Turkey is so beautiful that no matter which city you visit, you can have fun, and it isn’t an exaggeration to say that this country is full of stunning landscapes, tourist places and buildings so sophisticated that it isn’t possible to even collect all of them in one article.

The country is full of beautiful sights, but among all these beauties, there are many attractions that other parts of the world don’t have at all.

Today we want to introduce you to 8 of strange places in Turkey that are very popular with tourists, especially people who love exotic places.

In the continuation of this article, join us on a tour of 8 strange places in Turkey.

1- The Anatolian Mountains

The Anatolian Mountains, also known as the Pontic Mountains, are located in the northern part of Turkey.

The word Anatolia is actually a word written this way Anatoly and means the sunrise from the East.

The Anatolian Mountains goes from the Black Sea all the way to the east and the Aegean Sea in the west.

It may be interesting for you to know that these mountains were part of the Persian Empire during the time of the Achaemenid dynasty.

The length of this mountain range is 965 kilometers, which is a very large area. And this is the reason why the climate of the Anatolian Mountains varies significantly.

You may be in a place where the sun is shining, and somewhere else about 100 meters away you may encounter cold and foggy weather.

You can also find traces of life and people in this beautiful mountain range.

As the green space of this mountain has been receiving different people and tribes for many years, this has led to amazing and interesting works in these mountains.

2- Pamukkale

In Turkish, Pamukkale means cotton castle, and this name really applies to describing this natural attraction, Pamukkale is located in Denizli city in southern Turkey.

If we want to tell you about the exact location of Pamukkale, you will see a white peak at a height of about 2,700 meters and a width of about 600 meters above the Denizli Hills and on an area of ​​​​20 km of land, and this place will attract and amaze everyone!

It consists of a group of natural hot springs, which contain large amounts of calcium, which creates one of the strangest natural attractions in the world.

In Pamukkale, you will see uneven surfaces made of limestone, and of course in this region many sedimentary rocks were formed due to mineral deposits in hot springs, then turned into what resembled mountains of ice, looking like white terraces.

For this reason, the Pamukkale region is one of the most beautiful tourist destinations in Turkey and the world, not to mention that it has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

There are 17 hot springs with temperatures ranging from 95 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit.

The strange thing about Pamukkale is its strange shape that simply astonishes any viewer!

3- Cappadocia

In the third place, we want to present to you one of the strangest attractions in Turkey, it is Cappadocia.

In fact Cappadocia is located in the Nevsehir region near the capital Ankara, and thus it has interesting and unique features that make it more exotic and famous.

Cappadocia is one of the best places for hot air balloons, and this is the reason why the region thrives in tourism. Another advantage of Cappadocia is that it has an entire city underground.

During the excavation work on a construction project in the area something very strange was discovered.

Demolition workers in Cappadocia discovered a new area, the area was a collection of rooms and tunnels underground.

Numerous underground dwellings have been discovered in the area, including a gallery, church, waterway, reservoir, living rooms, kitchen, and even a café.

4- Topkapi Palace

Topkapi Palace in Istanbul is one of the most famous palaces in Al-Fatih, which is visited by millions of tourists for its historical importance.

The palace that was the residence of the Ottoman sultans today has become one of the most famous museums in Istanbul.

But what many visitors do not know is that it is said that spirits  and ghosts of the ancient kings who inhabited this palace frequent this palace.

As some employees said strange sounds come out at night from the palace like crying and groans and they are very scary.

So if you have a brave heart, visit this palace on your trip and explore it.

5- Perili Köşkü Palace

Perili Köşkü Palace Also known as Yusuf Ziya Pasha Palace, it is a charming and frightening palace at the same time, meaning in Turkish the palace of ghosts.

It is located near the castle of Rumeli Hisar within the Sariyer municipality in Istanbul, specifically under the second Bosphorus bridge, and the building dates back to 1911 AD.

Today, after more than a century, the palace serves as the headquarters of the Bursan Holding Company and the Bursan Museum of Contemporary Art.

The building consists of nine floors, with an area of ​​5,000 square meters. People called it this house because of the long delay in completion of its construction.

On some nights, you can hear the sounds of playing the piano.

So if you like adventure, we recommend that you visit this palace during your trip to Turkey.

6- Basilica Cistern

Basilica Cistern is located in the Fatih district of Istanbul, and it is one of the most famous buildings in Turkey.

This reservoir was built in the 6th century AD and was the main source of water supply in Istanbul.

What makes this reservoir scary and strange is that thousands of slaves lost their lives in order to build it.

Some city residents say that the spirits of these workers are still wandering in the place, and on some nights strange sounds are heard such as crying and screaming.

During your trip to Istanbul we recommend that you visit this strange and beautiful place.

7- Kayakoy village

A deserted and beautiful village full of destroyed houses, this quaint village is located near the famous Fethiye area.

This village was destroyed after a strong earthquake, displacing and killing many of its residents.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Kayakoy village was vibrant, with schools, churches and shops.

At the present time, the view of the village is scary and a bit strange.

We advise you to visit it, especially at sunset, you will see a charming and at the same time frightening and strange scene.

8- The historic city of Ephesus

Ephesus is an ancient city located on the western coast of Asia Minor in the Turkish province of Izmir.

One of the most vibrant cities in the ancient world throughout the ages, and the second largest in the Roman Empire, Ephesus became a Roman city in 133 BC.

The city is best known for the Temple of Artemis (built in 550 BC) which is actually one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and today only a few temple columns remain.

