Holiday and tourism industry serving in alternative institutions, between 4-7 February 2010 to meet in Istanbul. Alternatively, the tourism industry on behalf of the first in this organization has 2 basic purposes. First Umrah Organizations, second, the promotion of alternative Islamic holiday hotel.
Visiting the Holy Umrah
Realization is a first …
Born in a place …
Eyüp Sultan Mosque right at the … Read the rest of this entry »
On the eve of World War II Frenchman Francois Balsan, in his own words a “buyer of wool for a very important textile firm,” set out from ?stanbul for the eastern provinces of Turkey.
Balsan was very fortunate to receive permission from the Turkish Government to visit the eastern borderlands of Turkey in that period, as he had been told in an initial enquiry to the Turkish Consulate in Paris that “regarding the visit … to the Van district, I hasten to inform you that … the districts detailed in your letter are incorporated in a prohibited area.” Republican Turkey was naturally suspicious of representatives of imperialist France who, following the defeat of the Ottoman Turks in World War I, had sought to incorporate parts of southeastern Anatolia into their overseas possessions. What’s more, the eastern provinces had been rocked by a series of rebellions by the region’s dominant ethnic group, the Kurds. The last and most serious, in the mountainous Alevi Kurdish district of Dersim (modern Tunceli), had only just been quelled. Read the rest of this entry »
Topkap? Saray? and Dolmabahçe Saray? may be the best known of ?stanbul’s imperial palaces, but they’re also the ones where you can expect the longest queues and steepest admission charges.
Fortunately, the 19th-century Ottoman sultans also adorned the city with a number of secondary palaces and hunting lodges, including the beautiful Beylerbeyi Saray? and the Küçüksu Kasr? on the Asian side of the Bosporus. Most of their hideaways were, however, on the European side, where the most important was Y?ld?z Saray? (palace), a surprisingly little-visited complex just inland from the Ç?ra?an Palace Kempinski Hotel in Be?ikta?. Read the rest of this entry »
Turkey is a country where people who want to spend their vacation can find different facilities and attractions. There are many holiday options in Turkey, which has hosted many civilizations throughout centuries. Mediterranean Region, on the south of Turkey, is the locomotive of sea, sand and sun tourism.
Turkey is a country where people who want to spend their vacation can find different facilities and attractions. There are many holiday options in Turkey, which has hosted many civilizations throughout centuries. Mediterranean Region, on the south of Turkey, is the locomotive of sea, sand and sun tourism. Read the rest of this entry »
“Summer had cooked the sea into a warm blue soup. The hot beach pebbles scorched the soles of my feet, and the withered pines along the sand dunes were rustling with a maddening uproar of cicada.
I looked up to where a patch of snow was twinkling on a Taurus peak and decided I could stand the sea no longer. Up in the mountains … were brisk air and cold nights, grass and snow-fed runnels, and the thrill of journeying from one high saddle to the other.” Read the rest of this entry »
As we enjoy the last few days of spring, the days where one can enjoy nature along with mild weather are numbered.
It’s never very difficult to find spots throughout Turkey where you feet can really get re-acquainted with the earth and where your lungs can load up on oxygen. Everyday, interest in the environment and sensitivity about how we should treat the land increases here. Some of the most important signs of this are the projects that are aimed at protecting the environment. About a year ago, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry started up the “One Nature Park for Every Province” project, and now this particular project is beginning to show its first fruits. Almost 10 different forests and state-held lands have been declared nature parks. One of the last plots of forested land to fall into the official nature park category was the Kap?cam Nature Park, which opened at the end of last year in Kahramanmara?. But what conditions does a “nature park” need to meet in Turkey in order to be able to earn that title? Professor Dr. Mustafa Kemal Yal?nk?l?ç, general manager of the nature protection and national parks department of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry notes the importance of the blend of water, plants and animals that constitute these geographies. Read the rest of this entry »
People who board ferries to travel from ?stanbul to Bursa run into an old ?stanbul veteran on the Güzelyal? shores — the veteran Turan Emeksiz ferryboat.
Looking at the smoke rising from its chimney stacks, this ferryboat appears ready to carry people to various destinations. But in fact, this veteran ferry is anchored on the shoreline and now serves as a hotel-restaurant, the Turan Emeksiz Hotel. Read the rest of this entry »
Isabella Bird reached Persia (Iran) by way of Baghdad in the winter of 1890. Although she was already 60 years old and had suffered from spinal problems, depression and insomnia most of her life, Bird took hardship in her stride.
She warmed-up for her journey through the remote and unstable easternmost fringes of the declining Ottoman Empire by spending three months living and traveling with the nomadic Bakhtiari tribe. Then, having purchased a fine horse she affectionately named Boy, Bird crossed the vaguely defined frontier onto Ottoman Turkish soil somewhere on the plain of Gawar (modern Yüksekova, in the very southeast of modern Turkey, and still a major transit route to Iran). Read the rest of this entry »
I don’t know when the last time you headed over toward the Galata area was, but you definitely get a feeling for how much more popular these back streets are now and how full they are with cafes, restaurants and people when you ascend to the top of the magnificent Galata Tower and look down.
In fact, the narrow streets that wind around the tower are home to plenty of shopping places frequented by both locals and foreign visitors. The most significant signs of the restoration going on here are the buildings being renovated, the increase in the number of stores and the cafeterias popping up like mushrooms. When this transformation is complete, it seems that Galata will be getting much of its energy simply from the crowds of visitors coming to see it. Read the rest of this entry »
On K?nal?ada absolute silence reigns. There’s not a car on the road and barely a human being stirring. Just weeks before the tourist season kicks in on the Princes’ Islands, the streets belong to the cats and dogs, but every now and then a curious plopping noise emanates from near the seashore.
Wandering down to investigate, I find that it’s being caused by the seagulls and crows who are plucking purple mussels from the water’s edge, flying up into the air, then hurling them onto the promenade below to crack the shells and obtain access to the defenseless creatures inside them. Read the rest of this entry »