Turkey of the regions 4: the styles of the Northeast

Akçaabat Houses

January 26, 2014, Sunday GALLERY 

 Travelers speeding along the Black Sea Highway from Samsun to Rize and then heading inland for Artvin are likely to be disappointed to see serried ranks of concrete high-rises disfiguring an area of Turkey usually talked of glowingly in terms of its natural beauty.

Only recently have the authorities woken up to the damage done to the built environment with belated attempts to create a new vernacular architecture featuring half-timbering for the official buildings of coastal towns such as Çayeli.

Behind the scenes, though, there is lovely regional architecture to be found even in this part of the country. The best place to start is probably Kars, whose back streets are full of unlikely “Baltic architecture,” a legacy of Russian occupation. There are also several places where more predictable wooden chalet architecture survives, such as around Şavşat and Ardanuç. Occasionally, you will also stumble upon some of the magnificent mansions, not unlike the traditional Turkish houses of Central Anatolia, that were built by the wealthy in places such as Rize and Çamlıhemşin. Trabzon retains one quirky building that looks to have strayed from the Crimea. Surprisingly, it is in the small town of Akçaabat that you get the best idea of what housing might have looked like had concrete never been invented.

 

Kars

During the 19th century the northeastern town of Kars, best known to visitors for its proximity to the ruins of the old Armenian capital of Ani, was frequently at war with Tsarist Russia. Under the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano at the end of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 Kars became the capital of a new Russian province named Kars Oblast that survived right through until 1918. It was during this period that the extraordinary architecture of the streets running down to the river north of Faik Bey Caddesi came into being.

Nowhere else in Turkey is there anything like this. The Yusufpaşa, Cumhuriyet and Ortakapı mahalles (neighborhoods) are all laid out in a neat and very un-Turkish grid pattern. Street after wide, tree-lined street is lined with pastel-colored, one-story stone-built houses adorned with stucco pilasters and swags of flowers. In between them stand grander edifices housing government offices that look as if they would be more at home in Saint Petersburg. In a reminder of the days of horses and carriages most of the private houses came with side arches wide enough to allow them to pass to the backyard. Other houses are of bare basalt with a trim of white wood that stands in sharp contrast. The buildings are routinely dubbed “Baltic” (a more comfortably neutral term than “Russian”) although the designers responsible were apparently Dutch.

Belatedly, these streets are being spruced up in an effort to encourage tourists to linger, and already one hotel has taken up residence in a restored basalt building. The minimalist design of the rooms in the Kar's Otel (tel: 0474-212 1616) may strike some as unduly austere but in the lobby visitors get the chance to inspect a pec, a local variation on the sort of standard tiled stove that was once fashionable across country in Constantinople (İstanbul) and that provided central heating to the entire building.
The Russian occupation has left two other conspicuous monuments in the form of the train station and what was once the 19th-century Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Church and is now the Fethiye Cami, both to the south off Cumhuriyet Caddesi.

 

Around Şavşat

The road from Artvin to Ardahan passes through the settlement of Şavşat where concrete rules the roost. In the surrounding villages, however, elegant wooden chalets with pitched roofs still linger on although their owners are almost without exception elderly. The chalets are usually built on two stories with the ground floor used for storage and the upper one for living. Verandahs often run the entire length of the front side while wooden versions of the cumbas (bay windows) of townhouses jut out from the façade.

The best of these houses survive in the village of Meydancık, but this is hard to get to without your own car. Within taxi distance of Şavşat there are also lovely wooden chalets across the road from the ruined Georgian Tbeti church at Cevizli and in the village of Veliköy, where in February wrestlers from all over Turkey and Georgia gather to take part in the country's only kar güreşi (snow-wrestling) tournament.

These days most yayla (upland pasture) settlements are as likely to be full of concrete as the towns, but if you look out of the bus on the right as it climbs from Şavsat towards the Çamlibel Pass and Ardahan, you will spot Yukarı Kocabey Yaylası where neat, simple log cabins still provide summer accommodation for local herders.

 

Around Ardanuç

In the past it obviously made sense to build in wood in this northeastern area where there was so much native forest, but that didn't mean that everyone opted for the same design. Around Ardanuç, for example, in the village of Bulanık you will see a completely different take on the idea of the wooden chalet, while in nearby Aydınköy some wooden houses even try on the odd Art Nouveau flourish.

 

Çamlıhemşin

For most visitors to the Kaçkar Mountains Çamlıhemşin is a little more than a bottleneck village that they must pass through on the way to the uplands at Ayder. If, however, instead of turning right for Ayder you keep following the Fırtına river straight ahead towards Zilkale, you will come to a suburb named Konaklar where, so high up on the hillside that it's almost impossible to imagine how anyone got there, you will see some of the last remaining mansions whose stone and half-timbered architecture supplied the model for the new look of places like Çayeli.

Two-storied once again, these mansions are a mountain take on the traditional Turkish house of Central Anatolia but without the jutting upper stories and sometimes erratic floor plans designed to fit chaotic urban street plans. Instead, these are solid rectangular edifices with more windows than one might have expected in such a cold part of the world built flush into the stone walls.
In a reminder of the geopolitics of this part of the world in the 19th century, many of the mansions were built for men who had made fortunes in Russia, then repatriated the profits to create dream homes back in their birthplaces. Needless to say, many stand empty today.

