Articles About Turkey

Here You will find a large collection of articles about Turkey. Most of them are selected from great magazine SKYLIFE, which is the magazine of Turkish Airlines. We hope You will like them.

• ISTANBUL MAGIC (Çelik Gülersoy)
  Istanbul lies at the mouth of the Bosphorus, a strait which formed thousands ...
  
• NEW TRADITION OF THE NEW REPUBLIC : NEW YEAR (Gökhan Akçura)
  The celebration of new year is a recent innovation in Turkey. The Ottomans did not celebrate ...
  
• RAMAZAN BAYRAM AT THE OTTOMAN PALACE (Necdet Sakaoglu)
  At Topkapi Palace Ramazan and the Ramazan Bayram were marked by magnificent ceremonial...
  
• THE SADDLER IN TURKEY (Erdal Yazici)
  Halting the clacking sound of his century-old Singer sewing machine, he turned ...
  
• HISTORY MEETS MYTHOLOGY RUMELI FENERI (Prof. Dr. Jak Deleon)
  Today’s Rumeli Feneri (the Rumeli Lighthouse), situated at the point farthest north along the European side of the Bosphorus...
  
• COLOURS AND SCENTS ANOTHER BODRUM (Sedef Borovali)
  You are probably familiar with the crowds that pour into the seaside towns of the Mediterranean...
  
• THE AIRCRAFT LOTTERY (Tunca Varis)
  Lotteries originated as a means of raising funds for philanthropic ventures, such as the construction of...
  
• FLAVOR CARRIED FROM AFAR : KAYSERI PASTIRMA (Mustafa Çetinkaya)
  The Turkish horsemen of Central Asia used to preserve meat by placing slabs of it in pockets...
  
• CITY WOVEN WITH POETRY AND MYSTERY MARDIN (* Erdal Yazici)
  Mardin, the legendary city of Upper Mesopotamia, has a history going back to 8000 BC..
  
• MOSQUES OF THE BOSPHORUS (Murat Kurtulus)
  The beauties of the Bosphorus strait which winds through Istanbul and on to the Black Sea..
  
• BOHEMIAN CRYSTAL IN THE OTTOMAN PALACE (Izzet Keribar)
  The art of glass making goes back thousands of years, but the discovery that the addition...
  
• ANTALYA'S BANANA GROVES... (Garo Milosyan)
  When I was at primary school we used to celebrate Local Produce Week designed to
  
• A WORLD BOOKS IN BEYOGLU (Emel Armutçu)
  For how many decades have we been able to watch what is going on in the world from the most comfortable chair
  
• THE MUGLA LEGEND (Oktay Ekinci)
  When historians of the future look back at the 20th century they will not be impressed by the changes wrought in its towns and cities...
  
• HER EXCELLENCY THE WIFE OF OMER PASHA (Dr. Emre Araci)
  Musical relations between the Turks and the rest of Europe can be traced back many centuries...
  
• THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA MINOR (Tunca Varis)
  The land known to the Romans as Asia Minor and which now forms the greater part of Turkey is an extraordinary mosaic...
  
• FIGURATIVE ARTUKLU COINS (Gündegül Parlar)
  Since ancient times people have been fascinated by the heavens, and interpreted patterns of stars...
  
• FLAVOUR WHICH CONQUER PALATE (Nuray Mestçi)
  Of all Turkey's delicious sweet confections, the most famous is baklava...
  
• FAIRYTALE CASTLE ON THE GOLDEN HORN
  The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate moved to its new site in the district of Fener in 1601...
  
• LAND OF SELJUK RENAISSANCE
  We had not come to eastern Turkey to see the city of Van, Tusba, the Muradiye Falls or Akdamar Island...
  
• ANATOLIA AT THE LOUVRE (Sengül Aydingün)
  To go all the way to Paris from Istanbul to see Anatolian works of art might seem illogical at first...
  
• LEATHER LUGGAGE AND LABELS OF THE PAST
  When the railway came to Turkey in 1870 it brought with it French train travel terminology: train, gare, perron, chef, locomotive, rail, compartiment...
  
