The Rough Guide to Turkey

730 Pages·2016·142.64 MB·English

by  Rough Guides

THE ROUGH GUIDE to
Turkey
EXPERT ADVICE • FULL COVERAGE • EASY TO USE
INSIDE THIS BOOK
INTRODUCTION What to see, what not to miss, itineraries and more – everything
you need to get started
BASICS Pre-departure tips and practical information
THE GUIDE Comprehensive, in-depth guide to the entire country, with area
highlights and full-colour maps throughout
CONTEXTS History, the peoples of Turkey, cinema and music, plus recommended
books and a handy language section
We’ve fl agged up our favourite places – a perfectly sited hotel, an atmospheric café, a special
restaurant – throughout the guide with the ★ symbol
Turkey chapters
BULGARIA
BLACK SEA
GEORGIA
Edirne Sinop Bat’umi
9
2 1 Safranbolu Samsun Trabzon
İstanbul Kars ARMENIA
İznik Amasya 10
Erzurum
Çanakkale Bursa
8 Doğubeyazit
ANKARA Sivas
3 IRAN
Manisa 12 Van
İzmir 7 Kayseri
4 Konya 11 Diyarbakir
Bodrum
Şanliurfa
5 Adana
Fethiye Antalya
Alanya 6 Antakya N
IRAQ
GREECE
CYPRUS SYRIA
MEDITERRANEAN 0 200
SEA kilometres
1 Istanbul and around 5 The Turquoise Coast 9 The Black Sea coast
2 Around the Sea of Marmara 6 The Mediterranean coast and the Hatay G Northeastern Anatolia
3 The North Aegean 7 South Central Anatolia H The Euphrates and Tigris basin
4 The central and southern Aegean 8 North Central Anatolia I Lake Van and the southeast
Make the Most of Your Time on Earth at roughguides.com
This ninth edition published June 2016
The Rough guide To
Turkey
This ninth edition updated by
Terry Richardson, Zoë Smith, Lizzie Williams
and Martin Zatko
roughguides.com
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introduction 3
Contents
introduction 4
Where to go 6 Things not to miss 14
When to go 12 Itineraries 24
Author picks 13
BaSicS 26
Getting there 27 Festivals 48
Getting around 30 The media 49
Accommodation 36 Shopping 50
Food and drink 37 Sports and outdoor activities 53
Health 43 Travelling with children 56
Culture and etiquette 44 Travel essentials 56
The guide 64
1 Istanbul and around 64 7 South Central Anatolia 404
2 Around the Sea of Marmara 144 8 North Central Anatolia 462
3 The North Aegean 182 9 The Black Sea coast 504
4 The central and southern Aegean 222 10 Northeastern Anatolia 538
5 The Turquoise Coast 286 11 The Euphrates and Tigris basin 572
6 The Mediterranean coast and 12 Lake Van and the southeast 618
the Hatay 350
contextS 644
History 645 Books 693
The peoples of Turkey 678 Turkish 701
Turkish cinema 686 Glossary 709
Turkish music 689
Small print & index 712
opposite Blue Mosque, IstanBul previous page PaMukkale
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IRAN
4 introduction Tabriz Tabriz
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
infuences 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 gypsy
festivals are as much a part of the social landscape as classical music
concerts or football matches.
Te friendliness of the Turkish people makes visiting a pleasure; indeed, you risk causing
ofence by declining invitations, and fnd 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.
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 defned it as a modern, secular nation. Despite
three military coups between 1960 and 1980, Turkey has maintained a reasonably
successful multi-party democracy for over sixty years, and has managed to blend
secularism and global capitalism with Islam. Challenges remain, however, with signs
that the conservative, Islam-orientated AKP (Justice and Development Party) government
are seeking to consolidate their rule through the introduction of a strongly presidential
system led by one of their own, former prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Te
meltdown of two countries bordering Turkey’s southeast, Syria and Iraq, is also a major
cause for concern.
When the Ottoman Empire imploded in the early twentieth century, refugees streamed
into Anatolia, including Muslim Slavs, Greeks, Albanians, Crimean Tatars, Daghestanlis,
Abkhazians and Circassians. Tere they joined an already mixed population that included
Above Göreme
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Thessaloniki Sofiya