 

Rize and Şürmene

The houses of Çamlıhemşin are lovely but not readily accessible except by car. To get some idea of what they look like you could instead pause briefly in Rize, where a group of imposing Ottoman mansions of simpler design are grouped picturesquely together in the town center; two house museums, one a restaurant.

Better still, you could hop out of the bus between Rize and Trabzon in Sürmene, where, on a bluff right beside the Black Sea Highway, the superb half-timbered early 19th-century Memişağa Konağı (AKA the Kastel) not only exhibits a slightly more elaborate take on the Çamlıhemşin style complete with cumbas, but is also open to the public. Pop in to take a look at another complex system for centrally heating a house and firing up a private hamam at the same time.

 

Trabzon

The big port city of Trabzon is hardly renowned for splendid architecture, although it is worth seeking out the hilltop Atatürk Köşkü, a magnificent whitewashed wooden mansion in a splendid garden that was built in 1903 for a local banker, Constantine Kapagiannidis, in imitation of the style of houses to be seen across the Black Sea in the Crimea. In the town center the museum is housed in another building designed for a wealthy 20th-century banker, this time in hybrid Franco-Italian style.

 

Şimşirli

High on the hillside at Şimşirli in the İkizdere valley south of Rize a rare wooden mosque built in the mid-19th century still survives, robbed of its doors but with all its lovely internal woodwork intact. Viewing this, it's hard to understand why concrete ever caught on as a building material for mosques.

 

Akçaabat

Not far west of Trabzon Akçaabat is the sort of small town most people whisk straight through, stopping, if at all, just to lunch on the köfte for which it is famed. But those with the energy to strike up the steep hill at the back of town will be in for a pleasant surprise. In the old Orta Mahalle encircling the late Byzantine church of St Michael the Archangel lovely wood-framed townhouses with jutting cumbas face out to sea, a sobering reminder of what might have been in all the Black Sea towns. They are finally being given a facelift, not a moment too soon.

Source:  http://www.todayszaman.com/news-337466-turkey-of-the-regions-4-the-styles-of-the-northeast.html

Day trip Cappadocia: Gülşehir, Hacıbektaş, Özkonak and Paşabağ

Shrine at Hacıbektaş

April 13, 2014, Sunday/ 00:00:00

“One day Hacı Bektaş Veli was at a meeting with his followers, but although he seemed to be with them physically it also felt as if he was very far away from them at the same time. Eventually he seemed to come back again and some people asked him where he had been. ‘I went to the Black Sea to save two ships that were sinking,' he answered. Not surprisingly, they were reluctant to believe him, so to prove that he was telling the truth the hoca (teacher) shook the sleeves of his robe. When he did so two small fish fell out.”
We were standing in front of the grand entrance leading into the shrine of Hacı Bektaş Veli, an Islamic mystic who is particularly revered by the Alevis and the Bektaşı sect. As our guide Fırat talked to us so he pointed to the bottom of the doorframe and there, sure enough, amid the otherwise stereotypically geometric carvings I saw two tiny carved fish, symbolizing in stone this rather wonderful story.
Until recently Hacıbektaş has been something of a touristic also-ran, hunkered down on the northern outskirts of Cappadocia, rarely visited by foreign visitors except during the annual three-day festival in August when the town breaks out in song and dance and informal trips from Göreme are sometimes organized. Now all that is about to change with the introduction of a new day trip that takes visitors to the shrine. It's a particularly welcome development given that the museum associated with it has recently been given a complete make-over and now offers an intriguing insight into aspects of Turkish culture that rarely get a look-in in mainstream coverage.
Hacı Bektaş Veli was a mystic who is believed to have arrived in Central Anatolia from Horasan on the borders of what are now Iran and Afghanistan some time in the 13th century when this part of the world was under the control of the Selçuks, governing from Konya. In some versions of his life story he is said to have been carried here by pigeons and so on the insides of that same elaborate doorframe leading into his shrine the custodian pointed out small carvings that she insisted were stylized birds.
The Bektaşı order of dervishes was founded either by Veli or by Balım Sultan who is buried in a separate building across the garden from the main shrine. It became highly influential in Ottoman times mainly because most members of the powerful Janissary military corps signed up to its beliefs. That influence was largely lost in 1826 when Sultan Mahmud II overthrew the Janissaries. Such latent power as they retained was completely vanquished in 1925 when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk abolished all Turkey's remaining dervish orders. Today, Hacı Bektaş Veli remains hugely important to the Alevis and is revered by many Sunni worshippers, too.
The tiny fish and stylized pigeons aside, the shrine is full of symbols, including lions and double-pointed swords that represent the fourth caliph Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed. Much of the symbolism is hard for outsiders to understand although everyone will quickly grasp the significance of the number 12; like the Shiites, Alevis revere the 12 imams who are descended from Ali. Set into the walls of the shrine you will see small 12-pointed stones called teslimtası, while the museum showcases contain elaborately decorated palenktaşı, pennants that used to be worn by the dervishes. Most strikingly, in the museum you will see examples of the Hüseyin-i taç, a high 12-sided felt hat worn by the dervishes that is also reproduced in stone on the top of their tombstones in the graveyard outside.

