When the Turkish people poured westwards from their Central Asian homelands in the 11th century, they came on horseback into Anatolia, the land which the poet Nazim Hikmet described as stretching like a mare’s head into the Mediterranean. The horse, which played a central role in Turkish life in the Central Asian steppes, was probably […]
Dating from 1718 to 1730, the Tulip Era of the Ottoman Empire was a momentary period that the Sultan and the public celebrated with music, festivals, ceremonies, and dances. Numerous tulips embellished the capital that most of them were poetically named such as Blue Pearl, Light of Dawn, The Divine Throne and Ruby Drop and […]
Until the mid-19th century, the angora goat was to be found only in Central Anatolia, particularly the province of Ankara, transcribed by Europeans from the earlier Turkish form Enguru. The export of these valuable animals having been strictly forbidden for many centuries, Sultan Abdulmecit made a gift of 22 goats to Queen Victoria in the […]
Today the Yoruk nomads are confined mainly to the Taurus Mountains, with their mist-shrouded peaks and vast high pastures. A people passionately devoted to their freedom, the Yoruk are like birds of passage. Until the early 19th century thousands of Yoruk nomads lived in the Ottoman territories of the Balkans and throughout western, southern and […]
Also called Mimar Koca Sinan (“Great Architect Sinan”) (b. April 15, 1489, Agirnaz, Kayseri – d. July 17, 1588, Istanbul), most celebrated of all Ottoman architects, whose ideas, perfected in the construction of mosques and other buildings, served as the basic themes for virtually all later Turkish religious and civic architecture. The son of Greek […]
“A camel driver an ass string of eight or nine camels! The monotonous tinkling of the bells bung around the camels’ necks heralds the caravan’s arrival… For years, this sound rang through the streets of Ayvalik during November, December and January, the months when the black juice produced waste during the oil extraction process flowed […]
Born in 1922 in the UK, June Haimoff (known as Captain June) moved to Africa for business since her father was a fuel engineer. She lived in Uganda, learned Swahili. This is how the adventures life of this beautiful girl started running barefoot around these vast lands. When they moved back to London, she took […]
As most of us know; the name of King Midas is linked to Gordion; the capital city of ancient Phrygia. While mostly he is known as a mythical character; several Phrygian kings bore this name and naturally, different legends and stories had grown up. Among these, the most common one is Midas and the golden […]
Back in Neolithic Era, when the adventure began for hunter-gatherers and made its way for better civil life, the inhabitants of Anatolia started to bring gifts for their loved ones buried in graves, mostly underneath the sofas in their homes. Those gifts were consisting of bracelets, rings, necklaces and similar jewelry made out of unique […]
Alcohol has been drunk in Turkey for thousands of years, which perhaps explains why the Turks have a more relaxed attitude to its consumption than people in some other Moslem countries. By the 17th century, there were 100 distilleries in Istanbul alone. Raki is the national drink of Turkey -where today more than 61 million […]
