"Nasilsin?" a Turkey Travel Page by seagoingJLW

When you visit Turkey you realize that while some of Turkey is in Europe, it is truly an Eastern civilization.

History

The Hittites dominated in Anatolia while other groups, most notably the Phrygians, established themselves in other areas. Troy arose at the mouth of the Dardanelles

Next came the Persians who were subsequently defeated by Alexander the Great

The importance of the location paved the way for the creation of the East Roman Empire centered in the city of Constantinople.which became the center of Greek Orthodox culture.

Great Selcuk sultans from Persia led raids into the Byzantine realme they bordered. The Turks gained a foothold in Anatolia when when Suleyman captured Nicaea in 1075, renaming it Izmir and setting up the Sultanate of Rum.

Selcuk rule broke down in the fourteenth century. A general named Osman united several fiefdoms against the Byzantines and layed the religious and cultural foundations for the Osmanli (Ottoman) Empire. Constantinople finally fell in 1453. Mehmet the Conqueror went directly to the Hagia Sofia and prayed to Allah. Constantinople became Istanbul.

When Suleyman became Sultan (1520-1566), he doubled the size of the empire.

Miscellaneous Information

Turkey covers 780,580 sq km which makes it one of the largest countries in Europe and the Middle East. Its neighbors are Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest, Armenia and Georgia to the northeast, Iran and Iraq to the southeast, and Syria to the south. It is bordeed by the Black Sea on the north, the Aegean on the west, and the Mediterranean on the south.

The highest mountain in Turkey is Mount Ararat (5,165 meters high). The Asian part of Anatolia comprises a large part of present day Turkey. The eastern region of Turkey, Thrace, lies in Europe and has 23,000 sq km of surface area. The elevation rises from the west towards the east and stabilizes at 800 m above sea level in the Central Anatolian Plateau. Further east, the elevation increase to 2,00 to 2,200 meters in eastern Anatolia.

In the south the Taurus mountains ae parallel to the Mediterranean. Mountain ranges in western Anatolia are perpendicular to the Aegean Sea. These mountain ranges created many peninsulas and bays and a coastline full of natural wonders.

The climate of Turkey is varied. During the spring tourists can enjoy the sun in the Mediterranean region of the south, while people are skiing in the mountains. The Black Sea will have spring rains while Anatolia has snow.

The Mediterranean region has hot, dry summers and mild winters lasting from December until March. The Aegean has slightly lower temperatures, but is similar. The climate of Istanbul has warm humid summers and cool rainy winters with lots of gray sky. the northern slopes of the Black Sea rangers are misted over and rainy all year. The Central Anatolian plateau has hot dry summers and cold dry winters. In the eastern mountains there are harsh winters with heavy snow and blazing hot summers.

Nearly 3,000,000 Turks have immigrated to Germany and other countries while 65,000,000 live in Turkey today, 70% in cities and 30% in rural areas. The total poplation as of July, 2001 was 66,493,970. Most of the population is concentrated in the Marmara, Aegean and Mediterranean regions.

The people living in Turkey are 99.8% Muslim, the majority of whom are Sunni. The other 1% is mixed or irreligious. A total of 55,000 Armenians live in Turkey, while there are 26,000 Jews. The Jewish minority is more complex than other minorities because it lack homogeneity in language and history.n Most of the Jews are Sephardic, with the different languages being Spanish, Ladino, and French. There are less than 25,000 Eastern Orthodox Christians.

The largest ethnic group after the Turks (80%)is the Kurds (20%) who speak Turkish.

The Turkish language belongs to the Altay branch of the Ural-Altay linguistic family.