The Açık Saray and St John's Church, Gülşehir

The new tour kicks off with a visit to another under-visited site just north of Nevşehir. The so-called Açık Saray (Open Palace) was not actually a palace at all. Instead, it was the setting for a series of what are thought to have been sixth or seventh-century rock-cut monasteries, all of them long since collapsed although their facades, inset with horseshoe-arch-shaped blind arcading, clearly reveal their locations.
The monasteries are set in a quiet valley full of silvery poplars that is also home to one of the more bizarre of the rock formations created over time by the wind and rain eating away at volcanic deposits. The Mantarkaya (Mushroom Rock) is indeed shaped like a giant frilly-edged toadstool from beside which you get a fine view out over the valley.
But the real gem of Gülşehir is the hidden church of St John (also known as the St Jean Church or the Karşı Kilise). Today modern housing on the road leading to the church somewhat detracts from its setting, but once you arrive you're in for a wonderful surprise. Externally there's nothing to suggest what you will find when you step across the threshold of a seemingly small and unexciting conical rock formation. Once inside, however, your eyes are drawn immediately to what was once the upper floor of a small church, its walls and ceiling completely covered with vividly colored frescoes.
These are some of the finest frescoes to be seen in Cappadocia, a region that is justly renowned for its medieval artworks. Our guide runs through the various Bible stories to be seen on the walls, and draws our attention to the image of St George, the patron saint of Cappadocia, battling his dragon above the window. But perhaps the single most interesting image he points out to us is the large one of the Last Judgment with angels weighing souls, then assigning the dead to heaven or hell that sits just beneath it. This is a common image in English churches, but in Cappadocia this is the only example that has ever been discovered.
Unusually, a surviving inscription means that the frescoes in the church can be dated with precision to the year 1212. The portrait of a female donor can be seen in all her Byzantine finery just to the right of the Last Judgment scene.

Özkonak

On the way back from Hacıbektaş our tour takes us to Özkonak, a dusty, small settlement near the pottery-making town of Avanos, which is home to one of the more than 30 “underground cities” currently open to the public across Cappadocia. The story of its discovery is worth recalling. Apparently an imam was out tending his garden when all of a sudden a hole opened up in the ground and he found himself staring down into an underground cave labyrinth complete with narrow tunnels and huge rolling stones that could be used to close them off from intruders.
Cappadocia's underground cities are one of its most attractive features as far as visitors of a non-claustrophobic disposition are concerned. Oddly, though, very little can be said about them with any certainty given the absence of written records. It's thought that some at least date back to Hittite times although all were probably expanded in the early Middle Ages during the years when the newly invigorated Arabs were riding north from their homeland and the early Christian residents of Cappadocia felt the need to hide underground for months at a time to protect themselves.
Özkonak is not as large a complex as the better known ones at Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı. Once underground, however, it's virtually impossible to get any sense of how far down into the earth you have gone, so for most people it will serve as a perfect introduction, not too cramped, not too crowded and not taking too long to visit so that there's still time left in the day to see other things, too.

Wild fairy chimneys, Paşabağ

Paşabağ

From Özkonak our tour brought us home again across Turkey's longest river, the Kızılırmak, in Avanos before concluding with a quick look at Paşabağ, home to some of Cappadocia's most striking fairy-chimney rock formations including the three-headed ones that always remind me of bunches of asparagus spears. It was a scene that offered the perfect ending for a tour that had taken us just far enough off the beaten track to make us feel like real Cappadocian explorers.
Pat Yale's tour was sponsored by Heritage Travel in Göreme (www.goreme.com; tel: 0384-271 2687)

Lion fountain at shrine of Hacıbektaş

Museum at Hacıbektaş

Museum at Hacıbektaş

Source: http://www.todayszaman.com/news-344387-day-trip-cappadocia-gulsehir-hacibektas-ozkonak-and-pasabag.html 

Byzantine İstanbul in 10 iconic monuments

(Photo: Sunday's Zaman)

March 30, 2014, Sunday

Long before it was İstanbul or even Constantinople, the great city that is now Turkey's undisputed cultural capital was Byzantium, the city on the Bosporus founded by Megaran colonists in 637 B.C.

As the Roman Empire became larger and more unwieldy, it was on this eastern city that the eyes of Emperor Constantine alighted in 330. Given his stamp of approval, it was renamed Constantinopolis and went on to become the heart of the Byzantine Empire that evolved out of the eventual collapse of the Roman Empire.

Today traces of the Byzantine era litter Old İstanbul inside the battered old land walls. The most conspicuous and most visited of those traces is, of course, the great church of Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya) that bestrides Sultanahmet Square. But with many of the old buildings given new uses (specifically the churches as mosques) and with no museum devoted to the city's Byzantine history, it can be hard for the casual visitor to imagine how things once were. Click on www.byzantium1200.com to find out more about the Byzantine city, then head straight for these great sites to dream of the distant past.

