So before talking about Turkey, I have to stop and ask you - what do you already know about this country? I never asked myself that question before coming here, and probably should have. It isn't too often I wind up in a place where my expectations wind up so far off from reality, but that is exactly what happened.
If you did that little exercise and were raised in the West, perhaps your answers were comparable to mine. The big things I knew were Euro- and Christianity-centric. That the Emperor Constantine was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, and he moved the Roman capital from Rome to Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople (and was later renamed to Istanbul). I had heard of the Ottoman Empire and its alliance with the Central Powers during World War I. Beyond that, my knowledge was extremely limited. Then we'd visit a site, and we'd realize there's a whole lot we knew nothing about. At one place, we'd hear about the Byzantine architecture and not know what Byzantine even meant. At another site, we'd hear about its importance to the Eastern Orthodox Church and not know much about it, or how it differs from Roman Catholicism. Then we'd see the spectacular mosques and hear about sultans and the Ottoman Empire, and realize how spectacularly ignorant we were about this place. So with today's blog, I thought it would be helpful to give a little history lesson as I pair parts of its history with places we visited. Enjoy!
Author's Note: I am no historian, and am relying almost exclusively on Wikipedia for sources. Please feel free to let me know if I get any details wrong or am omitting important perspectives.
Pre-Roman Empire & Cappadocia
Modern Turkey spans from Greece on its northwestern border to Iran in the southeast. Throughout its history, it has been conquered by or been the seat of power for multiple of these neighbors. It was first fully conquered by the Persians in the 600's BC. They were fully driven out by the Greeks and Alexander the Great in the 300's BC. Very little of the Greek influence exists in modern Turkey, but a small piece of it can be found in Cappadocia, where there remains a small pocket of Greek-speaking Turks.
Cappadocia is a beautiful small region found right in the heart of central Turkey. It is of little political or cultural importance, but is well-known to travelers for its spectacular, unique volcanic rock formations and love of hot air ballooning. These rock formations formed from volcanic eruptions that occurred 3 to 9 million years ago. The subsequent millennia eroded the rock into unique layered pillars. Locals carved their homes into the soft rock, and much later (300 to 1200 A.D.) churches and monasteries were similarly built into hand-carved caves here.
Modern Cappadocia is the best kind of tourist trap. Most visitors stay in caves, in emulation of the region's ancient inhabitants. An unfortunate amount of the local economy is dedicated to tourism, but there remains a lot of authentic native culture. While tours take people to designated viewpoints, it was extremely easy for us to take dirt roads and find our own vistas. In a particularly stupid adventure of "car hiking," as Moe called it, we found ourselves alone, dangling our legs off the edge of a cliff and taking in some of the most spectacular views. We found ourselves mesmerized, trying to find explanations for the bizarre rock formations, or figuring out how on Earth ancient Turks managed to carve their homes into the sheer rock. The region can be conveniently reached by plane, but we chose to make the 18 hour round-trip by car and were very happy we did.
Roman & Byzantine Empires from the Hagia Sofia
Turkey was fragmented after the fall of the Greek Empire, but became unified under the rule of the Roman Empire during the first century AD. Under Emperor Constantine I, Byzantine became the capital of the Roman Empire and was renamed Constantinople. This city would later be renamed Istanbul.
It is at this point that Turkey starts its cultural legacy of being where East meets West. From Emperor Constantine onward, there was a fragmentation of the Roman Empire between east and west. In American history classes, we learn about the fall of the Roman Empire at the hands of numerous Gallic, Germanic, and Celtic tribes that ultimately proved too much for its distant centralized government. In reality, while Rome burned and much of its European gains were lost, the Eastern portion of its empire largely remained intact and became reorganized as the Byzantine Empire. For about a thousand years, it was the most powerful political and economic force in Europe, rivaled only by Charlemagne's Holy Roman Empire. During this time, Constantinople flourished. As a measure of its success, it built the "Holy Wisdom" in the span of 5 years in the 500's AD, better known now as the Hagia Sophia (Sophia being the Latin spelling of the Greek word for wisdom).
The Hagia Sophia has such an impressive history that I can only begin to scratch the surface. For starters, it was the largest cathedral in Europe for nearly 1000 years. It was originally built as an Eastern Orthodox Church, basically meaning it was Catholic but did not recognize the authority of the Pope. Instead, Eastern Orthodox Churches are locally self-headed, essentially with bishops being at the top of the hierarchy. Among these churches, only the Patriarch of Constantine received the distinguished label of primus inter pares, or "first among equals" (I love this term for a leader!). This wasn't a big deal at first, until the Great Schism of 1054 when the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches mutually excommunicated each other.
