Facts and Factoids about Turkey

My wife and I visited Turkey in the spring of 1996 for a two-week bus tour. The price was about $1400 including a round trip from New York, and was a terrific bargain.
It is one about 15 foreign trips we have taken together, and one of our most enjoyable as well as educational. We acquired a much deeper appreciation of a country at the crossroads of civilization about which we knew very little. I have since become quite interested in the history of Byzantium and highly recommend the book "A Short History of Byzantium" by John Julius Norwich for anyone planning a visit to Turkey. That covers the era from 300 to 1300 A.D. quite well, but there is a lot more than that(e.g. the old testament biblical periods, Greco-Roman empires, the Ottoman empire and modern Turkey).

Istanbul is the only city located on two continents. Part is in Europe; the other part is in Asia.

Most Istanbul residents live in the European side (of the Bosphorus) but about 90% of Turks live in the Asian part of the country as a whole.

Turks were not the original inhabitants of what is now Turkey. They were invaders from Mongolia and China, who converted to Islam during their migration, eventually displacing the Byzantine Christians and Persians.

>From the ruins of Troy, one can look across the Dardanelles to Europe and see the momument to the Turkish victory over Australian and New Zealand forces at Gallipoli in World War I. All that history in one view let me totally awestruck.

The last name "Ataturk" (father of Turks) was granted to the first president of modern Turkey by Turkey's parliament in 1923 and may not be used by anyone else in Turkey, forever. The modern country's first leader, Mustafa Kemal, had his name changed to Kemal Ataturk in 1934, not 1923. He had already been president 10 years.

The grave of what some believe is Kind Midas has been found, in a cedar log cabin covered with a huge hill of dirt. It is believed to be the oldest wood structure still standing (about 3000 years). There was no gold found there, only copper/bronze.

The Basilica of St. Sofia in Istanbul, one of the largest in Christendom (about 500 A. D.), was converted to a mosque but the mosaic figures of Christ, Mary and Saints were left intact. It is now a must-see museum and major tourist attraction.

After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks, the Christians were persuaded to stay and continue to practice their religion.

There is one city in Turkey that neither Alexander the Great nor the Romans could conquer: Termessus, high in the hills above Antalya in the south. Because of its remote and easily defended location, it was left alone as a city-state. It's a worthwhile hike destination and the ruins (although unresotored) are quite impressive. We had a taxi driver take us there during a free day in Antalya.

Christians used to live and worship in caves in the soft lava "tufa" hillside of Cappadocia in the Anatolian plateau, where they could hide from Romans and other invaders. One hand-dug cave we went in is 8 stories deep and supported 3000 people for months at a time.

A key to Alexander the Great's conquest and success seemed be an uncanny ability to respect local customs and religions while appearing to be a sort of a mythological heroic figure in each local culture. He even appears in Egyptian hieroglyphics. The
Virgin Mary is said to have been brought to Ephesus in Turkey after Christ died by St. Paul. He preached the Gospel to the Ephesians there. Mary reportedly lived out her life in a small house atop a hill overlooking the city and the sea. A restored building there recently declared a Catholic shrine but the location remains a subject of controversy. It's a lovely location, anyway.

Cleopatra arrived to met Mark Antony in the same city of Ephesus about two centuries before Mary and St. Paul arrived. Crusaders took over the city in about 1200 A. D. and built a huge (now empty) fortress to "protect the holy sites" but mainly to loot and declare fiefdoms for themselves; it wasn't long before they were kicked out.

Alexander the Great was NOT buried in the "Alexander sarcophagus" (one of the most beautiful and well preserved art objects of antiquity: 4th century B.C.) No one knows where he is buried, but a recently discovered necropolis in Alexandria Egypt is believed to be a likely place by archeologists.

One complete arm of John the Baptist, encased in gold armor, is on display in the Topkapi Palace/museum in Istanbul. I have no idea what they did with the rest of him.

Several mosques in Turkey have holy boxes containing hairs from the Prophet Mohammed's beard.

One Turkish Sultan "Ibrahim the Mad" had each of his 299 wives and concubines drowned in sacks (like unwanted kittens) in the 12th century.

One dollar was worth 70,000 Italian Lira in 1996 when we were there. By late 1999, the Lira's value had decreased to 460,000 to a dollar.

