"RACHEL SUNS NEW TURKEY PAGE" a Turkey Travel Page by rachel_sun

I went to Turkey in Oct 2000 and i have been thinking about it ever since.I stayed at Kalkan,a sophisticated village with beautiful shops and restaurants along the harbour.I fell in love with Turkey the day i arrived there.I miss it already and im going back next October on a two center holiday to the Med coast.

TURKEY is a vast country,sandwiched between(both politically and geographically)East and West. 97% of Turkey is in Asia and 3% is in in Europe.There is 5000miles of coastline. 80% of Turkey is 500meters or more above sea level.It is
mountainous,flat,damp,hot,dry and the med coast is sub tropical.There are three main climatic zones.

........ 1=MARMARIS.....(including Istanbul)Aegeon and Med regions.These have a med climate with hot summers and mild winters.It can get upto 40-45 in summer.
.......2=BLACKSEA.....It is hot here in summer with mild winters and high rainfall.
........3=CENTRAL REGIONS and Eastern Anatolian regions(including Ankara)have more extreme hot,dry summers and cold winters.

The Black Sea is to the north,the Aegeon to the westand the deserts of Arabia to the south,and bordered by Greece,Bulgeria,Georgia,Armeria,Iran,Iraq and Syria.To the acient people who came here before Turks,it was called Anatolia,the Motherland.In 1923,under Ataturk,the counrty became Turkiye,the land of the Turks.
The history here is amazing.The Persian King of KingsXerxes crossed westward with his Asian tribes on their way to victory at Thermopylae and defeat at Salamis.Alexander the Great reversed that movement when he led his Macedonians eastward to India in search of his great empire.

Over the next 1000 years,Anatolia became the center of the Byzantine Empire,with it's capital,Constantinople,the greatest city in the world.It was here that early Christianity started,only to be replaced by Islam,which was introduced by 7th century Arabs and continued on by Selcuk and Ottoman Turks.
.....The most important person was Alexander the Great,who built the greatest empire the world has ever known.His influence lasted centuries.There are so many great temples,buildings and ruins here,you will never get to see them all.

Turkey's capitol is ANKARA and the population is around 63million.Lot's of young Turks move from small villages to Istanbul(300 a week).Less than 5% of Turks are over 65 and one third are under 15.98% of Turks are Sunni Muslim and the other 2% are Orthodox or Jew.
Turkish time is 2 hours ahead of greenwich meantime.
The currency has devalued so much,it will cost you millions to have a drink.At least you can tell your friends you are a millionnaire.

The scenery here is so different,mountains,flat land,beautiful beaches,farmland,snow capped mountains.Turkey also grows all it's own food .