Hagia Sophia Museum (Aysofya Cami)

Why? Finest surviving monument to early Byzantine era

Unmissably large, Hagia Sophia looks as if it must always have been part of the scenery. In fact, the building you see today was the third church on the site and owes its existence to a riot in 532 between the supporters of opposing chariot teams in the nearby Hippodrome that makes the more recent troubles in Gezi Park look like a storm in a teacup. By the time the dust had settled, not just the second Hagia Sophia but also two other Byzantine churches had been burnt down.

The great emperor Justinian moved fast to make good the damage, commissioning Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus to build a replacement so imposing that no one would remember what had gone before. Completed in 537, it boasted the largest dome in the world, which quickly fell victim to an earthquake in 558 and had to be rebuilt. That dome and its sturdy supporting pillars created a great sense of space that is harder to appreciate now that the scaffolding required to “restore” the building has been reinstalled in the nave.

No visitor to Hagia Sophia will be able to forget the glittering mosaics dating from the ninth to the 13th centuries that are dotted about the interior. The church stands mainly, though, as a monument to the grand ambitions of an emperor who left his mark in buildings scattered all over Western Anatolia and Thrace.


Chora Church

Chora Museum (Kariye Cami)

Why? Finest monument to the 13th-century Byzantine Renaissance

Built on a far more petite scale than Hagia Sophia, Chora Church, out near the Land Walls at Edirnekapı, was built in the 11th century when this part of the city was still rural. Expanded in the 13th century, it was given a lavish interior decoration scheme by a wealthy statesman called Theodore Metochites whose preposterous taste in headgear was immortalized in one of its many mosaics.
Today Chora is the best place to come to inspect the evidence of a Byzantine artistic renaissance that took root in the city after the Latins who occupied the city from 1204 to 1261 were finally turfed out. Visit soon since the building is scheduled to close for extensive restoration.

Fethiye Cami

Why? Second only to Chora Church as a place to admire late Byzantine mosaics

Should you be thwarted in your efforts to visit Chora Church, then head east along Draman Caddesi in search of the Fethiye Cami, which started life in the 12th century as the Monastery of the Theotokos Pammakaristos but, like the Chora Church, acquired a lavishly decorated extension in the 13th century. Nothing here can quite match the staggeringly lovely frescoes of the Chora's Parecclesion chapel, but the dome mosaics depicting the Pantocrator and the Virgin Mary are a stunning reminder of the glory that was Byzantium.

Monastery of the Pantocator (Zeyrek Cami)

Why? Burial place of some later Byzantine emperors

High on a bluff above the Golden Horn at Unkapanı, the Byzantine Monastery of the Pantocrator has been under restoration for so many years that most people have probably forgotten what it used to look like. That work looks as if it may finally be nearing its end, which means that visitors will once more be able to appreciate a basically 12th-century monastery that grew in increments to become one of the most important in the city and the burial place of some of the Komneni emperors. The monastery owed allegiance directly to the emperor rather than the patriarch and possessed a famously rich treasury until it was raided by Crusaders in 1204. Some of their booty now forms part of the altarpiece of St Mark's Basilica in Venice.


Küçük Ayasofya Cami

Church of Sts Sergius and Bacchus (Küçük Ayasofya Cami)

Why? Oldest intact Byzantine church in city

It would be easy to assume that Hagia Sophia was the oldest surviving intact church in İstanbul, an honor that actually falls to the much smaller Church of Sts Sergius and Bacchus, on the shore of the Sea of Marmara downhill from the Arasta Bazaar. Built in 527, the interior of the church featured a two-storey octagonal colonnade embellished with wonderful capitals and lengthy inscriptions that mention Sergius but not Bacchus. Some people object to recent restoration work inside what is now a mosque; others will be too stunned by the beauty of the colonnades to complain.

St Mary of the Mongols

Why? The only city church that never became a mosque

On the hilltop near what was once the vast redbrick Greek High School for Boys in Fener, St Mary of the Mongols is worth visiting not because it is the most beautiful of the city's surviving Byzantine churches, but because it was the only one that was never turned into a mosque, courtesy of Atık Sinan, the architect who worked on Fatih Cami for Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror; a copy of the decree permitting its survival hangs on the wall. The church is open on Sundays. At other times ring the doorbell for admission.

Great Palace Mosaics Museum

Why? A glimpse at the glory of the Byzantine Great Palace

While coachloads of tourists descend on beautiful Topkapı Palace it's hard to remember that an even bigger Byzantine palace, or collection of palaces, once stood in what is now Sultanahmet/Cankurtaran. Bits of it crop up whenever new building work is carried out but the single most stunning reminder of what has been lost can be seen in the Great Palace Mosaics Museum, beside the Arasta Bazaar. Not only do the mosaics shown off in situ suggest the lost splendor of the palace building, but they also hint at the way of the life of the Byzantines too with men shown hunting, fishing and farming, while children dressed in the colors of the most revered chariot teams play games.





Yerebatan Sarnıcı

Yerebetan Sarnıcı

Why? Most impressive reminder of the Byzantine water system

 Today it may be one of İstanbul's most atmospheric sights, but the popular Yerebatan Sarnıçı (Cistern) was once just a prosaic piece in the complex jigsaw of aqueducts and reservoirs required to bring water from the Thracian forests into the city. People may gawp in awe now at the upside-down carving of Medusa used as a column base, but its position shows that the builders saw it merely as reusable rubble for their latest project. The Aqueduct of Valens that straddles Atatürk Bulvarı was another piece in the same puzzle.