• THYME FRAGMENT HEIGHT
  The first glimpse of a mountain is a memorable moment. Even if you have often looked...
  
• HIDDEN PARADISE IN AYVALIK (Ali Ethem Keskin)
  In the depths of the Aegean, a few miles offshore from the picturesque town of Ayvalik, is a hidden paradise...
  
• BETWEEN SEA AND FOREST KANLICA(Ali Ethem Keskin)
  Kanlica, a village on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, is famous for its yogurt and in the past was also known for its Mecca style coffee...
  
• CHILDREN FROM TURKEY AND THE WORLD HAND IN HAND (Necdet Sakaoglu)
  The word bayram comes from Oguz Turkish and means 'day of joy and celebration'...
  
• HOUSES IN A MYRIAD COLOUR KETENDERE (Tülin Dizdaroglu)
  Ketendere,Ketendere is a mountain village near the ancient Carian city of Labranda...
  
• THE MIRROR IN TURKISH ART (Prof. Dr. M. Zeki Kusoglu)
  The desire to see on's own face probably goes back to the beginnings of human history. The first mirror must have been the still waters of a pool...
  
• WEEKEND REFUGE ON THE BLACK SEA KIYIKOY (Yüksel Altintop)
  Curious rock formations shaped by the relentless waves of the Black Sea, old houses...
  
• THE NAUTICAL CHARTS OF PIRI REIS (Kemal Özdemir)
  Ottoman Turkish map making really begins with Piri Reis, and this is no faltering start as might be expected, but a spectacular debut...
  
• SABRI ARTAM CAR MUSEUM
  The year is 1935, the place New York. Blood is being spilt again in this city notorious for its gangsters...
  
• JOURNEY TO THE KAÇKARS (Basak Öztoprak)
  The Kaçkar Mountains rise behind Rize and Hopa on Turkey's eastern Black Sea coast...
  
• LYCIA'S ROCK TOMBS (Sengül Aydingün )
  The earliest known burials were carried out by Neanderthal man who lived between 150,000 and 60,000 years ago...
  
• BOATS AND BOATMEN IN OLD ISTANBUL (Ugur Göktas)
  Before the arrival of paddle steamers in Istanbul, ferry services on the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus were provided by the long narrow rowing boats of various types known as kayik...
  
• NINETEENTH ISTANBUL FILM FESTIVAL (Necati Sönmez)
  'The train began to move, silently of course. Good gracious! It was heading straight for us...
  
• SPRING BLOSSOM IN TURKEY (Tansu Gürpinar)
  Fruits offer some of the most delicious flavours that are to be had, as well as being valuable forms of nourishment...
  
• PART OF PARADISE SIRINCE (Yusuf Tuvi)
  After visiting Ephesus in southwestern Turkey, do not miss the opportunity to visit the beautiful mountain village of Sirince...
  
• TURKEY'S MIGRATORY BIRDS (Murat Yarar)
  Geographically Turkey enjoys a very special location with respect to seas and land masses, and a remarkable diversity of terrain, habitat and climate, with a large number of streams and rivers...
  
• HANDMADE CYMBALS (Roni Askey Doran)
  Stooped intently over their work, six men sit on low stools in the small back room of a factory on the outskirts of Istanbul, hammering warm discs of a special copper alloy into perfect shape and thickness...
  
• IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST PAUL (Recep Güvelioglu)
  When the sun set over the Kuyucuk Mountains no trace remained of the blazing heat of the day. In an attempt to keep warm we wrapped ourselves in the felt rugs we had brought with us...
  
• LOVE, TRAGEDY AND HEROISM IN POPULAR LITARATURE (Necdet Sakaoglu)
  Popular books with brightly coloured pictures on the covers to attract purchasers were a stock in trade of the pedlars who used to travel through the towns and villages of Turkey...
  