The Hagia Sophia was at the center of this East-West Catholic divide for centuries. Essentially, the Great Schism began in the halls of the Hagia Sophia when the envoy of Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Constantine Patriarch. It was a target of the Fourth Crusade, sacked by Roman crusaders in 1204 AD, and held by Roman Catholics for over 50 years. It was in a state of disrepair following the crusade and was in the process of restoration when it became the center of another East-West conflict: the rise of the Ottoman Empire.
I will get to the political transition in the next section, but suffice to say the Ottoman Empire was Islamic, and they converted the church into a spectacular mosque. The modern result of all of this history is a combination of ancient Catholic and Muslim features unlike anything I've ever seen before. The vestibule was converted into a library with Qu'ran holders. The stained glass windows contain Arabic calligraphy. The ramparts are decorated with huge discs with ornate calligraphy depicting Allah, Muhammed, and the earliest caliphates.
Pre-crusades, the Hagia Sophia was decorated extensively with beautiful ornate mosaics. The most famous is of Christ Pantocrator ("Ruler of the Universe"), depicted at right.
However, most of these mosaics were damaged or destroyed during the Crusades. Later, other mosaics were plastered over by the Ottomans due to Islam's ban on representational imagery. In places, the plaster has been removed and the original mosaics have been restored, as seen below.
Ottoman Empire - Blue Mosque & Topkapi Palace
Constantinople was captured by Sultan Mehmet II of the Ottoman Empire in 1454. He converted the Hagia Sophia into a mosque as previously described. Directly adjacent to it he built his capital, Topkapi Palace. The palace can be visited today, and I recommend you do. The grounds are beautiful, and just like the Hagia Sophia, the palace is a combination of East and West. Marble panels and gold framing evoked memories of European palaces and baroque styling, directly next to colorful Arabesque designs and Islamic calligraphy. Again, this combination of East & West, European & Middle Eastern feels unlike anywhere else in the world.
The Hagia Sophia proved to be the inspiration for Istanbul's most striking architectural features. The Ottoman Empire maintained their rule over the region basically up until World War I. During these 500 years, Ottoman Sultans continued to build numerous mosques in the same styles as the Hagia Sophia, with many topping the original in size and scale. These widely domed buildings with adjacent minarets now dominate the skyline of Istanbul and of the Turkish countryside. Among the most famous and spectacular is the Blue Mosque, or Sultanahmet, located directly next to the Hagia Sophia.
No trip to Istanbul is complete without exploring the Blue Mosque. Hearing its athan or call to prayer from the adjacent square stirs the soul itself. Muslims and non-Muslims are welcomed to perform salaat or prayers on its grounds. Honestly, it is worth learning how to perform the Muslim prayer before taking a trip to Turkey simply to participate in this ceremony, as it was one of the biggest highlights of our trip. We were blessed enough to make it for salaat al jumaa, or weekly prayers - the Islamic equivalent of Sunday Church. Regardless of your personal religious or areligious background, the experience is one-of-a-kind.
Modern Turkey
During World War I, the Ottoman Empire aligned itself with the Central Powers. At the end of WWI, Istanbul and Turkey were occupied by Allied forces. This prompted a war for independence, which was won in September 1922. The first president was Mustafa Kemal Pasha, who was given the honorary last name of Atatürk ("Father of the Turks"). Atatürk was a progressive, and Turkey was founded explicitly as a secular state. Additionally, women were given the right to vote decades before western European countries. Overall, through the decades following the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the country has continued to flourish economically.
In more recent years, Turkey has found itself once again on the front of an East-West conflict. Turkey is currently dealing with two major threats to its people's safety: the collapse of Syria and the resurgence of the Kurds. During the Syrian civil war and the emergence of ISIS, the West has chosen to arm a regional minority without a formal country - the Kurds. This minority has its own language, its own local militia, and asserts rule over portions of eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syria. They have proven very effective at driving ISIS out of Iraq.