You will not find washcloths in most Turkish hotels, except for a few five-star hotels in Istanbul.

The country seems to have enough housing and office building construction underway (or abandoned) to support twice the country's population. I don't know where the construction loans came from for all that, but some investors or foreign aid organizations must taking a big loss. The devastation of the 1999 earthquake disaster near Istanbul, with over 10,000 lives lost due to very shoddy contruction, makes one wonder if the buildings should have been completed anyway

They were still serving British beef in the Turkish hotel restaurants in 1996 despite the mad cow disease scare in the rest of Europe at that time.

In the villages, people place a clay pot on the roof if there is an unmarried eligible daughter living there. The parents meet and agree before the couple is allowed to "date". It seems to work.

In some villages, if a farmer has a son, he will plant about 40 new poplar trees and sell them for roof beams in about 16 years when his son needs the money to get married. (The husband's family pays.) There are poplar groves all over the place in the Anatolian plateau farmlands which make up most of the country.

Traffic is so bad in Istanbul that cars park on the sidewalk.

A worker who must commute across the Bosporus to the other side of Istanbul may sometimes need four hours each way.

I only saw cars being towed away at the airport. When they do, they are lifted up with cloth straps and onto flatbed trucks.

Fiat, Ford, Renault, and Toyota have factories in Turkey. Mercedes and Chrysler make trucks and buses there also. We did our tour in a Turkish Mercedes bus.

Turkey has two kinds of toilets, the traditional ceramic hole in the ground (*very* unpopular with tourists but a fact of life), and the sit-down kind with a special metal tube that almost touches you when you sit down. A valve connected to it can be used rinse oneself when done, in case one isn't used to using toilet paper (or if there isn't any).

Roman-era public toilets (which still can be seen in Ephesus) were somewhat similar, but used a narrow channel of (fresh aqueduct) water flowing by to "splash" with.

Public toilets in Turkey are not free, and the more expensive ones are often the dirtiest and most primitive. The charge is 7 to 30 cents.

The Turks who seem the friendliest and speak the best English seem to be the ones most likely to cheat you. (I was.. twice.. but the damage was not much). I was deprived a million Lira (than about $14) by an alleged map seller "making change" who grabbed at my wallet.

A well-made silk Turkish rug will have a completely different color pattern when viewed from opposite edges. I can't figure out how they do that.

Water is not free in restaurants.. It has to be bottled to be safe and is about 75 cents for a half-liter bottle in a restaurant. For an extra quarter you can have a very tall glass of the local beer (Efes Pils), which is quite good. Christa wished she'd developed a taste for beer.

Efes Pils (the beer company) sponsors one of the leading European league soccer teams.

The food is pretty awful. No salad dressing (except maybe a squeeze of lemon).. very overcooked vegetables.. hardly any use of spice or salt. Plain rice and potatoes are often served at the same time. Main entrees usually served cold or lukewarm. About the only "sauce" is yogurt or sour cream with chives (like a chip dip). Green onions are considered a breakfast treat. Raw cucumbers and cheese (mostly goat) are served at almost all meals as a side dish. Pickled beets (which I *do* like) are a popular buffet item.

Everyone must remove their shoes to enter a mosque, not only for respect but because the entire inside is covered with individual prayer rugs.. each about the size of a small bath towel. Each rug has its own individual triangle pattern at the top pointing to Mecca.
Westerners are welcome in mosques. Women are supposed to cover their heads with a scarf and not show bare legs, but many non-Moslems don't and it didn't seem to cause any problems. I didn't see any tank tops and bare midriffs, though.

Turkey is, at the government level, one of the least rfundamentalist of the Islamic countries. Its legal system is more like western Europe's than those of "Islamic law" countries. In 1996, about 25% of the population voted for the Moslem-fundamentalist party..mostly people who live in the countryside. The percentage has been rising in recent years. That was more than any other party in the last election, and has been enough to get popular mayors elected in all four major cities, but all of the other political parties tend to in parliament (with the support of the military) to keep the fundamentalists from taking over the national government.


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Writen April 9, 1996 by William L. Shackleford. Updated September 23, 1999

wshakl4d@aol.com