Land Walls

Why? Constantinople's protection until 1453

Coming in from Atatürk Airport visitors catch a passing glimpse of the great walls that once ringed the Byzantine city and protected it from its enemies right up until 1453 when Mehmet the Conqueror punched his way through them with the help of a Hungarian-built cannon. With time on your hands, you might like to walk the length of the walls from Mermerkule on the Sea of Marmara to the soaring towers at Ayvansaray on the Golden Horn. In doing so you will pass the renovated shell of Tekfur Sarayı, part of the lost Blachernae Palace to which the Byzantine emperors retreated after they recovered the city from the Crusaders in 1261. The walk is best done in company.

Church of St John the Baptist of Studion

Why? Battered remains of a once hugely productive monastery

Today only the outer walls survive in Samatya (Kocamustafapaşa) of what was once one of the most important monasteries in all of Byzantium, with a scriptorium in which monks produced some of the finest illuminated manuscripts. The church is slated for restoration. Wouldn't it be wonderful if it could be turned into a museum of Byzantine history?

Keywords: istanbul , iconic monuments , byzantium

Source: http://www.todayszaman.com/news-343231-byzantine-istanbul-in-10-iconic-monuments.html 

Coasting 3: The Turkish Mediterranean

Alanya (Photo:Sunday's Zaman)

March 23, 2014, Sunday

Stretching from Datça in the west to Adana in the east, the Mediterranean shoreline is perhaps the most quintessentially Turkish part of the coast and certainly the most photographed.

 The western part of it from Marmaris to Antalya is the heartland of the Blue Cruise -- actually invented in Bodrum just round the corner in the Aegean -- the part of the coast picturesquely dubbed “the Turkish Riviera” or “the Turquoise Coast” in tourist brochures. It's an area of dramatic natural beauty with soaring mountains dropping sharply to an azure sea and with the awe-inspiring ruins of several different civilizations -- the Carians, Lycians and Romans in particular -- within easy reach of the beaches.

The Mediterranean coast splits naturally into two sections, with Antalya as the break point. West of Antalya tourism dominates everything in a string of resorts ranging from the big full-on offerings of Marmaris-İçmeler and Fethiye to the smaller holiday centers such as Dalyan and Kaş. East of Antalya, Side and Alanya are equally popular holiday resorts. After that the mountains soar ever higher, the coast road narrows and hotels virtually dry up until you near the big conurbation of Adana-Mersin-Tarsus.

The western side of this stretch of coast is served by airports at Bodrum, Dalaman and Antalya; the eastern side by the airport at Adana.


Knidos ancient theater


Datça, Bozburun

Reşadiye and Bozburun peninsulas

West of Marmaris an open jaw of land looks poised to swallow the isolated Greek island of Simi. Forming the northern part of the jaw is the Reşadiye Peninsula, which runs out to Datça, a mini-Marmaris of a port resort that makes the best base for visiting the wonderful Greco-Roman ruins at Knidos. The prettiest places to stay lie just inland from the sea in Eski (Old) Datça while the most unabashedly luxurious hotel is the Mehmet Ali Ağa Konağı, a gloriously restored Ottoman mansion also inland in the pinprick settlement of Reşadiye. In summer, boats cruise to Knidos and Simi and there's a ferry to carry you north to Bodrum without backtracking.

The southern part of the jaw forms the Bozburun Peninsula, which runs out to the isolated harbors of Bozburun and Söğüt via a string of small beach resorts at Hisarönü (great for watersports), Osmaniye and Selimiye, an almost circular bay that looks set to become the next big thing in tourism. The peninsula's largest resort is Turunç, another mini-Marmaris that is ideal for family holidays.


Marmaris

Marmaris and İçmeler

By far the biggest resort at the western end of the Turkish Mediterranean coast, Marmaris, glories in a reputation for brash and boozy holidays as typified by the night-time offerings of Barlar Sokak (Bar Street). Recently, however, it has smartened up its act, with some fine new waterside hotels replacing others that were definitely past their sell-by date. A small 16th-century castle forms the centerpiece of a picturesque quarter immediately behind the harbor.

In summer, water taxis skim across the bay to İçmeler, which is not much more than a resort extension of Marmaris without the large bazaar and residential quarter of the older town. Better beaches and bathing opportunities are available on daily cruises to the offshore islands and Cleopatra's Beach, or on excursions east to Dalyan and sandy İztuzu beach.

Dalyan and Sarıgerme

Midway between Marmaris and Fethiye, Dalyan has everything going for it with its tranquil riverside setting overlooked by picturesque, mini-temple-shaped Carian tombs signposting the way to the impressive ruins of ancient Kaunos and with a flotilla of boats waiting to ferry visitors upriver to the beach at İztuzu. It's a great place to take a holiday if your tastes run to something less frenetic than Marmaris.

East of Dalyan and accessible by minibus from Ortaca is Sarıgerme where a lovely stretch of sandy beach has been protected by pushing most of the hotel development inland.