• ISTANBUL IN MINIATURE (Gün Gürpinar Civa)
  The art of miniature is still being practised by a modern artist, Nusret Çolpan, who combines its traditional role as an informative illustration with contemporary concepts of art. His subject is Istanbul...
  
• A SPIN BICYCLE FROM THE BLACK SEA TO THE MEDITERRANEAN (Kuvvet Lordoglu)
  When we think of the Black Sea we think of crashing waves, rain, and mist swathed green mountains. Two of us set off by bicycle from Sinop...
  
• THE HITTITE SITE AT KARATEPE (Mustafa Çetinkaya)
  In the autumn of 1945 a research team from Istanbul University traced the ancient caravan routes through the passes of the Toros Mountains in search of Hittite sites...
  
• A PENINSULA ON THE MARMARA SEA KAPIDAG (Erdal Yazici)
  The ferry headed out to sea from the quay at the southern mouth of the Bosphorus and picked up speed...
  
• IZMIR ARCHAEOLOGOICAL MUSEUM (Dr Turhan Özkan)
  Izmir Archaeological Museum is the place to see spectacular sculpture and other antiquities discovered not only in Izmir itself, but in other ancient cities in the region...
  
• MARSHES AND REEDBEDS (Tansu Gürpinar)
  Reedbeds consist not only of reeds but of a broad diversity of plants which thrive in wetland conditions...
  
• TRABZON'S BYZANTINE CHURCHES (Assistant Prof Dr Gülgün Köroglu)
  Trabzon is a city on Turkey’s Eastern Black Sea coast constructed on terraces and hemmed in by the natural ramparts of the Soganli, Zigana, Canik and Caucasian mountains...
  
• RELIVING THE PAST KAYAKÖY (Faruk Akbas)
  The former Greek village of Kayaköy makes a striking impression on visitors, with its stone houses and churches, narrow streets, and spectacular setting...
  
• FRANGRANT FRUIT SOAPS (Abdullah Kiliç)
  Selimiye Mosque, the Seljuk period Eski Mosque renowned for its calligraphic inscriptions, and Üç Serefeli Mosque with its famous minaret are what come to mind first when we think of Edirne today. Yet until a century or so ago the city was not associated with its architecture alone, but also with fragrantly scented fruit soaps...
  
• BEAUTIES OF THE BOLKAR MOUNTAINS (Ali Ihsan Gökçen )
  Of all Turkey’s magnificent mountains, the Toros range is perhaps the loveliest...
  
• SCENES FROM ANKARA (Saner Gülsöken)
  Samanpazari, the Haymarket, was until fifty years ago still a real hay market, pervaded with the aroma of heaped hay bales, and the sounds of sheep bleating and horses neighing mingling with the shouts of traders bargaining with villagers...
  
• ARTVIN'S TRADITIONAL SPORT BLOODLESS BULLFIGHTING (Assistant Professor Dr Osman Aytekin)
  Artvin is Turkey’s northeasternmost province on the Black Sea coast, famous for its wild unspoilt scenery of green forested mountains, raging rivers, diverse flora and fauna, fascinating history, and colourful folk dances. The province is also known for its bullfighting...
  
• SAGALASSOS (Sengül Gündogan Aydingün)
  The ancient ruins of Sagalassos are situated 7 km from the town of Aglasun in the province of Burdur...
  
• TRILYE (Izzet Keribar)
  For those living in the huge metropolis of Istanbul a day out of the city is always a pleasure, and more so if it is somewhere you have never been to before. One place which few think of visiting is the small town of Trilye...
  
• TILES RÜSTEM PASA MOSQUE (Prof Dr Yildiz Demiriz)
  Rüstem Pasa Mosque stands in Tahtakale, one of the traditional commercial areas of Istanbul...
  
• FROM THE SKY TO BLUE CRUISES (Gunduz MUTLUAY)
  Blue cruises are the name for unforgettable boating holidays through the deep blue waters of Turkey’s Aegean and Mediterranean coasts...
  
• YAHYALI CARPETS (Turgay Tuna)
  Two countries stand out where the art of carpets weaving is concerned: Iran and Turkey...
  
