The only city in the world located on two continents
is Istanbul which has been the capital of three
great empires - Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman - for
more than 2000 years.
The oldest known human settlement, dating back
to 6500 BC., is in Çatalhöyük,
near Konya in the Central Anatolian region of Turkey.
The earliest landscape painting in history exists
on a wall of a Çatalhöyük house.
It shows the eruption of a volcano, probably that
of nearby Hasandag.
Two of the seven wonders of the world stood in
Anatolia: The temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus - Bodrum.
The first coins were minted at Sardis, the capital
of the ancient kingdom of Lydia in western Anatolia,
at the end of the 7 th century BC. Lydia is the
first known civilization in the world to use money
as a means of exchange.
Many important events in the birth of Christianity
occured in Turkey. Apostles St. John, St. Paul and
St.peter have all lived and preached in Anatolia.
About three miles away in the forested mountain
above Ephesus is the house of Virgin Mary (Meryemana
Evi), a modest stone house where the Virgin Mary
lived her last days. It is believed that St. John
brought Mary to this site after Christ's crucifixion.
Vatican declared the house of the Virgin Mary a
holy site in 1967.
The seven churches mentioned in the book of revelation,
the last book of the Bible, are all located in Anatolia:
Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyateira, Sardis, Philadelphia
and Laodicea.
Antioch, once called the "Queen of the East"
and known as the third largest city of the Roman
empire, played a key role in the spread of Christianity.
St Paul began his three missionary journeys from
there and it was at Antioch that the followers of
Jesus were first called Christians. A cave known
today as the grotto of St. Peter or the church of
St. Peter is believed to be where the Apostle Peter
preached when he lived in Antioch. In 1963, the
papacy designated the site as a place of pilgrimage
and also recognized it as the world's first cathedral.
Anatolia is the birthplace of many historic legends,
such as: the powerful Phrygian King Midas, the world's
first historian Heredotus and St Paul, the apostle.
Archeologists from the Pennsylvania museum opened
the tomb of King Midas in 1957. They discovered
some of the earliest and best preserved wooden furniture
in the world.
St. Nicholas, known today as Santa Claus, was
born in Patara and served as bishop of Myra (Demre)
on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. It is believed
that Nicholas died in Myra on December 6th at the
age of 65. The village is home to the famous church
of St. Nicholas which houses a sarcophagus believed
to be the original tomb of St. Nicholas.
According to the Old Testament, the patriarch
Abraham was born in Sanli Urfa, a city in southeast
Turkey. The city's ancient name was Ur or Edessa.
A cave there is thought to be Abraham's birthplace.
It has become a place of pilgrimage and is now surrounded
by the Halil Rahman mosque.
Trojan wars, depicted in Homer's epic Iliad took
place in western Turkey in about 1200 BC. A symbolic
wooden horse at the site commemorates this legendary
war.
According to the legend of the great flood mentioned
in both the Koran and the old testament, Noah's
ark landed at Mount Ararat (Agri Dagi) in eastern
Anatolia. For centuries scientiests have launched
expeditions on the mountain's slopes in search of
the remains of the Noah's ark.
The word "Turquoise" comes from "Turk"
meaning Turkish, and was derived from the beautiful
color of the Mediterranean sea on the southern Turkish
coast.
Coffee was first brought to Istanbul from Yemen
in the 16th century. It was in Turkey that a new
method of preparing ground coffee - now called Turkish
coffee - was invented and Turks introduced this new
drink prepared in their own way to Europe by the
17th century. Pierre Loti, Victor Hugo, Dumas, Moliere
and Balzac are among those who are known to have
admired Turkish coffee. Drinking coffee is still
an essential element of Turkish culture.
Tulips were introduced to Holland from Turkey
by Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq which started the craze
for the flower in the Netherlands and England. He
was the ambassador of Charles V to the court of
Ottoman Emperor Süleyman the Magnificent in
1554.
It was from Giresun, a city on the Black sea coast
of Turkey, that the Roman general Lucullus exported
the first cherry trees to Europe. Giresun is a variation
of the ancient name Kerasus, meaning city of cherries,
from the Greek word for cherry, Kerasi.
Piri Reis, well-known Turkish captain and navigator
of the late 15th century, prepared and drew the
map known today as "Piri Reis map" in
the city of Gallipoli-Turkey in 1513. Drawn on gazelle
hide, this map showed the then known portions of
the world: Europe, Asia, Africa and such parts of
America as had been discovered. Erich von Daniken
in his famous book "The chariots of the Gods"
advocates that he was taken to an airship by the
visitors from the universe to see the world and
drew this map which resembles the photos of the
earth taken from the satellites.
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