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ISTANBUL -- Vacation here and prepare to be asked, "Why Turkey?" by friends at home.
The answer is simple: More for less.
No other country spans two continents, contains the remains of countless civilizations, and is so much the meeting place for
East and West that contradictions are a way of life.
Start with age. Turkey is simultaneously
young -- a republic and language that just celebrated its 75th anniversary -- and old. When speaking of millenniums here,
you must designate A.D. or B.C.
To the Arabs it is European, to the Europeans it
is Eastern and to the Turks it is theirs, the land they wrested from the major powers following the fall of the Ottoman Empire
and World War I.
To tourists it is a revelation, an exotic delight and sometimes
a challenge, but never dull.
Have faith and you'll find it in Turkey: Pagan,
Jewish, Christian and Muslim. Gods and goddesses, saints, sinners, prophets and apostles walked, talked and in the case of
dervishes, whirled in one another's wake. This is the breeding ground of earth mothers and oracles.
Turkey is where it happened, the stuff of legends and myths. Jason and the Argonauts found the golden fleece near Izmir (lanolin-rich
sheepskins were used to collect gold particles from the rivers and streams around Sardis, home of King Croesus).
Amazons ruled the Black Sea coast.
Paris brought Helen home to Troy, launching thousands
of ships, that infamous wooden horse and the epics of Homer, another native son.
Alexander the Great and his army frolicked and fathered from Istanbul (Constantinople} to Antakya (Antioch), undoing the Gordian
knot and the troops of the Persian empire.
Sappho penned her poetry off the coast
on the Island of Lesbos and Diogenes took lantern in hand and went looking for an honest man here. (We found them driving
cabs, waiting tables, even selling souvenirs.)
This was the powerhouse of the Roman
Empire, the honeymoon haven for Anthony and Cleopatra, the stomping ground of camel caravans, Marco Polo, the Virgin Mary,
senior Saints John and Paul, sultans' harems and World War I troops dug in to the death at Gallipoli.
A WORLDLY WALK
World history is within walking
distance in the Sultanahmet district of Istanbul. Christendom's first cathedral and still its fourth largest, Aya Sofya,
is across the street from the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, better known to Westerners as the Blue Mosque.
Walk the length of the Hippodrome between them, where the real Ben Hurs of Rome raced chariots, and you'll pass the obelisk
of Thutmose III, the balcony of the Grand Vizier, the University of Marmaris and probably a drug-sniffing dog. Underground
is the Roman cistern that provided water for Byzantium until the Ottomans swept in.
Tucked at one side of the Blue Mosque is the Mosaic Museum covering the mosaics from the floor of the Emperor Justinian's
Palace.
Keep ambling downhill and you reach Topkapi, the principal palace of the
Ottomans, with its amazing collections. The harem is empty, but there is the world's third largest collection of Chinese
and Japanese porcelain, an eye-popping accumulation of jewels and some of the world's finest calligraphy. The Pavilion of Holy Relics houses the staff of Moses, hairs from Mohammed's
beard, the Prophet's swords, bow and cloak plus a letter he penned. Echoing over the revered artifacts, a muezzin recites
verses from the Koran.
Within the Topkapi complex is the not-to-be-missed Archeology
Museum featuring a children's section in addition to the beautifully carved and preserved Alexander's Tomb, part of
the Sidon Sarcophagi, considered one of archeology's most important finds.
Inspect
the Classical and Hellenistic art, statuary as fine as that in the British Museum, and the Ancient Turkey exhibits to see
why this was a winner of the European Museum award.
If you haven't succumbed
to sensory overload and exhaustion, look around at the Ottoman buildings, many of them restored and renovated into pensions,
hotels and restaurants, or the carpet shops.
Ah, the carpets. The oldest known carpet,
the Pazyryk in the Hermitage, dates to 4000 B.C. and was of Turkic origin; the oldest known weaving, dating to 7000 B.C.,
was found in Turkey, too. You can see it in the Archaeological Museum in Ankara.
On the way you could stop by the Tavas Hali workshops outside of Denizli, where contemporary copies of the Pazyryk carpet
are meticulously made, a double knot at a time, by nimble-fingered young women. They will take your order for one or unroll
some of the 10,000 other cotton, wool and/or silk carpets in stock. That's after showing you how wool is spun, silk is
snatched from cocoons, colors are achieved by their dapper dyemaster and finished products are judged for quality.