However, this policy has had multiple very big effects on Turkey. Number one - Turkey has seen more Syrian refugees than other other country in the world. Number two - the Kurds have been fighting for their own independent country for years. As the Kurds have been strengthened militarily by the United States, they have reportedly carried out bombings throughout Turkey. Turkish citizens have subsequently found themselves in a country with more terrorist attacks than most others. Whether this is the product of ISIS or the PKK (Kurds) is a subject of much debate.
Most recently, Turkey has been swept up in the wave of nationalism that has taken over the Western Hemisphere. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has increasingly consolidated his powers in steps many feel threaten the democracy in the country.
In short, it is a pretty charged time to visit Turkey.
Turkey as a Tourist - The Good, the Bad, the Depressing
And now, it's time to get real. What is it actually like to travel through Turkey? Honestly, it was far more beautiful and more moving than I had ever expected. In the West, we see very little of Turkish culture because it is a largely progressive, inclusive society with a thriving economy, so there are few Turkish immigrants to the West. The crackdowns by Erdoğan are troubling from a human rights perspective, but as a tourist they have very little impact.
Traveling through Istanbul or the countryside is remarkably similar to the rest of Europe except for the fact that barely anyone speaks English. It is officially a secular country (at least for now), and so there are no governmental restrictions on food or alcohol. The people love to smoke, drive like absolute maniacs, and at the end of the day are trying to make a living - some more honestly than others. In this regard, it is exactly like Europe, as I encountered the same scams I see everywhere else.
What was unique, however, was the refugee and safety issue. Armed soldiers were at every major tourist site, like the one at Topkapi pictured at right. Bomb-sniffing dogs roamed the parks and squares. You can't enter any place without passing through a metal detector. While it did help me feel safe, it is a grim reminder of how bad things have become.
The refugees were everywhere. We encountered about a dozen hitchhikers when we were heading north on the return from Cappadocia. When we were stuck in traffic, one Syrian boy aggressively begged at our taxi continuously for about a half a mile. I saw a middle-aged man using a pack of cigarettes as a pillow when he slept on concrete. At one restaurant, a little girl came up to us begging for food. She was shoo'd away by the waiter, shaking his fist. Moments later, two cats came begging. He seemed embarrassed as he gently waved at the cats to go. He was kinder to the animals than he was to the refugee.
It is worth repeating that Turkey was a spectacular trip with the great experiences far outnumbering the bad. The Hagia Sophia, Sultanahmet, Topkapi Palace, and Cappadocia are even more beautiful than I could possibly have described. And I didn't even get around to talking about the sights and bustle of the Grand Bazaar; the imposing beauty of multiple Byzantine mosques as seen from the Bosphorous Bridge; or the salt lake at Toz Gölü. I learned an immense amount about a part of the world that the West has surprisingly neglected throughout history. Even better, it is relatively inexpensive with beautiful ceramics, antiques, fabrics, and clothing for sale.
So despite its challenges, it was worth it. Very worth it. My brave travel companions and I refused to let a little political turmoil deter us, and we are all the better for it.
If you did that little exercise and were raised in the West, perhaps your answers were comparable to mine. The big things I knew were Euro- and Christianity-centric. That the Emperor Constantine was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, and he moved the Roman capital from Rome to Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople (and was later renamed to Istanbul). I had heard of the Ottoman Empire and its alliance with the Central Powers during World War I. Beyond that, my knowledge was extremely limited. Then we'd visit a site, and we'd realize there's a whole lot we knew nothing about. At one place, we'd hear about the Byzantine architecture and not know what Byzantine even meant. At another site, we'd hear about its importance to the Eastern Orthodox Church and not know much about it, or how it differs from Roman Catholicism. Then we'd see the spectacular mosques and hear about sultans and the Ottoman Empire, and realize how spectacularly ignorant we were about this place. So with today's blog, I thought it would be helpful to give a little history lesson as I pair parts of its history with places we visited. Enjoy!
Author's Note: I am no historian, and am relying almost exclusively on Wikipedia for sources. Please feel free to let me know if I get any details wrong or am omitting important perspectives.
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| We start with the majestic rock formations of Cappadocia! |
Pre-Roman Empire & Cappadocia
Modern Turkey spans from Greece on its northwestern border to Iran in the southeast. Throughout its history, it has been conquered by or been the seat of power for multiple of these neighbors. It was first fully conquered by the Persians in the 600's BC. They were fully driven out by the Greeks and Alexander the Great in the 300's BC. Very little of the Greek influence exists in modern Turkey, but a small piece of it can be found in Cappadocia, where there remains a small pocket of Greek-speaking Turks.
