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Did You Know?
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Did You Know?
The modern Republic of Turkey was among the few countries not only in Europe but in the world to give woman their right to vote and to be elected in 1934.
Istanbul is the only city in the world located on two continents, Europe and Asia. In its thousands of years of history, it has been the capital of three great empires - Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman. Istanbul changed hands through out history but it served as capital city for 1900 years to various Empires.
Julius Caesar proclaimed his celebrated words, "Veni, Vidi, Vici (I came, I saw, I conquered)" in Turkey when he defeated the Pontus, a formidable kingdom in the Black Sea region of Turkey.
The millennium stone at Sultanahmet Istanbul was the zero meridian point of the world during Roman & Byzantine eras & distances to various places around the world were measured from this origin point.
Turks introduced coffee to Europe.
Lydia which is one of the greatest civilization lived in Anatolia has still got some remainings around Salihli (Sardis) and it's the first civilization which coined money.
Hereke which is in the world carpeting literature with the quality of the wool and silk rugs is in Izmit (Kocaeli).
The oldest known human settlement in the world is located in Catalhoyuk, Turkey, dating back to 6500 B.C. The earliest landscape painting in history was found on the wall of a Catalhoyuk house, illustrating the volcanic eruption of nearby Hasandag.
Turkey fully lives the 4 seasons, the richest flora is in Turkey and almost every year new plant species are gained to the world literature.
Writing was first used by people in ancient Anatolia. The first clay tablets - in the ruins of Assyrian Karum (Merchant Colony - date back to 1950 B.C.).
Antalya Museum was rewarded specially by European Council to become the best museum in 1988 in Europe.
You won't be able to have a blue voyage like the one you can have on Aegean and Mediterranean coast in any part of the world.
The Hittites sold Abraham the cave where he buried his wife Sarah, when the Israelites came to Palestine.
Two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World stood in Turkey - the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the Mausoleum of Halicarnasus in Bodrum.
The book of Revelation opens with the letters from Jesus to 7 churches in Christendom which are all in Turkey: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. Jesus counsels them as to how to get back on track.
The word "turquoise" comes from "Turk" meaning Turkish and was derived from the beautiful colour of the Mediterranean Sea on the southern Turkish coast.
The first war between continents took place in Troy which was later written by Homer in his epic of " Iliad ". The Trojan horse from the movie Troy now rests here as a gift from the producers of the movie.
In Antalya, in the spring time you can both ski & swim.
All 7 ecumenical councils were held in Asia Minor, which in the later years was to separate the churches as East Orthodox and Roman Catholic.
Jews expelled from Hungary in 1376, from Sicily early in the 15th century, from Bavaria in 1470, from Bohemia in 1542, and from Russia in 1881, 1891, 1897, and 1903 all took refuge in the Ottoman Empire.
The resolutions of the Council of 431 held that the Virgin Mary came to Ephesus. According to them, she came here together with Saint John, four to six years after the death of Christ.
Anatolia is the birthplace of many historic figures and legends, such as the poet Homer, King Midas, Herodotus (the father of history) and St. Paul the Apostle.
St. Nicholas, known as Santa Claus today, was born and lived in Demre (Myra) on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. The village contains the famous Church of St. Nicholas with the sarcophagus believed to be his tomb.
The first man ever to fly was Turkish. Using two wings, Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi flew from the Galata Tower over the Bosphorus to land in Uskudar in the 17th century.
Many archaeologists and biblical scholars believe Noah’s Ark landed on Agri Dagi (Mount Ararat) in eastern Turkey.
The most valuable silk carpet in the world is displayed at the Mevlana Museum in Konya, Turkey. Marco Polo’s journeys in the 13th century took him here and he remarked that the “best and handsomest of rugs” were to be found in Asia Minor.
Turks first gave the Dutch their famous tulips that started the craze for the flower in England and the Netherlands. Bulbs brought to Vienna from Istanbul in the 1500s were so intensely popular that by 1634 in Holland it was called “tulip mania.” People invested money in tulips as they do in stocks today. This period of elegance and amusement in 17th century Turkey is referred to as “The Tulip Age”.
The first coins ever minted were done so at Sardis, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, at the end of the seventh century.
Robert College was founded in 1863 in the Bebek district of Istanbul on the European side of Bosphorus as the oldest American college still in existence in the world outside the United States.
Turkey houses more Roman sites than Italy and more Greek ruins than Greece.
Tansu Ciller was elected as the first female Prime Minister of Turkey and governed between 1993-1996.
Turkey is noted for having one of the three most famous and distinctive traditional cuisines in the world.
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