Diving Scuba diving in Turkey is being discovered by divers from all over the world. They come to explore some of the most dramatic underwater terrain and ancient history found anywhere on the planet. What keeps divers coming back year after year to what is fast becoming one of the best dive destinations in the …
The Turkey beaches are wonderful for most of the year, but the waters begin to seriously warm up around June and stay that way pretty much through about October. This is true of the Mediterranean and Aegean beaches, but it does not hold true for the beaches on the Black Sea. These waters north of …
Ephesus The Temple of Artemis, which was considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is situated on the edge of this small town. The city which was situated at the beginning of the Persian Royal Road has survived sufficiently enough to enable us to understand the ancient way of life in …
The history of Turkic literature spans a period of nearly 1,500 years. The oldest extant records of written Turkic are the Orhon inscriptions, found in the Orhon River valley in central Mongolia and dating to the 8th century. Subsequent to this period, between the 9th and 11th centuries, there arose among the nomadic Turkic peoples …
Turkey is an open-air museum of the world’s great architecture: Hellenic, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, Ottoman. Seljuk Turkish Architecture The Seljuk Turks (1071-c. 1300) settled in Anatolia before the Ottomans. They arrived from Central Asia by way of Iran where they absorbed the great tradition of Persian architecture. They blended this with the Byzantine tradition …
It is custom to have three “sit-down meals” a day. Breakfast or “kahvalti” (literally “foundation for coffee”), typically consists of bread, feta cheese, black olives and tea. Many work places have lunch served as a contractual fringe benefit. Dinner starts when all the family members get together and share the events of the day at …
Basically a steam bath, in Turkish called Hamam is now-a-days the most relaxing way for the tourists who are on holiday in Turkey. During the Ottoman era, turkish baths were places to socialize, to bath and to get together. It was when Europeans learned about Turkish Baths. In especially Western Europe, it was Victorian era …
Music The lively Turkish folk music, which originated on the steppes of Asia, is in complete contrast to the refined Turkish classical music of the Ottoman court. Until recently, folk music was not written down, and the traditions have been kept alive by the asiklar, or Turkish troubadours. Distinct from Turkish folk music is Ottoman …
Theatre The performance plays, the most important component of the festivals and celebrations observed in the structure of Ottoman society, appear before us as a kind of folk theatre. The most noteworthy varieties of these spectator shows include the storyteller, puppet shows and Karagoz shadow plays. http://www.kultur.gov.tr/EN/Genel/BelgeGoster.aspx?17A16AE30572D313679A66406202CCB0CB7F8168B002C4B1 The opportunities presented to Turkish Embassies abroad to …
Until the 18th century, painting in Turkey was mainly in the form of miniatures, usually linked to books in the form of manuscript illustrations. In the 18th century, trends shifted towards oil painting, beginning with murals. Thereafter, under European inspiration, painting courses were introduced in military schools. The first Turkish painters were therefore military people. …