Ölüdeniz

Fethiye

Fethiye is a marvelous place to stay with an excellent mix of hotels in all price ranges, a splendid harbor, slight archeological remains dating back to Lycian and Roman times and a rambling bazaar that incorporates a market where you pick your fish, sit down at one of the surrounding restaurants and wait to have it cooked for you.

Fethiye also makes the perfect base for visiting lots of nearby attractions including the long stretches of sandy beach at Ölüdeniz where hang-gliding off nearby Baba Dağı (Mt. Baba) is almost de rigueur. At Kayaköy you can explore the ruins of the abandoned Greek village of Levissi that provided the inspiration for Louis de Berniere's novel, "Birds Without Wings," while the ruins at Xanthos and the Letoon further east form one of Turkey's UNESCO-listed World Heritage Sites. Cruises from Fethiye will carry you to the Sunday market at Göcek, a favorite with the yachting fraternity, and to Butterfly Valley, which is more of a hit with backpackers.

Kaş and Kalkan

The twin resorts of Kaş and Kalkan, midway between Fethiye and Antalya, offer complimentary attractions. Kalkan is low on historical monuments but does have lots of charming cafes and restaurants in bougainvillea-draped houses overlooking the harbor. Kaş, on the other hand, boasts an ancient theater and impressive Lycian tombs scattered about town to supplement a range of hotels and pensions to suit all pockets alongside the upscale shops of pretty Uzun Çarşı.
Boat trips from Kaş cruise to Kaleköy, one of Turkey's prettiest villages, with a ruined castle sitting atop a hill running up from a glorious, fish-restaurant-ringed harbor overlooking the submerged remains of a Lycian settlement. Day cruises also take visitors to the attractive Greek island of Kastellorizo (Meis). Both Kaş and Kalkan make great bases for visiting the ruins of a basilican church at Demre (Kale) which claims to have been the last resting place of St. Nicholas -- the original Father Christmas -- and to Patara, which has one of the finest stretches of sand in all of Turkey, with Lycian and Roman ruins set back behind the dunes as a wonderful added extra.

Olympos, Çiralı and Adrasan

Olympos and Çiralı are non-identical twin resorts in the Beydağları National Park west of Antalya. Olympos, with its famous “treehouses” -- mainly cabins actually -- is super popular with backpackers while Çiralı finds favor with older travelers, especially those of an environmentally conscious frame of mind. Both resorts offer access to the mysterious, inextinguishable flames on the mountainside known since ancient times as the Chimaera and both offer access via a lovely beach to the ruins of ancient Olympos, still half-buried in thick undergrowth.

Adrasan is harder to get to and less developed although it does feature a fine line in restaurants where you eat at tables set up over a river. All three resorts are close to the Olympos Teleferik, a cable car that goes up the flanks of Tahtalı Dağı (Mt. Tahtalı) that is most easily reached if you have a private car.

Antalya

Like Fethiye, Antalya has everything going for it as a holiday resort. Action is mainly centered on the town's beaches of Lara and Konyaaltı, although many people prefer to stay in all-inclusive holiday-village developments in nearby satellites such as Kemer, Beldibi and Belek, the latter especially popular with golfers. Independent travelers tend to head straight for Kaleiçi, the walled inner city that features a fine choice of hotels and pensions in restored or imitation Ottoman mansions within easy reach of a lovely harbor.

The Antalya Museum showcases finds from many local archeological sites and is worth a visit either before or after touring the ruins at Perge, Side and Aspendos, the latter home to a restored ancient theater that forms the centerpiece of the annual Aspendos Opera and Ballet Festival. Even more beautiful are the mountainside ruins of Termessos and the beachside ruins of Phaselis, currently threatened by a planned hotel development. From Antalya, many people also venture east to Köprülü Kanyon to join thousands of others in a flurry of whitewater rafting.

Side and Alanya

The last sizeable package-holiday resorts on the Mediterranean coast lie east of Antalya in Side, where the hotels and pensions wrap themselves round extensive and impressive Roman ruins and overlook a lovely stretch of sandy beach, and in Alanya, where beaches are severed from the hotels by the busy coast road but where impressive Selçuk ruins look out to sea from the hilltop and at shore level an old Selçuk shipyard has been beautifully restored. Recently work has begun on regenerating some of the crumbling Ottoman housing stock to provide Alanya with some unexpected boutique hotels.

Anamur

East of Alanya the motion-sickness-inducing coastal road winds its way to Anamur, a small beach resort more popular with Turks than foreigners but offering the best access to the ruins of the abandoned Byzantine site at Anamarium and to the remains of impressive Mamure Kalesi, both sites on beaches.

Kızkalesi

Nearing the Greater Adana conurbation, Kızkalesi is also more popular with Turkish tourists but dominates a fine stretch of sandy beach with the ruined “Maiden's Castle” floating picturesquely offshore. If you want to explore the many ruins in this area, including the dramatic remains of Kanlıdivane and the more delicate ruins of Uzuncaburç-Olba Kızkalesi probably makes the best base.

Adana

Turkey's fourth-largest city is an unlikely holiday destination for anyone, although some might want to use it as a base for visiting Tarsus, an increasingly attractive town with much more than its associations with St. Paul to offer. The small beach resort south of Adana at Yumurtalık boasts an offshore “Maiden's Castle” on a smaller scale than the one at Kızkalesi. It, too, might make a base for visiting Tarsus if you don't mind having to backtrack through Adana.