• DIDYMA'S TEMPLE OF APOLLO (A. Semih TULAY)
  The town of Didim is one of the prettiest in Turkey’s southwestern province of Aydin. As you enter the seaside town an imposing monument can be seen rising towards the clouds like a mountain peak...
  
• HOLIDAY ON HORSEBACK : ÇÖMLEKÇILER VILLAGE (Fadile Paksoy Baygül)
  A road winding through forest of oak, juniper, weeping willow, and red and black pine leads to the village of Çömlekçiler in the foothills of Mount Ballidag...
  
• UNDERWATER CAVES IN THE GULF OF FETHIYE (Ali Ethem KESKIN)
  The coastal town of Fethiye and its environs in southwest Turkey have been home to numerous civilisations throug-hout history...
  
• NAKIPOGLU'S CAMERAS (Josie LEFORT TUNA)
  Exactly 173 years have passed since the Frenchman Nicephore Niepce took the first photograph...
  
• PLAYING FIELD OF THE WIND ALACATI (Saner GULSOKEN)
  As you speed along the Izmir-Çesme expressway your eyes are suddenly struck by a vista of modern windmills with their huge white wings reaching to the sky above...
  
• BELKIS / ZEUGMA (Nezih BASGELEN - By Leyla UMAR)
  Turkey’s southeast province of Gaziantep was until recently best known for its pistachio nuts and baklava...
  
• FROM TORUL TO FOCA TALES IN STONE (Akgun AKOVA)
  For thousands of years caravans of camels, dervishes, weary horsemen, shepherds, carts, skylarks, kings and armies crossed and recrossed the land of Anatolia...
  
• FESTIVE MOOD ON THE BOSPHORUS FERRY (Birgul GOKER)
  It is a Saturday. In approximately 20 minutes' time, at precisely 12.00, the Turkish Maritime Lines ferryboat, the Sarayburnu, will set off on its run down the Bosphorus...
  
• GIRESUN (Halil Ibrahim TUTAK)
  I looked out from Giresun Castle on the peninsula. Enchanted by the sight of the town in the glowing light of the late afternoon...
  
• CUMBUS (Turgay TUNA)
  In front of me is a photograph by Ara Güler, whose fame as a photographer goes far beyond Turkey’s boundaries...
  
• KALEICI (Tulin DIZDAROGLU)
  Antalya is the heart of Turkish tourism, and Kaleiçi is the heart of Antalya...
  
• GUHERSE : THE ART OF DECORATIVE BEADING (M.Zeki KUSOGLU)
  The term güherse - sometimes spelt güverse - is a word of Persian origin meaning ‘jewel-like’, and refers to decoration consisted of tiny metal beads welded onto articles made of silver and gold...
  
• SAILING IN TURKEY (Saner GULSOKEN)
  Human beings discovered ways to travel on water rather than land at a very early stage in their history...
  
• AGRI - SUPHAN (Yildirim GUNGOR)
  The Turkish Mountaineering Federation had organised the climbing expedition to Mt Süphan (4053 metres) and Mt Agri (5137 metres) in eastern Turkey, and we were now at the first camp on Mt Süphan...
  
• MULBERRIES (Gunsel YILDIRIM)
  In the intoxicating coolness of the early morning, young women with buckets and tarpaulins in hand leave their houses behind, and are soon on the earth road which runs between the orchards...
  
• CITY OF KING MIDAS (Ertugrul ALGAN)
  The Phrygians are one of the peoples who lived in Anatolia, cradle of civilisation...
  
• TOWERS OF ISTANBUL (Sunay AKIN)
  Most of Istanbul’s children do not realise that Hans Andersen, whose stories have opened the doors to world of fantasy, visited Istanbul...
  
• CANAKKALE CERAMICS (Filiz SANAY )
  For archaeologists, the remains of pottery found in excavations are a vital source of information about prehistoric peoples...
  
• SAKLIKENT (Ali Ethem KESKIN)
  I looked out from Giresun Castle on the peninsula. Enchanted by the sight of the town in the glowing light of the late afternoon, I scanned the view in every direction...
  
