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The Rough Guide to Turkey PDF

730 Pages·2016·142.64 MB·English
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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 001-025_Turkey9_Intro.indd 1 19/01/16 11:16 am 001-025_Turkey9_Intro.indd 2 19/01/16 11:16 am 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 001-025_Turkey9_Intro.indd 3 19/01/16 11:16 am 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 001-025_Turkey9_Intro.indd 4 19/01/16 11:16 am 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 001-025_Turkey9_Intro.indd 5 19/01/16 11:16 am 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 001-025_Turkey9_Intro.indd 6 19/01/16 11:16 am 001-025_Turkey9_Intro.indd 7 19/01/16 11:16 am 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 001-025_Turkey9_Intro.indd 8 19/01/16 11:16 am

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