The Rough Guide to Turkey (Travel Guide eBook)

Rough Guides

Description

This practical travel guide to Turkey features detailed factual travel tips and points-of-interest structured lists of all iconic must-see sights as well as some off-the-beaten-track treasures. Our itinerary suggestions and expert author picks of things to see and do will make it a perfect companion both, ahead of your trip and on the ground. This Turkey guide book is packed full of details on how to get there and around, pre-departure information and top time-saving tips, including a visual list of things not to miss. Our colour-coded maps make Turkey easier to navigate while you’re there. This guide book to Turkey has been fully updated post-COVID-19.

The Rough Guide to TURKEY covers: Istanbul and around, around the Sea of Marmara, the North Aegean, the Turquoise Coast, the Mediterranean coat and the Hatay, South Central Anatolia, North Central Anatolia, the Black Sea coast, Northeastern Anatolia, the Euphrates and Tigris basin, Lake Van and the southeast.

Inside this Turkey travel guide you’ll find:

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EVERY TYPE OF TRAVELLER 
Experiences selected for every kind of trip to Turkey, from off-the-beaten-track adventures in Kackar Daglari to family activities in child-friendly places, like Cappadocia or chilled-out breaks in popular tourist areas, like Ishak Pasa Sarayi.

PRACTICAL TRAVEL TIPS 
Essential pre-departure information including Turkey entry requirements, getting around, health information, travelling with children, sports and outdoor activities, food and drink, festivals, culture and etiquette, shopping, tips for travellers with disabilities and more.

TIME-SAVING ITINERARIES
Includes carefully planned routes covering the best of Turkey, which give a taste of the richness and diversity of the destination, and have been created for different time frames or types of trip.

DETAILED REGIONAL COVERAGE
Clear structure within each sightseeing chapter of this Turkey travel guide includes regional highlights, brief history, detailed sights and places ordered geographically, recommended restaurants, hotels, bars, clubs and major shops or entertainment options.

INSIGHTS INTO GETTING AROUND LIKE A LOCAL
Tips on how to beat the crowds, save time and money and find the best local spots for hot air balloon rides, food, exploring ruins or horse riding.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THINGS NOT TO MISS
Rough Guides' rundown of the Black Sea coast, Northeastern Anatolia, the Euphrates and Tigris basin’s best sights and top experiences helps to make the most of each trip to Turkey, even in a short time.

HONEST AND INDEPENDENT REVIEWS
Written by Rough Guides’ expert authors with a trademark blend of humour, honesty and expertise, this Turkey guide book will help you find the best places, matching different needs.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Comprehensive 'Contexts' chapter of this travel guide to Turkey features fascinating insights into Turkey, with coverage of history, religion, ethnic groups, environment, wildlife and books, plus a handy language section and glossary.

FABULOUS FULL COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY
Features inspirational colour photography, including the stunning Phaselis and the spectacular Selimiye Camii.

COLOUR-CODED MAPPING
Practical full-colour maps, with clearly numbered, colour-coded keys for quick orientation in Iskele, Ancient Ephesus and many more locations in Turkey, reduce the need to go online.

USER-FRIENDLY LAYOUT 
With helpful icons, and organised by neighbourhood to help you pick the best spots to spend your time.

Sujets

• Special Interest
• Points of Interest
• Museums
• Hotels
• Turquía
• Interest group (disambiguation)
• Point of interest
• Travel
• Museum
• Middle East
• Food
• Feed
• Turkey
• Hotel
• Tours

Informations

• Publié par: Apa Publications
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781839059254
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 35 Mo