• THE YORUK NOMADS (Musa SEYIRCI)
  Today the Yörük nomads are confined mainly to the Toros Mountains, with their mist shrouded peaks and vast high pastures...
  
• URFA'S FLYING FRIENDS (Ugur GOKTAS)
  The sun is setting over Urfa. Its light touches the Harran plain and turns the crops of barley, wheat and cotton to gold...
  
• RAIN OF LEAVES : AUTUMN (Akgun AKOVA)
  You have come, welcome / Autumn whose paths inspires walks’. So begins a poem by Edip Cansever...
  
• AYASOFYA (Sengul G. AYDINGUN)
  From the time it was built Haghia Sophia, the Church of Divine Wisdom, has astonished and entranced all who beheld it, with its great dome symbolising unattainable infinity...
  
• ANAMUR (Yusuf DARIYERLI)
  At the foot of the rugged walls of the Toros range dividing Turkey’s eastern Mediterranean coast from the Anatolian plateau, are the fertile coastal plains of Anamur...
  
• BRIDAL BROOMS (Abdullah KILIC)
  The rustling of the oldfashioned heath broom is the sound my generation principally associated with house cleaning...
  
• YALNIZCAM MOUNTAINS (Ali Ihsan GOKCEN)
  The Yalnizçam Mountains running from northeast to southwest in the Eastern Black Sea region are covered by forests of spruce and fir, and vast alpine meadows...
  
• BLUEFISH (Kemal Özdemir)
  As not only a coastal city, but straddling the Bosphorus strait, Istanbul is famous for many species of fish. But among these, one has a special place...
  
• BEBEK (Cahit KAYRA)
  There are two Bebeks, one consisting of stone, soil, trees - some of them five centuries old, maquis covered hillsides, flights of steps serving as streets, the turquoise waters of the Bosphorus, twittering birds, cats and other animals...
  
• TARAKLI (Yücel TUNCA)
  Tarakli is a town in northwestern Turkey which was once a halting place on the Silk Road...
  
• ATATÜRK STAMPS (Turgay Tuna)
  After Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, the head of state most frequently portrayed on stamps is undoubtedly Mustafa Kemal Atatürk...
  
• KURE MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK (Ali Ihsan Gökçen)
  The Küre Mountains in Turkey's western Black Sea region are a place of awesome beauty and magnificent wildlife...
  
• IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF JULES LAURENS (Nezahat Turkan)
  One reason why historic monuments hold such magic for us, is surely the thought that centuries before people stood on exactly the same spot looking at the same building...
  
• ROCKS OF TURKEY (Yildirim Güngör)
  Everyone who loves nature has brought back pebbles or lumps of rock at one time or another, unable to resist their colours or shapes...
  
• KIYIKISLACIK (Yusuf Dariyerli)
  On that first morning in a family run guest house in the village of Kiyikislacik, the olives which took pride of place on the breakfast table tasted twice as good as usual...
  
• THE BOOK OF NAVIGATION (Kemal Özdemir)
  Kitab-i Bahriye, The Book of Navigation, is a manual written in 1521 by the Turkish seaman Piri Reis, who is regarded as the father of Turkish mapmaking...
  
• TEA TIME TALK (Meral Dösemeciler)
  When you wake up in the morning in Turkey, your first thought is to enjoy a tiny glass of ruby tinted tea...
  
• FROM MAIDENS'S CASTLE TO THREE SISTERS (Evin Dogu)
  Turkey's Mediterranean region welcomes tens of thousands of holidaymakers every year, mostly in Antalya and its environs...
  
• TIRE'S LAST PATTEN MAKER (Erdal Yazici)
  The shopkeeper opposite remarked teasingly, 'Filming again today, Cemil?' Cemil Tolga merely smiled, a little awkwardly...
  
• EGYPTIAN BAZAAR (Abdullah Kiliç)
  The mysterious Orient as pictured in western eyes over the centuries is in many ways epitomised by the Misir Çarsisi - Egyptian Bazaar - in Istanbul...
  