Keywords: turkish mediterranean , travel

Source: http://www.todayszaman.com/news-342654-coasting-3-the-turkish-mediterranean.html 

FORBES - Why You Should Be Smart And Visit Turkey This Year

Istanbul always dazzles; that’s a given. The combination of iconic landmarks like the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, the maze like Grand Bazaar and Spice Market with up to the minute clubs and restaurants gives this city an undeniable exotic/historic/cutting edge buzz. And it’s always improving.

Click for full photo gallery: Why You Should Go to Turkey This Year

The Four Seasons Sultanahmet was a standout when it opened in 1996, a luxe hotel in a former prison around the corner from Topkapi Palace, and it still is. But in September, they’re opening the terrace, redone in Ottoman sultan style, with its standout views overlooking the Hagia Sophia to non-guests. Having a glass of champagne while watching the lights click on the domes and minarets of this Ottoman/Byzantine beauty is an atmospheric way to start off the night. Tevkifhane Sokak No. 1, Sultanahmet, http://www.fourseasons.com/istanbul


Nearby, the most sybaritic way to start the day is in an elegant hamam reopened last year after a $10 million restoration wiped away decades of disrepair and an ignoble stint as a carpet shop. The Ayasofya Hurrem Sultan Hamam built in 1556 for a famous temptress, Roxelana, the former slave who became the harem favorite and then the wife of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent , has to look even better than in her time: gleaming marble, gently splashing fountains, a labyrinth of corridors, flickering candles. And an attendant to gently lather , scrub, massage and rinse you with warm water, wrapping you in fluffy towels and taking you by the hand to walk you from station to station. You feel like a five year old being tended by a loving nursemaid. Just be glad that you’re not a prospective bride being examined by her future mother in law, as was the practice originally. (Cankurtaran Mah. Bab-ı Hümayün Cad. No.1; 90-212-517-35-35 )


Down the street from the frenzied 61 lanes containing 3000 shops and stalls of the Grand Bazaar is a shopping experience at the other end of the scale: one of the most exquisite stores in town—or in any city in Europe. Armaggan is a four level emporium dedicated to recreating the finest Turkish crafts and elevating them to an elite level. Buttery leather goods, diamonds in unique, modern designs, hand woven silks, marble, silver and porcelain objets d’art and, of course, carpets–everything is made by their artisans and sold in a store so effortlessly stylish that I wanted to live there. It also has a restaurant Nar, that features daily or weekly changing, market driven menus of classic Antatolian and Anatolian dishes created with artisan ingredients. Food for a shopping break that’s as exquisite as the merchandise. (Nuruosmaniye Caddesi, No:65 +90 212 522 44 33, http://www.armaggan.com/en/)


Art is also a theme at Casa dell’Arte, a family mansion turned exquisite 12 suite boutique hotel in Torba, near the Aegean resort town of Bodrum. The owners, the Buyukkusoglu family, have a museum quality contemporary art collection adorning the sleek, white spaces. They also recently started an artist in residence program, bringing young artists in from around the world for workshops, in which hotel guests can also participate. The house also has a private beach and three yachts that guests can charter, as well as a separate 37 suite family resort in which children are allowed, the art exhibited is by the young artists and any of it can be purchased. Torba Mahallesi, İnönü Caddesi No: 66 Torba http://www.casadellartebodrum.com/contactform.php (And while in the area, go into Bodrum to the intimate Campanella Bar but make sure that sultry torch singer Gokce Yildir is performing that night. Even if you don’t understand Turkish, her singing will move you. Cumhuriyet Caddesi, Eastern Bay, 0252 316 5302.)


Turkey is known for its antiquities and ruins of ancient cities but one important one was revealed to the public for the first time on May 20 after years of excavations, restoration and truckloads of sand removal (steady breezes blow the sand from the 7 ½ mile long nearby beach onto the ruins). The semicircle Parliament Building of the Lycian League in Patara, which dates back to 1500 B.C., was the inspiration for the layout of the U.S. Congress, as the system of elected representatives, the first in history, served as inspiration for the framers of the U.S. Constitution and it’s an imposing sight, as are the Roman theater and the colonnaded streets. (The best guide : Tolga Kirilen, an archeologist by education, at Equinox Travel in Antalya,http://www.equinox.com.tr/)


Historic sights of a different kind are on view in Cappadocia: the jagged stone formations called fairy chimneys —towers, obelisks and needles, some over 100 feet high- created through centuries of weather erosion. The landscape is pure fairy tale, and most of all at daybreak, drifting silently in a hot air balloon over the otherworldly terrain of the Goreme Valley. (One of the best: Royal Balloon, http://www.royalballoon.com). And at night, sleeping in a hilltop hotel composed of caves makes the experience come alive. (Argos in Cappadocia, http://argosincappadocia.com/EN/) View slideshow to see 10 top Turkish experiences.

Discovering İstanbul’s hidden treasures

Ifly journalist Mike Raanhuis notes that İstanbul is still not a very common destination and therefore has many hidden treasures to write about.