Extrait

Contents
Introduction to Turkey
W here to go
W hen to go
A uthor picks
t hings not to miss
I tineraries
Basics
G etting there
G etting around
A ccommodation
C ulture and etiquette
F ood and drink
H ealth
F estivals
T he media
S hopping
S ports and outdoor activities
T ravelling with children
T ravel essentials
Istanbul and around
S ultanahmet
T he Grand Bazaar and around
E minönü
T he northwest quarter
T he land walls
G alata and around
B eyoğlu
T ophane
B eşiktaş
O rtaköy
T he Golden Horn
A sian Istanbul
A long the Bosphorus
T he Princes’ Islands
Around the Sea of Marmara
T hrace
S outhern Marmara
The North Aegean
Ç anakkale
T he Gelibolu Peninsula
T he Turkish Aegean Islands
T roy to İzmir
S ardis
The central and southern Aegean
İ zmir
T he Çeşme Peninsula
S elçuk and around
K uşadası and around
D idim and around
B afa Gölü
M ilas and around
B odrum
T he Bodrum Peninsula
M armaris
T he Hisarönü Peninsula
T he Datça Peninsula
P amukkale
A round Pamukkale
The Turquoise Coast
F ethiye
A round Fethiye
Ö lüdeniz
B eyond Ölüdeniz: hamlets along the Lycian Way
G öcek
D alaman
D alyan and around
T he Xanthos Valley
K alkan and around
K aş and around
T he Kekova region
D emre and around
A rykanda
T he coast to Olympos
P haselis
The Mediterranean coast and the Hatay
A ntalya to Alanya
E ast of Alanya
T he Hatay
South Central Anatolia
L akeland
C appadocia
North Central Anatolia
A nkara and around
E skişehir and around
K ütahya and around
S afranbolu and around
B oğazkale and the Hittite sites
A masya
T okat
S ivas
D ivriği
The Black Sea coast
T he western Black Sea
T he eastern Black Sea
Northeastern Anatolia
E rzurum
Y usufeli
A round Yusufeli
T he Kaçkar Dağları
A rtvin and around
A rdahan and around
K ars and around
The Euphrates and Tigris basin
G aziantep
S outhwest of Gaziantep
E ast of Gaziantep: towards Şanlıurfa
Ş anlıurfa and around
H arran
K ahta
T he road to Nemrut Dağı
N emrut Dağı
M alatya and around
D iyarbakır
M ardin and around
T he Tür Abdin plateau
H asankeyf
Lake Van and the southeast
L ake Van
H akkâri
L ake Van to Doğubeyazıt
M ount Ararat
Contexts
H istory
T he peoples of Turkey
T urkish cinema
T urkish music
B ooks
T urkish
G lossary
Small print


Introduction to Turkey

A mesmerizing mix of the exotic and the familiar, Turkey is much more than its clichéd image of a ‘bridge between East and West’. Invaded and settled from every direction since the start of recorded history, it combines influences from the Middle East and the Mediterranean, the Balkans and Central Asia. Mosques coexist with churches, Roman theatres and temples crumble near ancient Hittite cities, and dervish ceremonies and Roma festivals are as much a part of the social landscape as classical music concerts or football matches.
The friendliness of the Turkish people makes visiting a pleasure; indeed, you risk causing offence by declining invitations, and find yourself making friends through the simplest of transactions. At the big resorts and tourist spots, of course, this can merely be an excuse to sell you something, but elsewhere, despite a history in which outsiders have so often brought trouble, the warmth and generosity are genuine.


KAHRAMANMARAS EARTHQUAKE
The most recent update of this guide was completed before the Kahramanmaras Earthquake occurred, affecting large areas of southern Turkey and northern Syria. With the extent of the damage still being determined as this book went to print, we wanted to recognise and pay respect to those now rebuilding their lives in these countries. While tourism will be sure to play a major part in the return to normality, it is advisable to check ahead on the current status of attractions in Adana, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa and the surrounding areas.
Politically , modern Turkey was a grand experiment, largely the creation of one man – Kemal Atatürk . With superhuman energy, he salvaged the Turkish state from the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire and defined it as a modern, secular nation. Despite four military coups between 1960 and 1997 (and one failed coup attempt in 2016), Turkey has maintained a multiparty democracy since 1950. The conservative, pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi; AKP) led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been the dominant party since 2001.
When the Ottoman Empire imploded in the early twentieth century, refugees streamed into Anatolia, including Muslim Slavs, Greeks, Albanians, Crimean Tatars, Dagestanis, Abkhazians and Circassians. There they joined an already mixed population that included a very sizeable minority of Kurds. Thanks to recent arrivals from former Soviet or Eastern Bloc territories and Syria, that diversity endures. Another surprise may be Turkey’s relative youthfulness : the median age is 33.