• WHITE FLAVOUR OF LIFE (Faruk Üründül)
  The Aegean city of Izmir is associated more with blue seas than snow, yet not far away the mountain of Bozdag generously shares the beauty of its snowy peaks with winter sports enthusiasts...
  
• ROCKY CHANLLENGES AROUND IZMIR (Esra Karayel)
  Izmir has always been Anatolia's gate onto the Aegean and distant seas, and for most of us the city is associated first of all with its waterfront, gulf, and nearby seaside resorts like Çesme and Foça...
  
• TURKISH MONUMENTS IN MONGOLIA (Dr Öner Kabasakal)
  For thousands of years Turkic peoples spread far and wide across Eurasia, but Mongolia is of particular importance in the study of Turkish history on account of the numerous ancient monuments which provide valuable evidence for archaeologists, linguists and anthropologists...
  
• MAY I HAVE THIS DANCE ? (Cengiz Kahraman)
  The first Turkish ball was given at the Ottoman Embassy in Paris on 1 April 1856...
  
• KEMALIYE (Associate Professor Berrin Alper)
  In the Munzur Mountains in eastern Turkey is the small town of Kemaliye, known in Ottoman times as Egin...
  
• FOURTY ENTERTAINERS (Akgün Akova)
  Whenever I am in an Ottoman building, my imagination conjures up innumerable ghostly figures: sultans, grand viziers, janissaries, princesses, serving girls, falconers, astrologers and many more...
  
• ANATOLIA'S FRIDAY MOSQUES (Necdet Sakaoglu)
  Today Friday prayers and those of the Ramazan and sacrificial feasts are performed in village mosques, but until the end of the 13th century, these only took place in the so-called Friday mosques in the cities...
  
• PATTERNS OF DREAMS:QUILTS (Birgül Göker)
  Today there are about two hundred traditional quilt makers left in Istanbul, yet just ten or fifteen years ago, Istanbul's Chamber of Quilters had 1200 members...
  
• EXPLORING THE KAPIORMAN MOUNTAIN (Ali Ihsan Gokcen)
  The Kapiorman Mountains are the western arm of the Koroglu Mountains and lie just to the southeast of Adapazari in western Turkey
  
• ISTANBUL THROUGH THE EYES OF THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC (Ozgur D. Durgun)
  ' For fifteen years I grew up watching the beauty of the Bosphorus from the hills above Bebek. Istanbul and the Bosphorus have certainly played a very great part in my love of nature, to which I owe my success in my career.'
  These are the words of Dr Gilbert H. Grosvenor, editor of the world famous National Geographic Magazine
  
• WARM WINTER'S DRINK (Nilgun Tekfidan)
  With the coming of cold winter days, Turkey's cake and pudding shops begin serving salep in place of ice cream.
  
• FIELD OF SCULPTURE (Akgun Akova)
  One spring morning I watched a stork which had built its nest on the dome of the mosque in the village of Yesemek. It sat patiently on its egg, quite motionless.
  
• MOTHER-OF-PERL INLAY (Nezahat Turkan)
  In the back streets of Gaziantep, steeped in the atmosphere of fairytale, an elderly craftsman, his face burnished by years in the sun, was giving a final polish to a wooden box inlaid with mother-of-pearl.
  
• OTTOMAN TENTS AND IMPERIAL TENT COMPLEX (Nurhan Atasoy)
  The Ottoman Turkish tents which have survived to the present day in many European museum collections as well as in the Military Museum and Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul are magnificent works of art, richly decorated with embroidery and appliéd work
  
• ORNATE FOUNTAINS OF TULIP ERA (Eser Tutel)
  Until the recent past no neighbourhood of Istanbul was without its fountains, and if the districts outside the city walls and the villages along the Bosphorus are included these numbered many hundreds
  
• SMALL SWEET SURPRISES:CHOCOLATE CARDS (Ugur Goktas)
  Ephemera is a term for documents relating to ordinary daily life that are regarded as expendable at the time, but to later generations can give fascinating insight into many different aspects of history.
  
