamic and Osman periods (16th to 19th century), like the fabulous mosques built by the Sultan’s architect, Sinan, in Istanbul and Edirne, or the religious schools in Konya. Apart from Israel, there is no country in the world which offers so many different things to religious pilgrims or people interested in the history of religion as Turkey: in Antakia (Antioch) next to the Syrian border, the followers of Jesus started to use the name “Christ” and Saint Paul started his mission. Mary and the apostle John died in Ephesus.Also, because of discrimination and torture, lots of Christians escaped to Kappadokkia when they were attacked by the Romans.
