Turkey Travel Guide

Introduction and basics
Turkey has multiple identities, poised uneasily between East and West: mosques coexist with churches, and Roman remnants crumble alongside ancient Hittite sites. The country is an explicitly secular republic, though the majority of its people are Muslim, and is an immensely rewarding place to travel, not least because of the people, whose reputation for friendliness and hospitality is richly deserved.

The old imperial capital Istanbul, straddling the Bosphorus straits and the Marmara coast, is a heady mix of the European and Oriental. Flanking Istanbul on opposite sides of the Sea of Marmara are the two earlier Ottoman capitals, Bursa and Edirne, and the former Byzantine capital of Iznik, with, just beyond, the World War I battlefields of the Gelibolu peninsula (Gallipoli). Moving south, small country towns are swathed in olive groves, while the area is littered with ancient sites, including Assos, Pergamon and Ephesus. Beyond the functional city of Izmir, the Aegean coast is Turkey at its most developed, with large numbers drawn to resorts such as Bodrum and Marmaris. Beyond here, the aptly named Turquoise Coast is home to more resorts, such as Fethiye, Kaş, Olympos and Xanthos, with its remnants of the Lycians, and Antalya, one of Turkey's fastest-growing cities. Inland from here is the spectacular Cappadocia, with its famous rock churches, subterranean cities and landscape studded with cave dwellings. Further north, Ankara, Turkey's capital, is a planned city whose contrived Western feel gives some indication of the priorities of the modern Turkish Republic.
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