Middle East - Anthony Ham [451]
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FAST FACTS
Area 779,452 sq km
Capital Ankara
Country code 90
Language Turkish
Money Turkish lira (TL); US$1 = TL1.19; €1 = TL1.75
Official name Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (Turkish Republic)
Population 72 million
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CLIMATE & WHEN TO GO
The Aegean and Mediterranean coasts have mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers. The Anatolian plateau can be boiling hot (although less humid than the coast) in summer and freezing in winter. The Black Sea coast is mild with sporadic rain in summer, and chilly and wet in winter. Mountainous eastern Turkey is icy cold and snowy in winter, while temperatures shoot to the other end of the thermometer in high summer.
From late April to May (during spring) and from late September to October (during autumn) are the best times to visit; the weather is warm and dry, and there are fewer tourists. In the high season (July to mid-September) it can be suffocatingly hot and clammy, and major tourist destinations are crowded and overpriced.
Also see Climate Charts, Click here.
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TURKEY IN…
Two Weeks
Start the tour with pizazz in İstanbul, where the must-see sights include the famous Aya Sofya (Click here), Blue Mosque (Click here) and Topkapı Palace (Click here).
After a few days of frenetic İstanbul, you’ll be ready to blow town. Head southwest to the Gallipoli battlefields (Click here), the site of horrendous Allied casualties in WWI. From there hop across the Dardanelles to the Aegean coast and Troy (Click here), worth a visit even without Brad Pitt. You could pass a pleasant night in beachy Assos or Behramkale (Click here), with its hilltop village and temple, en route to Ephesus (Click here), the eastern Mediterranean’s best-preserved classical city.
Nip inland to Pamukkale’s (Click here) gleaming white pools and ledges, then hit the coast again at Olympos (Click here), with ruins in the undergrowth and hippies in tree houses. Spend the rest of your time ambling along the Mediterranean coast, stopping in spots such as Antalya (Click here), with its Roman harbour and walled old city.
Prepare yourself for Syria in Antakya (Click here), which was part of the French protectorate of Syria until 1938. Also known as Hatay and, in the Bible, Antioch, the former Roman settlement has some magnificent mosaics to look at before crossing the border at Reyhanlı/Bab al-Hawa (for Aleppo).
Three Weeks
Follow the above itinerary as far as Antalya, then veer northeast to Konya, where the turquoise-domed Mevlâna Museum (Click here) occupies the former lodge of the whirling dervishes. From there, it’s just a few hours to Cappadocia (Click here), otherworldly home of fairy chimneys, underground cities and rock-cut churches.
Next, drag yourself east towards Malatya, from where you can visit another ethereally beautiful spot: Mt Nemrut (Click here), strewn with decapitated stone heads. Before crossing to Aleppo at Kilis, savour a final taste of Turkey in Gaziantep (Click here), home to 180-plus pastry shops and the planet’s finest pistachio baklavas.
Join the Itineraries
Syria (Click here)
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HISTORY
Early Anatolian Civilisations
The Hittites, the greatest early civilisation in Anatolia, were a force to be reckoned with from 2000 to 1200 BC. Their capital, Hattuşa, is now an atmospheric site east of Ankara.
After the collapse of the Hittite empire, Anatolia splintered into small states and it wasn’t until the Graeco-Roman period that parts of the country were reunited. Christianity later spread through the region, preached by the apostle Paul, crossing Anatolia on the new Roman roads.
Rome, then Byzantium
In AD 330 the Roman emperor, Constantine, founded a new imperial city at Byzantium (İstanbul). Renamed Constantinople, the strategic city became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and was the centre of the Byzantine Empire for 1000 years. During the European Dark Ages, the Byzantine Empire kept