Another small suburb tucked away on the edges of the Bosphorus is Kurucesme (Kuruçeşme). The name translates as dry fountain, and it is believed to have been named for a 17th century fountain attached to the Tezkireci Osman Efendi Mosque. At one time the area was an industrial zone where coal and sand were stored….
Named after the Albanian (Arnavut) builders brought to Istanbul by Sultan Abdülmescid in the 19th century to lay sidewalks in the city, Arnavutkoy is home to beautiful wooden houses, many of them lining the Bosphorus waterside. The original population was a mix of Turks and Albanians, and there was a large community of Greeks and…
Tucked away on the shores of the Bosphorus, next to the far more fashionable and better known suburb of Emirgan, is Boyacikoy, which means ‘Village of the Dyers’. The suburb is so named because in the eighteenth century a large family of dyers from Kırklareli in Thrace, north west of Istanbul, were resettled here by…
Back when I first travelled around Turkey on my own in 1990 there were no mobile phones, the internet didn’t exist and the only way to let my family know I was safe was via occasional expensive phone calls from the post office or aerogram letters that took six weeks to arrive. Needless to say,…
Birgi is located on the Silk Road and the town was once an important silk production centre, beginning some fifteen hundred years ago. By 1426 it had come under the control of the Ottoman Empire and in 17th century, Evliya Çelebi noted that loads of silk were being sent from Birgi to cities all over Turkey. These days silk weaving is done on industrial looms but there are still some small workshops producing delicate items on traditional silk hand looms. Birgi was chosen as one of the 3 best villages in Turkey in 2022 by the United Nations World Tourism Organization and once you’ve seen it for yourself, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Modern day Demre is essentially a dusty farming town full of shops selling agricultural equipment and simple lokanta serving up doner or home cooked food. Tomatoes grow in abundance alongside orchards lush with citrus trees but back in the 5th century BC Myra, as Demre was known, was a powerful Lycian city.
Izmir, Turkey’s third most populated city, stretches around the Gulf of Izmir on the Aegean Sea. It’s where the first ever railway line was built in the country to transport produce grown on farms 120 kilometres inland for export to Europe. The gorgeous Sarayı Borsa, the Palace Stock Market that once saw a vigorous trade in cotton, figs and a range of dried fruits including Sultaninas (dried raisins) brought to Izmir by camel, is still standing.
April in Turkey sees the start of spring, and nothing says life is for living better than displays of colourful flowers. The Istanbul Tulip Festival delivers this and more, with tulips growing in a former private garden belonging to the Ottoman Sultans or cascading down the banks of the Bosphorus in a public park in…
Depending on the time of year you go, there are a number of easy daytrips and outings you can make from Ayvalik. Here’s what you need to know if you want to visit Cunda Island, Küçükköy and Seytan Sofrasi. CUNDA ISLAND (ALI BEY ADASI) When most people think of Ayvalik, they think of a fun…
Istanbul Istanbul has an incredible collection of sites located on the historical Topkapı peninsula of Sultanahmet, but venture further afield and there are Greek Orthodox churches, dervish tombs, converted hamam and contemporary mosques to explore. If all this sounds tempting, read on! Sultanahmet Kadikoy Uskudar Eminonu Golden Horn Taksim & surrounds Galata Tunel & Karakoy…