A huge part of Turkey’s appeal lies in its archaeological sites , a legacy of the bewildering succession of states – Hatti, Hittite, Urartian, Phrygian, Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Armeno–Georgian – that held sway here before the twelfth century. From grand classical cities to hilltop fortresses and remote churches, some still produce exciting new finds today. In addition, Turkey holds a vast number of graceful Islamic monuments , as well as intriguing city bazaars , still hanging on amid the chain stores and shopping malls. Sadly, ugly modern architecture spoils most coastal resorts, where it’s often hard to find a beach that matches the tourist-board hype. Inland Turkey , with its Asiatic expanses of mountains, steppes, lakes, and even cloud-forests, may leave a more vivid memory, especially when accented by crumbling kervansaray (desert inns), mosques and castles.


Fact file Turkey covers a vast 783,562 sq km (97 percent in Asia, 3 percent in Europe). Four seas lap its 8,333km coastline : the Mediterranean, the Aegean, the Marmara and the Black Sea. Numerous peaks exceed 3,000m, the highest being Great Ararat (Büyük Ağrı Dağı; 5,165m). Turkey’s three longest rivers – the Kızılırmak, Yeşilırmak and Sakarya – flow into the Black Sea, while its largest lake is Lake Van (3,713 sq km). The population of some 85 million is 99 percent Muslim (Sunni or Alevi), with dwindling minorities of the Armenian Apostolic or Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox and Jewish faiths. Besides standard Turkish, two dialects of Kurdish are widely spoken; other languages include Arabic, Laz, Circassian, Albanian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Romany and Greek. Well over half the inhabitants live in cities; the four largest are İstanbul, Ankara (the capital), İzmir and Adana. Since 1922 Turkey has been a republic . The single legislative chamber Grand National Assembly (Büyük Millet Meclisi) in Ankara has six hundred seats.
Where to go
Western Turkey is the most economically developed, and most visited, part of the country. It would take weeks even to scratch the surface of the old imperial capital, Istanbul , straddling the straits linking the Black and Marmara seas, and still Turkey’s cultural and commercial hub. Flanking it on opposite sides of the Sea of Marmara, the two prior seats of the Ottoman Empire, Bursa and Edirne , abound in monumental attractions and regal atmosphere. Beyond the Dardanelles and its World War I battlefields lie Turkey’s two Aegean islands , Gökçeada and Bozcaada , popular for their excellent beaches, lingering Greek-ethnic identity and (except in midsummer) tranquillity.
Further south, the olive-swathed landscapes around Bergama and Ayvalık epitomize the classical character of the North Aegean . Ancient Sardis, and the old Ottoman princely training ground of Manisa, also make a fine pair, although İzmir serves merely as a functional introduction to the central and southern Aegean . Celebrated Ephesus tends to overshadow the equally deserving ancient Ionian sites of Priene and Didyma, or the intriguing ruins of Aphrodisias and Labranda – and don’t overlook evocative hill towns such as the lovely Şirince. Also inland are tranquil, islet-dotted Bafa Gölü and the compelling geological oddity of Pamukkale, where travertine formations abut Roman Hierapolis. While the coast itself is heavily developed, its star resorts – Datça is the quietest, Bodrum the most characterful – make comfortable bases.




Sokollu Mehmed Pasha Mosque in Istanbul
Shutterstock
Beyond the huge natural harbour at Marmaris, the Aegean gradually becomes the Mediterranean. Coastal cruises make popular pastimes in brazen Marmaris or more manageable Fethiye, the principal town of the Turquoise Coast , while fine beaches stretch at Dalyan and Patara, near eerie ancient Lycian tombs. Further east, Kaş and Kalkan are busy resorts, good for resting up between explorations of the mountainous hinterland. Beyond relatively untouched Çıralı Beach, at ancient Olympos, fast-growing Antalya sprawls at the start of the Mediterranean coast proper. This is graced by extensive sands and archaeological sites – most notably Termessos, Perge, Side and Aspendos – though its western parts get swamped in season. Beyond castle-topped Alanya, however, tourist numbers diminish; points of interes