Much of any airplane trip is spent killing time in eager anticipation of arriving at your desired destination, sometimes by watching a movie, sometimes by simply flipping through an in-flight magazine.

These magazines usually feature articles on the airline's various destinations, accompanied by beautiful photography and lavish page design, making for a thoroughly enjoyable read. And every so often you gain new insights about a certain location, be it a city or an entire country, as the magazine takes you on a journey to discover the hidden treasures a travel reporter has uncovered for you to find once you touch down. Today's Zaman sat down with one such reporter, Dutch journalist Mike Raanhuis, who concluded such a treasure hunt in İstanbul on Thursday for Royal Dutch Airlines' (KLM) iFly Magazine. Who chooses the destinations Raanhuis will write about? Does he get to decide himself? “Not really,” he was quick to answer, “Although I did hand in a list at the beginning of this year.” “This time around, the decision to do a story on İstanbul was made by the editorial staff of iFly Magazine,” he said. When Raanhuis came to İstanbul once before, he did not have the opportunity to get a thorough idea of the city. “I was here for just 24 hours earlier this year, so I didn't get much of a chance to see the city. I did do a Bosporus tour, which was very impressive,” Raanhuis recalled. The prospect of returning to İstanbul was thus very exciting for the Dutch journalist, as his previous visit left him curious. “In my opinion İstanbul is not a very common destination yet, which means there is still a lot for people to discover here. More so than, say, in Paris, where it is very hard to find those hidden treasures that you look for when you do an article about a city,” he explained. So what makes an article? What is Raanhuis' mission when he sets out on behalf of iFly Magazine? According to Raanhuis, that mission is twofold, as he has to balance the requirements of iFly Magazine's format, which means the article should feature some of a city's cultural aspects as well as featuring a culinary component, while showcasing the modern face of the city, with trying to give readers his personal take. “I want to inspire the readers,” he explains, adding: “I want to be able to show readers something they haven't seen before, or a part of the city they would not have considered going to, had it not been for my article.” What then is his secret for inspiring his readers? In order to inspire, Raanhuis needs to be inspired himself. “That's why I try and talk to locals,” he tells us. “To get their advice on where to go, to have them guide me through their city. It has taken me to places where not many tourists have gone before, which ties in with one of the things iFly Magazine sets out to achieve, which is to surprise even the more seasoned travelers and visitors of a given city, in this case İstanbul.” What has Raanhuis been told to go and see by the İstanbul locals? A whole variety of things, as it turns out. It depended, however, on who he talked to. “The manager of my hotel recommended I go to Bebek and have breakfast there, after which I should just stroll along the shores of the Bosporus. Or to roam the streets of Galata, where, apparently, the best hamburgers in the city are served. Another person suggested I visit Moda and check out Bağdat Caddesi in Kadıköy,” he elaborated. But does Raanhuis solely take the advice of locals? “No, I also do research at home before leaving. You have to, of course, as it helps a lot to get a better understanding of where I will be going. Last night, for instance, I had dinner at a fabulous restaurant [Sunset Grill & Bar] that I had picked myself because of its view and the very good reviews of its dishes.” In trying to put together his schedule for İstanbul, Raanhuis encountered efficiency's greatest foe in İstanbul: traffic. “I did not expect İstanbul to be so big or the traffic so heavy,” he says, laughing. “But seriously, I did a lot of great things. I visited Moda, where I took some really nice photographs. Dinner was also amazing, as I said. I strolled through Cihangir, had tea there and walked over to Tünel, exploring all those little streets that snake through the neighborhood. I ended up on some roof terrace [Balkon İstanbul], which was recommended to me when I talked to some locals at a bar. Those are the things I look for, suggestions like that. The next morning I went to Sultanahmet to take some pictures at a hamam, which is very unusual and I was lucky to have been given permission to do so. It did mean, however, that I had to be there at six in the morning [sighs]. On the other hand, that meant I had time to visit the fish market in Kadıköy. The afternoon I spent at both the Spice Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar.” We told Raanhuis that the Spice Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar aren't really what one would call hidden treasures. Doesn't that conflict with his earlier statements? “I have to balance the known and the unknown,” he explains. “That is why, for instance, I chose not to go to the Galata Tower or do another Bosporus tour. And whatever your opinion on Sultanahmet, tourists are bound to end up there anyway so I might as well try and find some of the lesser known sites there, too, or highlight elements of familiar sights such as the Grand Bazaar, and put them in a new perspective,” the journalist said. As Raanhuis made for his plane we asked him what, in his opinion, makes a city trip a successful one. “For me personally it would be when a city captures my imagination, when it gets under my skin. On a professional level I would say that my trip is a success if the article manages to surprise even our more seasoned travelers.” Mike Raanhuis is an independent journalist and photographer. He has written features for KLM's iFly Magazine, various lifestyle magazines and car magazines. On top of that he conducts interviews and does corporate photography. His work can be seen on his website, www.miketekstenbeeld.nl iFly Magazine is the largest digital magazine in the Netherlands, published by KLM and available in a multitude of languages. It is read by some 1.5 million KLM customers and strives to offer its readers a “unique and authentic view on the most special destinations, people, cultures, business opportunities and international lifestyle.”