SHOPAHOLICS' PARADISE
Which brings up
shopping, something no visitor to Turkey can go home without. Carpets and kilims (woven rugs) and their merchants beckon.
Gold glitters from jewelry store windows, a kaleidoscope of colorful designs cover eye-catching pottery. This is where the
meerschaum of pipes, necklaces and figurines is found and where Russia's amber seems to have migrated.
The aroma of leather goods wafts into the air along with spices from around the world. You will succumb, so settle back, accept
a cup of tea, listen to the man's spiel and make the best of the inevitable.
Bargaining is the favorite game. Again, don't sweat it. Cut the starting price in half and offer that. Dicker back and
forth, get the merchant to laugh and, if you truly want the item, let the seller graciously give in to a 20 percent to 35
percent discount. No language skills are necessary. If the seller isn't fluent in your language, the L.E.D. readout on
his calculator serves as a universal translator.
Istanbul's Grand (or Covered)
Bazaar, with its 4,000-plus shops, is the world's largest and first shopping mall. So much merchandise and so many merchants
can be intimidating and, if you find them so, cut your acquisitive teeth on the smaller Egyptian Spice Market. Merchants here
are less aggressive and you'll love the displays of colorful spices, dried fruits, nuts and candy.
Turkey is a nation of entrepreneurs. Everywhere you turn, someone is selling something: jewel-toned note cards, souvenir books,
alabaster bowls, silk scarves, hand-made lace, wooden tops and flutes, tapestry vests, embroidered caps and designer-look
perfumes are prevalent at tourist stops. "The packaging
is better than the real thing," says Salih Gok, guide extraordinaire, "but the `perfume' isn't."
Street-corner perfume is about the only bad deal. Plan to pay customs duty with a smile.
Instead of suffering buyer's remorse you are more likely to wish you had bought more.
HISTORY UNDERFOOT
Pick a millennium, B.C.
or A.D., and you'll stub a toe on the remains of it. There are more Hellenistic sites here than anywhere else in the world,
including Greece. There is more of the Roman Empire than in Italy.
Among the 200
ancient Greek and Roman theaters, the finest Greek example is considered to be at Priene, the best Roman at Aspendos (still
used for ballet and opera productions). Aphrodesius has a superb stadium and a remarkable Greco-Roman odeum, a small theater.
Of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, two were in the Turkey of today; seven in the Turkey of the Ottoman Empire.
The Christian church was established and Judaism and Islam were nursed here. The Virgin
Mary is believed to have lived on a hillside above Ephesus; St. John preached, wrote and was buried nearby. The seven churches
of Revelations? In Turkey.
The tunnels and caves of Cappadocia provided sanctuary
and refuge for early Christians, who lived, worshiped, proselytized and painted the message of Jesus and his Apostles. One
of the world's oldest synagogues is in the ancient city of Sardis, and there are tours based on Jewish heritage or the
steps of St. Paul.
PLAYGROUNDS
Surrounded on three sides by seas -- the Black, the Marmara, the Aegean and the Mediterranean -- Turkey is a land of waterfront
resorts and offshore islands. Side trips to historic sites are as easily taken from international playgrounds like Kusadasi,
Cesme, Bodrum and Antalya as from cities.
Charming, unspoiled little seaside villages
are harder to find than a town without a rug seller now that Turkey has been discovered by tourists. However, there are a
few left, known to the captains of broad-bottomed gulets, the traditional motor yachts, that ply the Turquoise Coast. You
can have agents put together a cruise for you or do it yourself, especially off-season.
Hop aboard one of the ferries that cross between the mainland and nearby Greek islands: Ayvalik to Lesbos, Cesme to Chios,
Kusadasi to Samos or Marmaris to Rhodes.
NATURAL
WONDERS
In addition to the not so unusual mountains, lakes, rivers, streams,
pine forests, high and low plains, sandy beaches and rocky beaches, Turkey has enough interesting formations to keep a geologist
grinning.
Mount Ararat, an extinct volcano that may or may not shelter the ark,
is the highest peak (16,000 feet). A trio of volcanoes and erosion turned Cappadocia in central Turkey into the kind of moonscape
Dr. Seuss might have drawn. Tuz Gulu, the great salt lake and a nesting ground for flamingos, turns pink after a rain. Pamukkale,
literally, cotton castle, known to the Romans as Hieropolis, is still famous for its thermal waters and calcified waterfall
formations.
