About Turkey  Official name Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Capital Ankara Area 774.815 sq km Biggest town Istanbul, 9.500.000 inhab. Population 66.700.000 Language Turkish Currency Turkish Lira Religions 99% Muslims Form of government Democratic

When one is to write about Turkey, several books about the country’s significance throughout history and all the exiting things there are to be seen when visiting the country could easily be written. One could write about the city in ruins Efesos and the Virgin Mary, about Troy, and about Homer’s Iliad and the first city Çatal Höyük. One could also write about the sultans and about the Aspendo Theatre’s fine acoustics. It would also be possible to write far and wide about the country’s beautiful nature: about Pamukkale’s white reservoirs; Kappadokien’s mysterious villages, and about the broad sandy beaches and the high mountains along the coast. When one is to describe Turkey today, it would also be worth mentioning: Mustafa Kemal’s or “Atatürk’s” significance to the country; the dam across the river Eufrat in the eastern part of Turkey and last but not least one would be able to describe a country, which holds many contrasts and is in a rapid development.

Kappadokien

Efesos

Pamukkale

The area of Turkey is approximately 775.000 square kilometres – it’s about 6 times bigger than England. As one of the fewer countries Turkey is situated on two continents – Europe and Asia. To the north the Pontic mountains are situated, and they spread all the way down to the coast of the Black Sea, where the soil is very fertile due to the plentiful rain in the fall and winther. To the south towards the Mediterranean is the Taurus Mountains. Here Turkey can offer beautiful and unspoiled stretches of coast – wide sandy beaches only interrupted by high rocks. In the eastern part of Turkey the Pontiske Mountains and the Taurus Mountains are united in a trackless country and in a rough nature. To the west the two mountain ranges dissolve into the Aegean Sea in a number of bays and small islands. Here the country has to be experienced from the seaside too. The central Turkey is only scattered populated. Here the sheep can graze and the wheat can rise. When the Turks talk about their country, they say that when the Ottomans retreated in 1566, they only kept the areas of natural beauty and great historic importance – and it is both beautiful and exiting.