• MUSEUM OF ANATOLIAN CIVILISATIONS (Cigdem Ulker)
  The Museum of Anatolian Civilisations in Ankara stands in a green garden with bird boxes in the pine trees. Sitting down on one of the benches in the garden, you look out over Ankara.
  
• WINTER'S WHITE QUILT:SNOW (Akgun Akova)
  First one falls silently, spiralling gently, magically. The moment it lands on the ground like a cold white butterfly, it melts and disappears
  
• A FLAVOUR FROM PAST MILLENNIA:BULGUR (Behzat Sahin)
  Here is a recipe which is at least four thousand years old. Boil three cups of water in a saucepan and add one cup of bulgur (cracked wheat), a knob of butter and salt. Cook until the water is absorbed. This simple dish is extremely nourishing.
  
• SEYHAN DAM LAKE IN ADANA (Haldun Aydingun)
  The city of Adana in southern Turkey was at first sight no different from other Turkish cities: the same type of shops, banks, mosques and signs. We might have been anywhere.
  
• BOUQUET OF SILK THE NEEDLE LACE OF AYDIN (Saner Sen)
  In the Aegean region it was traditional for local village men of an adventurous disposition to join armed bands which, in Robin Hood style fought on behalf of good against evil.
  
• ISTANBUL'S UNFORGETTABLE WINTER (Cengiz Kahraman)
  In early January 1929 one of the worst winters in Istanbul's history took the city in its grip.
  
• ANTALYA THROUGH TRAVELLERS' EYES (Kayhan Dortluk)
  Legend has it that in the 2nd century BC King Attalos II of Pergamum sent out a search party to find 'heaven on earth', and that on the spot they selected the king founded a city which he named Attaleia after himself.
  
• DREAMING BLUE WATERS:LAKE BEYSEHIR (Ali Ihsan Gokcen)
  An expanse of pale blue is the first impression as Lake Beysehir comes into sight.
  
• A WINTER'S TALE ON MOUNT KACKAR (Yildirim Gungor)
  Mount Kackar attracts large numbers of nature lovers every year from spring onwards.
  
• A HANDFUL OF SEA FOAM:MEERSCHAUM (Ahmet Korkmaz)
  Meerschaum is a word meaning sea foam, deriving from the vernacular Turkish term for this distinctive mineral, which is a form of magnesium hydrosilicate.
  
• FLAVOUR AT YOUR FINGERTIPS (Utku Tonguc Topal)
  One of the most memorable dishes of Turkish cuisine is manty, tiny dumplings stuffed with minced meat and garnished with garlic yogurt.
  
• BEYKOZ:A DISTRICT AMIDST FOREST (Metin Gulbay)
  Whether you travel to Beykoz by boat down the Bosphorus or by road, the distinctive atmosphere of this outlying district of Istanbul strikes you immediately.
  
• EDIRNE:FRONTIER CAPITAL (Abdullah Kilic)
  The 17th century Turkish poet Nef'î declared, 'Is Edirne a city, or the rosegarden of heaven?' and in the 20th century Professor Suheyl Unver, author of many books about cultural history, said that loving Edirne was a form of worship.
  
• GOBEKLITEPE:DIARY OF AN EXCAVATION (Sengul Aydingun)
  Two gigantic T-shaped stone blocks faced one another at a distance of two metres in the centre of a circular chamber with a diameter of five or six metres.
  
• TASTES OF PAST CENTURIES
  Feasts to celebrate special occasions, whether it be a circumcision or wedding, are an age-old tradition in Turkey.
  
• THE CITY WHERE LEGEND CAME TRUE:SARDIS (Emine Caykara)
  Until the blue sky faded to grey they proceeded, sometimes talking to the trees, and sometimes dancing. Untold quantities of wine were produced from the vines grown in Lydia, and Silenos the satyr was drunk again.
  