More than 8,000 varieties of wildflowers flourish, popping up between
slabs of ancient marble, creeping over the impeccably cut and dressed stone walls of the Greeks and the sloppily piled walls
of the Romans. Marble is so prevalent it is still the cheapest building material. Bird watchers will love it here, along the
flyway for northsouth migrations.
Turkey is the breadbasket of the Near East and
the Balkans. You'll never find better or fresher bread; batches are baked one, two, even three times a day. Fruits, fish
and vegetables are eaten fresh and in season. Lamb is on every menu and rice conveys more flavors than a Baskin-Robins. Preservatives
are on the endangered list.
Turks are famous for their sweets; even chicken breasts
show up in desserts. The cuisine is as simple as freshness can make it and as complex and subtle as the extraordinary mix
of world cultures and civilizations can achieve. Some of the best food can be found in highway truck stops, perhaps a carry-over
from the days of caravanserai.
MILLIONAIRES ALL
Talk about contradictions, prices quickly climb into the millions here, but you can
still get a superb meal and a bottle of wine for under $20. That's because there are 400,000 or so Turkish lira to the
dollar. * Even the cab drivers say, "There
are too many zeros," as they patiently (usually) wait for tourists to figure out astronomical sums that work out to a
few bucks.
Taxis are plentiful and relatively cheap. Drivers often wave away tips
and make sure you leave with all the gear you brought along. Buses link cities and villages with frequent, efficient and cheap
runs. In-country air service is also good and reasonably priced, with the most leg room you've seen in years.
Best of all are the Turks themselves. The Turks have gotten a bad rap between
images of scimitar-wielding, maiden-ravishing, harem-collecting Ottoman rulers and reputations as the fiercest, stubbornest
troops of World Wars I and II, the Korean and Vietnamese conflicts.
Reserved and
shy among strangers, they warm quickly with encouragement. As a group, Turks adore children and revere the old. Day-care centers
and nursing homes are almost unheard of; families take care of one another.
Tourists
are welcome guests and Americans are their favorites.
"They laugh at the same
things we do!" declared one American visitor, surprised to find the Turks' sense of humor matched her own.
Eating, talking, laughing and dancing are favorite occupations. No one is ever too busy here to stop and welcome a friend,
old or new. Hospitality is a way of life and, as many a tea-filled tourist has learned, of business, too. When health-conscious
Americans began refusing proffered glasses of hot tea because of caffeine overload, the Turks offered caffeine-free apple
tea.
As you join the Turks in taking time to smell the roses -- blossoms are as
large as they are fragrant -- the question becomes not "Why come to Turkey," but "What took you so long?" *
This story was originally published in The Florida Times-Union in 1999.
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You know more about the Ottomans and their country than you think.
Start with their name. Because Topkapi Palace was so filled with low, upholstered
armless pieces of furniture used as seats or footrests, we call them ottomans.
In the 18th century, the Ottoman influence also brought us sofa, which comes from the Arabic word "suffah." Likewise
divan, a term derived from the Turkish word for the Sultan's council. Kaftans are what they wore while sitting on those
upholstered benches.
Oriental rugs were "invented" by Turkish nomadic
tribes in the 11th century, eventually spreading to Persia, China and Europe.
Now on to the kitchen. Pastrami was invented by Ottomans on the move who strapped cured beef to the sides of their horses
and called it pastirma. Your coffee was brought to you by caffeine-addicted Ottomans, who set up the first coffee houses in
Istanbul in the mid-16th century. A trend-setting Turkish ambassador to Paris made the beverage the rage in Europe in the
17th century. Yogurt was introduced to Europe by a Turkish doctor visiting France more than 400 years ago.
Baths were available in every town and village of the Ottoman Empire long before Europeans adopted the cleanliness custom.
Not surprisingly, terry cloth or "Turkish" towels were invented by the fastidious Ottomans, who developed the weaving
process that creates a soft, absorbent looped pile.
Holland may be known for
its tulips, but the Dutch have the Ottomans to thank for developing the popular bulb plant. They were the symbol of the Ottoman
Empire and unknown in Europe before the 16th century.
The Dutch also lay claim
to St. Nicholas, but in fact he was the bishop of Myra, Asia Minor, now Turkey, around A.D. 300, 1,500 years before the Dutch
brought him to America. As the story goes, the kindly bishop was given to anonymous acts of charity and generosity. He secretly
provided three bags of gold as the dowries for three sisters, the daughters of an impoverished merchant. One of the bags of
gold , which he tossed through a window at night, fell into a stocking that was hung by the fireplace to dry.
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