Cappadocia is a beautiful small region found right in the heart of central Turkey. It is of little political or cultural importance, but is well-known to travelers for its spectacular, unique volcanic rock formations and love of hot air ballooning. These rock formations formed from volcanic eruptions that occurred 3 to 9 million years ago. The subsequent millennia eroded the rock into unique layered pillars. Locals carved their homes into the soft rock, and much later (300 to 1200 A.D.) churches and monasteries were similarly built into hand-carved caves here.
Modern Cappadocia is the best kind of tourist trap. Most visitors stay in caves, in emulation of the region's ancient inhabitants. An unfortunate amount of the local economy is dedicated to tourism, but there remains a lot of authentic native culture. While tours take people to designated viewpoints, it was extremely easy for us to take dirt roads and find our own vistas. In a particularly stupid adventure of "car hiking," as Moe called it, we found ourselves alone, dangling our legs off the edge of a cliff and taking in some of the most spectacular views. We found ourselves mesmerized, trying to find explanations for the bizarre rock formations, or figuring out how on Earth ancient Turks managed to carve their homes into the sheer rock. The region can be conveniently reached by plane, but we chose to make the 18 hour round-trip by car and were very happy we did.
Roman & Byzantine Empires from the Hagia Sofia
Turkey was fragmented after the fall of the Greek Empire, but became unified under the rule of the Roman Empire during the first century AD. Under Emperor Constantine I, Byzantine became the capital of the Roman Empire and was renamed Constantinople. This city would later be renamed Istanbul.
It is at this point that Turkey starts its cultural legacy of being where East meets West. From Emperor Constantine onward, there was a fragmentation of the Roman Empire between east and west. In American history classes, we learn about the fall of the Roman Empire at the hands of numerous Gallic, Germanic, and Celtic tribes that ultimately proved too much for its distant centralized government. In reality, while Rome burned and much of its European gains were lost, the Eastern portion of its empire largely remained intact and became reorganized as the Byzantine Empire. For about a thousand years, it was the most powerful political and economic force in Europe, rivaled only by Charlemagne's Holy Roman Empire. During this time, Constantinople flourished. As a measure of its success, it built the "Holy Wisdom" in the span of 5 years in the 500's AD, better known now as the Hagia Sophia (Sophia being the Latin spelling of the Greek word for wisdom).
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| Our view of the Hagia Sophia. |
The Hagia Sophia was at the center of this East-West Catholic divide for centuries. Essentially, the Great Schism began in the halls of the Hagia Sophia when the envoy of Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Constantine Patriarch. It was a target of the Fourth Crusade, sacked by Roman crusaders in 1204 AD, and held by Roman Catholics for over 50 years. It was in a state of disrepair following the crusade and was in the process of restoration when it became the center of another East-West conflict: the rise of the Ottoman Empire.
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| It may be hard to see, but the stained glass contains Arabic calligrapy. |
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| Christ, Pantocrator. |
However, most of these mosaics were damaged or destroyed during the Crusades. Later, other mosaics were plastered over by the Ottomans due to Islam's ban on representational imagery. In places, the plaster has been removed and the original mosaics have been restored, as seen below.
 |
| Early Easter Orthodox Christians decorated the Hagia Sophia with ornate mosaics. These were damaged by the Roman Catholic crusaders and later covered by plaster by the Ottoman Muslims. |
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| There aren't too many places in the world you can see Mary, Jesus, and Arabic calligraphy. |
Ottoman Empire - Blue Mosque & Topkapi Palace
Constantinople was captured by Sultan Mehmet II of the Ottoman Empire in 1454. He converted the Hagia Sophia into a mosque as previously described. Directly adjacent to it he built his capital, Topkapi Palace. The palace can be visited today, and I recommend you do. The grounds are beautiful, and just like the Hagia Sophia, the palace is a combination of East and West. Marble panels and gold framing evoked memories of European palaces and baroque styling, directly next to colorful Arabesque designs and Islamic calligraphy. Again, this combination of East & West, European & Middle Eastern feels unlike anywhere else in the world.
