By name Mehmed Fatih (Turkish: Fatih Sultan Mehmet – English: Mehmed the Conqueror) (b. March 30, 1432, Adrianople, Thrace, Ottoman Empire- D. May 3, 1481, Hunkarcayiri, near Maltepe, near Constantinople), Ottoman sultan from 1444 to 1446 and from 1451 to 1481. A great military leader, he captured Constantinople and conquered the territories in Anatolia and […]
600-700 The most antique fortifications of the island were built during this period. 640 The first real town-walls appear, built for defense purposes by Theodore Rshtouni with several other buildings, among which, most probably was a church. 915-921 After a long period devoid of references or news, it was during these years that architect Manuel, […]
Antalya is the heart of Turkish tourism, and Kaleici is the old town inside the city’s fortifications and consists of a maze of streets lined with old houses. When I got out of the car and headed for Kaleici I had planned to stay just a few hours, and could never have foreseen that I […]
His Life Evliya Celebi was born on the 25th of February 1611 in Istanbul. He says he slipped out of every difficulty in his adventurous life with ease because of the goodwill of the seventy friends of his father who had been at their home on the night of his birth. His father, Mehmet Aga […]
Afyonkarahisar, more often known as Afyon for short, has been home to many civilizations, lying as it does at a strategic geographical junction at the center of western Turkey. Whether you are traveling from east to west or north to south, by road or rail, you are almost certain to pass through this city. With […]
Art and arms might seem contradictory concepts, but like all human artifacts, weapons have been a vehicle for artistic expression. The swords of many types and periods which we see in museums today have often been transformed into objects of such beauty by the craftsmen who made them that we forget they were instruments of […]
Silver filigree work has its origins in Mesopotamia and Egypt from where it spread to Turkey and other parts of Asia. From Turkey, it was exported with Ottoman rule into Yugoslavia and Greece. It is also known as cift isi (tweezer work) and vav isi from the Arabic letter vav which is somewhat similar to […]
In ancient Turkey, the Iron Age corresponded to the first millennium BC. At that time western Anatolia was inhabited by three civilizations, Lydia, Caria, and Lycia. Caria encompassed all of today’s province of Mugla and part of Denizli and Aydin, extending westwards as far as the Menderes (Meander) river and eastwards to the Dalaman river, […]
Meerschaum is a German word meaning, sea-foam, alluding to the belief that it was the compressed whitecaps of waves, just as it is said in mythology for the goddess of beauty Aphrodite. It is a hydrated magnesium silicate. Magnesium doesn’t make it strong and the hydrogen and oxygen don’t make it cool. It is the […]
Western sources refer to Haseki Hurrem Sultan variously as Roxelana, Rosa, Rosanne, Rossa, Ruziac or La Rossa. She is generally believed to have been enslaved during raids by the Crimean Turks on Ukraine and Galicia during the reign of Yavuz Sultan Selim and presented to the Ottoman Palace. The Life of Haseki Hurrem Sultan Of […]
