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ALL ABOUT
TURKEY
Dear guests, all you want to know about Turkey, historical and touristic places,
photos of Turkey, tourism guide are given you with links to official site of
Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
From sandy
beaches to historical ruins, Turkey has it all; history, culture, architecture,
food, crafts, beaches, boats and warm weather.
The
History; Centre of innovation: from 7000 BC
The high plateau between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean is the setting for
many of the most significant advances of neolithic man and his successors in the
early stages of civilization.
In the use of metals Anatolia is regularly first, or among
the first. Copper implements are found here from around 7000 BC. Bronze is used
in the 3rd millennium BC, later than Sumeria but not by much. Iron is first
worked here, in about 1500 BC.
One of the world's first towns, Catal Huyuk, is on the southern edge of
the Anatolian plateau. Excavation has revealed evidence of quite developed
agricultural communities living on this site from about 6500 to 5700 BC.
Several millennia later Anatolia is the site of the first of
the many empires established by Indo-European tribes - eventually the dominant
group in the Eurasian land mass all the way from the Atlantic to India. These
first Indo-European conquerors, ruling Anatolia from the 17th to 12th century
BC, are the Hittites.
Troy:
1900-1250 BC
Contemporary with the Hittites, but controlling a much smaller tract of
territory in the northwest of Anatolia, are the Trojans. They too are an
Indo-European tribe, arriving in the region in about 1900 BC. Troy is ideally
placed to prosper from trade, being on the north-south sea link between the
Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and on the east-west land route between Asia
and Europe.
Troy survives many disasters, including several major fires, but none is so
destructive as the sacking of the town by Greeks, in about 1250 BC, in the
Trojan War. Not long after this the Hittites too are destroyed, by marauders
from the coasts of Anatolia known as the Sea Peoples.
Ionia and
Lydia:
8th - 6th
century BC
The
centuries after the collapse of both Hittites and Trojans are unsettled ones.
Stability begins to return to Anatolia, at any rate on the west coast, with the
establishment of Greek colonies. The most important of these is Ionia.
Consisting originally of many small independent settlements, Ionia emerges in
the 8th century as a league of twelve cities which between them dominate western
Anatolia. Some, such as Miletus, will take a prominent role in the spread of
Greek civilization.
The region becomes known at this time by its classical
name, Asia Minor - accurately acknowledging that this is indeed a small
appendage of Asia, dangerously exposed to the east. At present the threat comes
from Lydia.
Lydia emerges in the 7th century BC as a rich and powerful state in the interior
of Anatolia, with its capital at Sardis. The last king of Lydia, Croesus, has
survived in popular memory as a man of legendary wealth (he is the first ruler
in history to mint coins of gold and silver).
The Lydians raid into Ionia, with increasing success.
By the mid-6th century Croesus controls Ephesus and many other Greek cities in
Asia Minor. But in 546 he is defeated by a greater conqueror from the east,
Cyrus. Within a year or two the Persian empire has engulfed Ionia. Greek
civilization is confronted with its defining challenge.
Fault line between empires: 6th c. BC - 15th c. AD
With the
rise of the Persian empire to the east, and the combined strength of Greece to
the west, Anatolia acquires the role which it will fulfil through much of
history - that of a buffer state, over which the powers of southeast Europe and
southwest Asia repeatedly clash.
The prolonged struggle of the Greco-Persian wars is
finally resolved in Greece's favour, in the late 4th century BC, when Alexander
the Great marches east. But for the subsequent three centuries Anatolia is
disputed between Hellenistic rulers, competing for the scraps of Alexander's
territorial acquisitions.
By the 1st century BC a new western force is securely in place. The Roman empire
has extended its rule to the eastern Mediterranean coast. The Roman legions hold
Anatolia with little more than occasional corrective expeditions (of which
Caesar's Veni, vidi, vici records one rapid triumph). Nevertheless, successive
empires in Persia remain a constant threat. In the 7th century AD, on two
separate occasions, Persian armies reach the walls of the Byzantine capital,
Constantinople.
The 7th century also sees the rise of a new force which will
eventually wrest Anatolia from the Byzantine empire, making it instead the heart
of a Turkish empire.
Within fifty years of the death of Muhammad, the Muslims are threatening
Anatolia. They attack Constantinople in 673. This proves a campaign too far, and
Anatolia remains within the Christian empire. But just to the east of Anatolia,
Syria and Armenia are lost to Islam.
By the end of the 11th century Muslim Turkish tribes have
infiltrated much of Anatolia. The entire region becomes, once again, a shifting
frontier between two great power blocs - representing now Christianity and
Islam. Muslim victory in the struggle is finally assured with the fall of
Constantinople in 1453. Anatolia becomes the centre of a Turkish empire, and
today comprises most of modern Turkey.
TIPS ABOUT
TURKEY
* The first coin was minted in Sardis, the capital of the Lydian Kingdom,
which neighbors with Salihli district of the present-day city Manisa.
* Anatolia is the birthplace of many historical figures such as the
Phrygian King Midas, the father of history Herodotus and St Paul.
* St Nicholas, rather known as Santa Claus, was born in Patara and served
as the Bishop of Myra on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.
* The earliest settlement in the Neolithic Age, is located in Çumra
district of the present-day city of Konya (ancient Iconium).
* One of the first most accurate world maps were drawn by the well-known Turkish
cartographer and navigator Piri Reis in 1513.
* Troy where the Trojan was recounted in Iliad by Homeros were fought is
situated in Dardanelle (Çanakkale) in western Turkey.
* According to the Legend of Great Flood, after the withdrawal of the
waters, Noah's Ark landed on Mount Ararat in eastern Anatolia.
* Turkish women received the rights to vote and to be elected to office in
1934, earlier than Swiss, Greek, Italian and French women.
* St. Paul was born in Tarsus, southern part of Turkey and undertook most
of his missionary journeys in Anatolia (Asia Minor).
* The Seven Churches of Revelation are all located in Turkey; Ephesus,
Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelpia and Laodicea.
* Two of the seven wonders of the world are in Turkey; - The Temple of
Artemis at Ephesus and The Mausoleum at Halicarnasus / Bodrum
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