Did you know?

The only city in the world located on two continents is Istanbul that has been the capital of three great empires - Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman for more than 2000 years.

The oldest known human settlement, dating back to 6500 bc is in Catalhoyuk, near Konya in the central Anatolian region of Turkey. The earliest landscape painting in history exists on a wall of a Catalhöyük house. It shows the eruption of a volcano, probably that of nearby Hasandag.

Two of the seven ancient wonders of the world stood in Anatolia: the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the mausoleum at Halicarnassus - Bodrum.

The first coins were minted at Sardis, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia in Western Anatolia, at the end of the 7th century bc. Lydia is the first known civilization in the world to use money as a means of exchange.

Many important events in the birth of Christianity occured in Turkey, apostles St. John, St. Paul and St. Peter have all lived and preached in Anatolia. About three miles away in the forested mountain above Ephesus is the House of Virgin Mary (Meryemana Evi), a modest stone house where the Virgin Mary lived her last days. It is believed that St. John brought Mary to this site after Christ's crucifixion. The Vatican declared the house of the Virgin Mary a holy site in 1967.

The Seven Churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, are all located in Anatolia: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea

Antioch, once called the "Queen of the East" and known as the third largest city of the Roman empire, played a key role in the spread of Christianity. St Paul began his three missionary journeys from there and it was at Antioch that the followers of Jesus were first called Christians. A cave known today as the grotto of St. Peter or the Church of St. Peter is believed to be where the apostle Peter preached when he lived in Antioch. In 1963, the Papacy designated the site as a place of pilgrimage and also recognized it as the world's first cathedral.

         

Anatolia is the birthplace of many historic legends, such as: the powerful phrygian King Midas, the world's first historian Heredotus and St Paul, the apostle. Archeologists from the Pennsylvania museum opened the tomb of King Midas in 1957. They discovered some of the earliest and best preserved wooden furniture in the world.

St. Nicholas, known today as Santa Claus, was born in Patara and served as Bishop of Myra (Demre) on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. It is believed that Nicholas died in Myra on December 6th at the age of 65. The village is home to the famous Church of St. Nicholas which houses a sarcophagus believed to be the original tomb of St. Nicholas.

According to The Old Testament, the patriarch Abraham was born in Sanli Urfa, a city in southeast Turkey. The city's ancient name was Ur or Edessa. A cave there is thought to be Abraham's birthplace. It has become a place of pilgrimage and is now surrounded by the Halil Rahman mosque.

Trojan wars, depicted in Homer's epic Iliad took place in western Turkey in about 1200 bc. A symbolic wooden horse at the site commemorates this legendary war.

According to the legend of the great flood mentioned in both the Koran and The Old Testament, Noah's Ark landed at Mount Ararat (Agri Dagi) in eastern Anatolia. For centuries scientists have launched expeditions on the mountain's slopes in search of the remains of Noah's Ark.

The word "turquoise" comes from "turk" meaning Turkish, and was derived from the beautiful colour of the Mediterranean Sea on the southern Turkish coast.

Coffee was first brought to Istanbul from Yemen in the 16th century. It was in Turkey that a new method of preparing ground coffee -now called Turkish coffee- was invented and turks introduced this new drink prepared in their own way to Europe by the 17th century. Pierre Loti, Victor Hugo, Dumas, Moliere and Balzac are among those who are known to have admired Turkish coffee. Drinking coffee is still an essential element of Turkish culture.

Tulips were introduced to Holland from Turkey by Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq that started the craze for the flower in the Netherlands and England. He was the ambassador of Charles V to the court of Ottoman Emperor Süleyman the Magnificent in 1554.