E
C
E
I R A L
E
R
G
CAPPADOCIA D
Ğ A
Ç
K
A
R

N
K
A
BULGARIA TURKEY
B L A C K S E A GEORGIA
Edirne Sinop Bat’umi
Zonguldak Amasra Hopa Artvin
İpsal
Kaeşan Tekirdağ İstanbİzumlit Kastamonu Samsun Ordu Trabzon Rize
Yalova Giresun Sumela Kars ARMENIA
AEycveÇaacbnı
Akaytkvkaallıek BaMlıkGaeönsilyrüasBanAdpıGromölllyaüon BurKİszüantiakhya Eskişehir Bolu ANKARA Amasya TokSaitvas Divriği EBrzaiynbcuarnt ErzuTorurtmum AnAiğrı Doğubayazit
ÇeFşom
KçuaeİşSzaemdlBaçiuesrırk
Mgai
MmlaBaasromdMAaryraudinsmınisaÖd
DeNamaMlyDizşaiuelnlnği ilzali UşaPkamukBGkuaördleüur AntBaIsulpyrdaEruGğAtraöifryldüEoiğrSnBiiredyeirşGeöhliür BeyKşeohnirya KaramGaTnöulzü AksarayNevşehiTrarsuNs iğde AdaKnaayKsaehrai manmaGraaşziantep AdMıyamlataEynlTaâSuzanığncelNDıluiearfmğaırut BingöDliyarbakıMr ardKuinrTtaMltavnuaşn SiBiritlisGVöalnü HakVkMaâe3nrt0ir0e0s
A E G E A N Fethiye Kalkan Alanya Mersin İskenderun 2000
S E A Kaş Finike Silifke Antakya Halab (Aleppo) 1500
Anamur IRAQ
1000
Lattakia SYRIA 500
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A CYPRUS 200
0 100
kilometres 0
Tabriz IRAN Tabriz
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Thessaloniki Sofiya
E
C
E
L
A
R
I