• ONCE UPON A TIME (Old Ankara)
  When we got off the train, our way lay through a marsh, a cemetery and the tumbledown Karaoglan Bazaar, past which was a fire-swept wasteland, and beyond that a village of adobe and half-timbered houses with winding streets, some cobbled and some unpaved... That was Ankara.
  
• CENGELKOY (Erol Uyepazarci)
  Cengelkoy is a picturesque district on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus between Beylerbeyi and Vanikoy.
  
• A FORTIFIED TOWN ON THE BLACK SEA (Omer Asan)
  I first made the acquaintance of the city of Sinop in an engraving.
  
• THE ESSENCE OF LIFE WATER (Ali Ihsan Gokcen)
  The survival of all living creatures, from the simplest organisms to human beings, depends on water, that substance so essential for the continuation of life on earth.
  
• SPRING IN OTTOMAN ART (Prof Dr Yildiz Demiriz)
  The mid-16th century saw a return to naturalism in the Ottoman decorative arts, and one of the most popular motifs was fruit trees in blossom.
  
• ART NOUVEAU ARCHITECTURE IN ISTANBUL (Claudine Stefann)
  Under European influence Art Nouveau began to make an impression on the architecture of the Ottoman capital of Istanbul in the second half of the 19th century, and until the mid-1920s widely affected the appearance of the city.
  
• HUNTING FOR IMAGES UNDERWATER (Saner Gülsöken)
  On a sunny Aegean morning the sapphire sea was shimmering, and a gentle offshore breeze carried the scent of distant pine trees.
  
• TROY:THE LAND WHERE LEGEND CAME TRUE (Nermin Bayçin)
  First there was a book, the Iliad, written approximately 2720 years ago by Homer, one of the greatest poets the world has ever known.
  
• THE 1932 TURKISH TOUR (M. Hakan Bingöl)
  In the 1930s young Turkish Republic was pushing all its resources to the limit to move ahead in every area. A sense of purpose motivated the entire society.
  
• A JOURNEY THROUGH THE FOOTHILLS OF KAZ DAGI (BAHAR KALKAN)
  The yearning to leave daily life far behind and take to the road tempts us all occasionally.
  
• ENCHANTING GLASS SOUS-VERRE PAINTINGS (EYÜP COSKUN)
  Technology is speeding ahead. Photographs have become digital creations of computers, and those old faded sepia photographs a thing of the past.
  
• THROUGH HISTORY'S EYES : ALANYA (ISMAIL KARAMUT)
  Alanya on the Mediterranean once nestled amidst citrus and banana orchards, but when this picturesque town became a popular holiday resort, hotels gradually took the place of the luxuriant groves.
  
• WHERE ISTANBUL'S HEART BEATS (GRESI SANJE)
  Istanbul is a city of such mystique and magnetism that it is impossible not to be captivated by it.
  
• ANCIENT ANATOLIAN JEWELLERY (YILDIZ AKYAY MERIÇBOYU)
  In the Neolithic age, when a wandering life of hunting and gathering made way for settled communities, the people of Anatolia began to place burial gifts in graves.
  
• VILLAGE OF THE DOLLS (AKGÜN AKOVA)
  As we get older where do we seek the gardens of our childhood? Can our memories bring back lullabies, jingling bells of the flocks, games of hide and seek, and strings of kites?
  
• SHELLFISH FLAVOURS FROM THE SEA (HAKAN BINGÖL)
  Seafood dishes cooked for example in casseroles over a low heat with butter and herbs quickly took the place they deserved in Turkish cuisine.
  
• VIRGIN ISLANDS IN THE GULF OF FETHIYE (SELAHATTIN GÜZEL)
  Every tone of blue and green can be seen in the Gulf of Fethiye, where the encircling mainland seems to draw the sea into the embrace of its vegetation.
  
• A THRIVING WEAVING TRADITION : BULDAN CLOTH (ABDULLAH KILIÇ)
  The woman was singing the folksong beginning 'Her scarf was edged with lace' as we entered. She was so absorbed in spinning that at first she did not notice us come in.