The Hagia Sophia proved to be the inspiration for Istanbul's most striking architectural features. The Ottoman Empire maintained their rule over the region basically up until World War I. During these 500 years, Ottoman Sultans continued to build numerous mosques in the same styles as the Hagia Sophia, with many topping the original in size and scale. These widely domed buildings with adjacent minarets now dominate the skyline of Istanbul and of the Turkish countryside. Among the most famous and spectacular is the Blue Mosque, or Sultanahmet, located directly next to the Hagia Sophia.
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| All of us went with the blue theme to go with the Blue Mosque. |
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| Salaat al jumaa at the Blue Mosque. |
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| From inside the mosque! |
During World War I, the Ottoman Empire aligned itself with the Central Powers. At the end of WWI, Istanbul and Turkey were occupied by Allied forces. This prompted a war for independence, which was won in September 1922. The first president was Mustafa Kemal Pasha, who was given the honorary last name of Atatürk ("Father of the Turks"). Atatürk was a progressive, and Turkey was founded explicitly as a secular state. Additionally, women were given the right to vote decades before western European countries. Overall, through the decades following the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the country has continued to flourish economically.
In more recent years, Turkey has found itself once again on the front of an East-West conflict. Turkey is currently dealing with two major threats to its people's safety: the collapse of Syria and the resurgence of the Kurds. During the Syrian civil war and the emergence of ISIS, the West has chosen to arm a regional minority without a formal country - the Kurds. This minority has its own language, its own local militia, and asserts rule over portions of eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syria. They have proven very effective at driving ISIS out of Iraq.
However, this policy has had multiple very big effects on Turkey. Number one - Turkey has seen more Syrian refugees than other other country in the world. Number two - the Kurds have been fighting for their own independent country for years. As the Kurds have been strengthened militarily by the United States, they have reportedly carried out bombings throughout Turkey. Turkish citizens have subsequently found themselves in a country with more terrorist attacks than most others. Whether this is the product of ISIS or the PKK (Kurds) is a subject of much debate.
Most recently, Turkey has been swept up in the wave of nationalism that has taken over the Western Hemisphere. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has increasingly consolidated his powers in steps many feel threaten the democracy in the country.
In short, it is a pretty charged time to visit Turkey.
Turkey as a Tourist - The Good, the Bad, the Depressing
And now, it's time to get real. What is it actually like to travel through Turkey? Honestly, it was far more beautiful and more moving than I had ever expected. In the West, we see very little of Turkish culture because it is a largely progressive, inclusive society with a thriving economy, so there are few Turkish immigrants to the West. The crackdowns by Erdoğan are troubling from a human rights perspective, but as a tourist they have very little impact.
Traveling through Istanbul or the countryside is remarkably similar to the rest of Europe except for the fact that barely anyone speaks English. It is officially a secular country (at least for now), and so there are no governmental restrictions on food or alcohol. The people love to smoke, drive like absolute maniacs, and at the end of the day are trying to make a living - some more honestly than others. In this regard, it is exactly like Europe, as I encountered the same scams I see everywhere else.
What was unique, however, was the refugee and safety issue. Armed soldiers were at every major tourist site, like the one at Topkapi pictured at right. Bomb-sniffing dogs roamed the parks and squares. You can't enter any place without passing through a metal detector. While it did help me feel safe, it is a grim reminder of how bad things have become.The refugees were everywhere. We encountered about a dozen hitchhikers when we were heading north on the return from Cappadocia. When we were stuck in traffic, one Syrian boy aggressively begged at our taxi continuously for about a half a mile. I saw a middle-aged man using a pack of cigarettes as a pillow when he slept on concrete. At one restaurant, a little girl came up to us begging for food. She was shoo'd away by the waiter, shaking his fist. Moments later, two cats came begging. He seemed embarrassed as he gently waved at the cats to go. He was kinder to the animals than he was to the refugee.
It is worth repeating that Turkey was a spectacular trip with the great experiences far outnumbering the bad. The Hagia Sophia, Sultanahmet, Topkapi Palace, and Cappadocia are even more beautiful than I could possibly have described. And I didn't even get around to talking about the sights and bustle of the Grand Bazaar; the imposing beauty of multiple Byzantine mosques as seen from the Bosphorous Bridge; or the salt lake at Toz Gölü. I learned an immense amount about a part of the world that the West has surprisingly neglected throughout history. Even better, it is relatively inexpensive with beautiful ceramics, antiques, fabrics, and clothing for sale.
So despite its challenges, it was worth it. Very worth it. My brave travel companions and I refused to let a little political turmoil deter us, and we are all the better for it.