ER
G

CAPPADOCIA
D
A
Ğ
Ç
K
A
R

N
K
A
TURKEY
BULGARIA
B L A C K S E A
GEORGIA
Sinop
Edirne
Bat’umi
Amasra
Hopa
Zonguldak
Artvin
İpsal
Kaeşan Tekirdağ İstanbul Kastamonu Samsun Ordu Trabzon Rize
İzmit
Yalova Giresun Sumela Kars ARMENIA
Eceabat Bandırma Bolu Amasya Ani
İznik Tortum
Çanakkale
Manyas Apollyon Bursa Tokat Bayburt
Ayvacık
BalıkGeösilrü Gölü Eskişehir Sivas Erzincan Erzurum Ağrı Doğubayazit
Ayvalık Kütahya ANKARA
Divriği
Bergama
Tunceli
Foça Bingöl Muş
Afyon Van
Manisa Uşak Elâzığ Gölü Van
İzmir
Çeşme
Selçuk Ödemiş Pamukkale EGğöirldüir GTöulzü AksarayNevşehir Kayseri Malatya
Nemrut Tatvan SiBiritlis
Kuşadası
Aydın Nazilli Isparta
Niğde Adıyaman Dağı Diyarbakır Kurtalan Hakkâri
Denizli Eğirdir Konya
Burdur Burdur
Milas Gölü Beyşehir Beyşehir Kahramanmaraş
Muğla Gölü Mardin Metres
Bodrum
Marmaris Antalya Karaman Tarsus Adana
Gaziantep Sanlıurfa 3000
Dalyan Side
Mersin
A E G E A N Fethiye Kalkan Alanya İskenderun 2000
S E A
Kaş Finike Silifke Antakya Halab (Aleppo) 1500
Anamur IRAQ
1000
Lattakia SYRIA
500
M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A CYPRUS
200
0 100
kilometres 0
6 introduction
a very sizeable minority of Kurds. Tanks to recent
Fact File
arrivals from former Soviet or Eastern Bloc territories,
• Turkey covers a vast 814,578 that diversity endures. Another surprise may be
sq km (97 percent in Asia, 3
Turkey’s sheer youthfulness: more than half the
percent in Europe). Four seas
lap its 8333-km coastline: population is under thirty, with legions of young
the Mediterranean, the people working in coastal resorts, and shoals of
Aegean, the Marmara and the
schoolkids surging through the city streets.
Black Sea. Numerous peaks
exceed 3000m, the highest A huge part of Turkey’s appeal lies in its
being Ararat (Ağrı Dağı; archeological sites, a legacy of the bewildering
5165m). Turkey’s three
succession of states – Hittite, Urartian, Phrygian,
longest rivers – the
Kızılırmak, Yeşilırmak and Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Armeno-
Sakarya – fow into the Black Georgian – that held sway here before the twelfth
Sea, while its largest lake is
century. From grand Classical cities to hilltop
Lake Van (3713 sq km).
fortresses and remote churches, some still produce
• The population of 77 million
exciting new fnds today. In addition, Turkey holds
is 99 percent Muslim (Sunni
or Alevi), with dwindling a vast number of graceful Islamic monuments, as well
minorities of the Armenian as intriguing city bazaars, still hanging on amid the
Apostolic or Catholic, Greek
chain stores and shopping malls. Sadly, ugly modern
Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox
and Jewish faiths. Besides architecture spoils most coastal resorts, where it’s
standard Turkish, two dialects often hard to fnd a beach that matches the tourist-
of Kurdish are widely spoken;
board hype. Inland Turkey, with its Asiatic expanses
other languages include
Arabic, Laz, Circassian, of mountains, steppes, lakes, and even cloud-forests,
Albanian, Macedonian, may leave a more vivid memory, especially when
Bulgarian, Romany and Greek.
accented by crumbling kervansaray (desert inns),
Well over half the inhabitants
live in cities; the four largest mosques and castles.
are İstanbul, Ankara (the
capital), İzmir and Adana.
• Turkey’s economy, rated Where to go
seventeenth in the world in
2014, has undergone Western Turkey is the most economically developed,
sustained growth in recent
and most visited, part of the country. It would take
years. Infation has fallen to
single digits, inward weeks even to scratch the surface of the old imperial
investment has rocketed, capital, Istanbul, straddling the straits linking the
major infrastructure projects
Black and Marmara seas, and still Turkey’s cultural
have been realized at an
astonishing rate, and the and commercial hub. Flanking it on opposite sides
Turkish lira has generally held of the Sea of Marmara, the two prior seats of the
its own with the major
Ottoman Empire, Bursa and Edirne, abound in
currencies.
monumental attractions and regal atmosphere.
• Since 1922 Turkey has been a
republic. The single-chamber Beyond the Dardanelles and its World War I
Grand National Assembly battlefelds lie Turkey’s two Aegean islands,
(Büyük Meclis) in Ankara has
Gökçeada and Bozcaada, popular for their
550 seats, and elects the
president. excellent beaches, lingering Greek-ethnic identity
and (except in midsummer) tranquillity.
clockwise from top KeKova Island; TurKIsh coffee; carpeT shop In IsTanbul
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8 introduction
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 fne 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.
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 fne 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. Tis is graced by extensive sands
and archeological 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 interest between Silifke and Adana include Roman
Uzuncaburç and the romantic ofshore fortress at Kızkalesi. Further east, Arab-infuenced
Antakya is the heart of the Hatay, culturally part of Syria.
Inland in South Central Anatolia, the rock-hewn churches, subterranean cities and
tuf-pinnacle landscapes of Cappadocia await. Te dry, salubrious climate, excellent
wine, artistic and architectural treasures, plus horseriding or hot-air ballooning could
occupy you for ten days, including a stop in Kayseri on the way north. You might also
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