Location Information

Istanbul, Turkey
Language: Turkish, English
Currency: New Turkish Lira (TRY)

Turkey, known officially as the Republic of Turkey, is a Eurasian country. Turkey borders Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhichevan), Iran, Iraq, Syria, Cyprus, the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea.

The Anatolian peninsula (also called Asia Minor), comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest continually inhabited regions in the world due to its location at the intersection of Asia and Europe. The first major empire in the area was that of the Hittites, from the 18th through the 13th century BCE. The entire area was conquered by the Persian Achaemenid Empire during the 6th and 5th centuries and later fell to Alexander the Great in 334 BCE. In 324 CE, the Roman emperor Constantine I chose Byzantium to be the new capital of the Roman Empire, renaming it New Rome (later Constantinople and Istanbul). After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it became the capital of the Byzantine Empire.

Temperatures in Ankara vary. Marmara and the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts have a typical Mediterranean climate with hot summers and mild, wet winters. The east of the country is mountainous with warm summers and very cold, snowy winters.

The only city in the world to span two continents, Istanbul is a bustling, cosmopolitan place, officially founded by Emperor Constantine in AD 326 on the back of a much older village. Istanbul is made up of three distinct cities. The old city of Istanbul is decorated with parks and gardens. Amongst hundreds of fascinating sights. Nearby, the commercial heart of the city, the Grand Bazaar, is still a captivating sight for shoppers and window-shoppers alike, while further along the narrow inlet of the Golden Horn, the Kariye Camii has some of the finest Byzantine mosaics to survive today.

West of Istanbul, the provinces of Thrace and Marmara embrace the Sea of Marmara, while the towns of Gelibolu and Çanakkale mark the entrance to the Dardanelles, the narrow straits leading through to the Mediterranean. This was the site of the infamous Gallipoli landings during World War I.

Turkish food combines culinary traditions from the people’s nomadic past in Central Asia with influences of the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine. Guests are usually able to go into a kitchen and choose from the pots if they cannot understand the names of the dishes.

There are nightclubs in most main centres, either Western or Oriental, with music and dancing. There are theatres with concerts in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir and most towns have cinemas. Turkish baths are popular.

Istanbul is Turkey's most populous city, and its cultural and financial center. The city covers 25 districts of the Istanbul province. It is located on the Bosphorus Strait, and encompasses the natural harbor known as the Golden Horn, in the northwest of the country.

The first human settlement in Istanbul, the Fikirtepe mound on the Anatolian side, is from the Copper Age period, with artifacts dating from 5500–3500 BC.[7] A port settlement dating back to the Phoenicians has been discovered in nearby Kadýköy (Chalcedon). Cape Moda in Chalcedon was the first location which the Greek settlers of Megara chose to colonize in 685 BC, prior to colonising Byzantion on the European side of the Bosphorus under the command of King Byzas in 667 BC. Even after Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Sultans in 1453, the city remained (and it still is) the trading post for valuable spices and textiles brought via the Silk Road from as far away as China.

The city has a temperate-continental climate with hot and humid summers; and cold, rainy and often snowy winters. Humidity is generally rather high which can make temperatures feel much warmer or colder than they actually are. Snowfall is quite common, snowing for a week or two during the winter season, but it can be heavy once it snows. It is most likely to occur between the months of December and March.

One of the oldest monuments still surviving from antiquity is the Serpentine Column, a monument built originally to honor Apollo for the victory over the Persians at Plataea in 479 BC. The column was moved by Constantine the Great when Constantinople became the new capital, and has stood at the Hippodrome ever since.

Istanbul’s cultural activities, both traditional and contemporary, are rich and varied, although not well publicized. Matching the city’s exploding youth population is a growing number of festivals, galleries, new music venues and film centers and, within the last decade, Turkish artists have begun to make an international impact.

As in most cities, drinks prices vary hugely. The tavernas or meyhanes are much cheaper than nightclubs or live music venues. It is advisable to check for cover charges at live music venues. Meyhanes tend to close at 2400, bars at 0100 or 0200, while clubs can stay open as late as 0600 at weekends. Turkish cuisine inherited its Ottoman heritage which could be described as a fusion and refinement of Turkic, Arabic, Greek, Armenian and Persian cuisines.

Medical Precautions:

Yellow Fever only if you are coming from or stopping over in an affected area.

Recommended vaccinations:
Polio
Tetanus
Hepatitis A