But there are still many landmarks that remind us of the city’s former glory, such as the Celsus Library which was the third largest library in the ancient world, and the Ephesus Theater with a capacity of more than 25,000 people.

The post 8 strange places you have to visit in Turkey appeared first on Move 2 Turkey.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “We show that we have protected the heritage of the ancestors by opening the Hagia Sophia for worship last year, putting the Great Camlica Mosque into service the previous year and holding the first Friday in the Taksim Mosque yesterday.”

President Erdogan sent a video message to the Ninth International Conquest Cup Program of the Archers Foundation.

Erdogan said: “My dear nation, dear children of Istanbul, our esteemed athletes, our dear guests, who met in Ok Maidani on the occasion of the Ninth International Conquest Cup.

I greet you all with my heartfelt feelings and loyalty, “and I hope that the 568th anniversary of the Istanbul conquest will be useful.

Erdogan said, expressing his gratitude to every member of the blessed army, especially the conqueror Sultan Mehmed Han, who conquered Istanbul and made it the Eternal City of the nation.

“I congratulate all our martyrs, veterans and heroes who sacrificed their lives without blinking for this land to be our home for a thousand years.

I wish the best of luck to our 200 athletes who came from more than 30 countries, especially in Turkey, and participated in the Archery Cup competitions.

I would like to express my special thanks to our archers who brought the spirit of conquest to the present with their arrows saying “Hey Hack”.

“We protect trust by developing and beautifying our Istanbul”

Expressing that the competition is not just a sports competition, Erdogan said, it is a cultural festival in which the meaning of the great turning point that opened and closed the ages is transmitted from generation to generation.

“Although we cannot realize this with the enthusiasm we desire due to the epidemiological conditions, I believe that the excitement of the conquest embodied in the Cup of Fath surrounded the hearts of all our youth, and we show that we protect the ancestral heritage by performing the first Friday.”

With its streets and bridges, Marmaray and the Eurasia tunnel, metro and parks, and most of all, we protect our confidence by developing and beautifying Istanbul through our many services that we provide directly to our people.

In this context, we admire the activities carried out within the Okçular Foundation, which is the First Fatih Foundation in Istanbul.

Which aims to keep the memory of our ancestors and our ancient traditions alive and to bring our youth together with sports. “

“We are building a great and strong Turkey step by step with our youth”

President Erdogan said, noting that the youth inside the institution are proud of their successful work starting from Malazhert to Istanbul, and from there to events abroad.

“We, with our youth, express the courage of Alp Arslan in Malazgirt, Osman’s dream, Gazi in Sogut, Fatih in Istanbul.

“We are building a great and strong Turkey step by step by living the revolution of the Turkish Republic, the power of Gazi Mustafa Kemal in Ankara, and the will to protect its independence on July 15th.

And these young people are the ones who will raise our civilization that we installed on these lands. We made it our home by watering them with our blood and sweat and bringing it to the top.

Today, we are repeating the saga we wrote with archers yesterday with our unmanned aerial vehicles, our programs, our production and our exports.”

President Erdogan said that they implemented all of this, taking into account the importance that grandparents attach to archery and shooting that they attribute to it, and President Erdogan concluded his speech as follows:

“The inability to enter Okemedani without ablution, and the fact that the competitions must start with Basmalah and the ability to use stocks in the exams.

Observance of morals and personality also shows us the way we should follow today.

A tree that has lost its roots cannot survive, and a society that has lost its ties to the roots of its faith and culture cannot survive for long.

We expect our young people to practice sports and traditional arts such as archery, horse riding, sword, calligraphy, lighting, and all kinds of social and cultural activities today with this understanding.

We look to our future with more confidence as we see our young people thinking mentally, feeling their heart and building with taste.

With these feelings, I hope the ninth International Conquest Cup will succeed, I would like to express my gratitude to all of our young people who have taken care of our traditional sports branches in your presence.

I congratulate from the bottom of my heart all the athletes from all over the world who are participating in the Conquest Cup. Once again, I greet you all with affectionate respect.”

The post “Fatah” message to the Turkish people from President Erdogan appeared first on Move 2 Turkey.

Istanbul has become one of the most attractive tourist destinations in the world, a city that has a unique blend of historical and modern attractions. Where when you walk in the alleys of this city, sometimes you see minarets and domes of ancient mosques, and sometimes elegant and modern buildings, which gives you a special magic you have not seen before.

If you travel to this city or if you are interested in historical monuments, know that you have chosen a very suitable destination, as you will find a variety of ancient tourist areas in Istanbul. You may not have the time to visit all of them, and therefore in this article we want to present to you one of the most beautiful sights of the city, which is the submerged palace or the Basilica Cistern.

A historical look at the Basilica Cistern

The Basilica Cistern was built by order of the Byzantine Emperor Justin I in the year 532 AD, and this Cistern occupies an area of ​​138 meters in length and 6.64 meters wide covering an area of ​​about 1000 square meters.

This Cistern is able to absorb 80 thousand cubic meters of water, and it should be noted that a lot of effort has been made in building this historic building, with 336 marble pillars of 9 meters in length in 28 rows.

Most of these columns are said to be made from recycled materials from very old buildings, such as the remaining materials from an important landmark building such as Hagia Sophia or from various parts of the Byzantine Empire, for the purpose of cost saving.

One of the most prominent examples of this recycling is the reuse of famous Medusa statues as a base for columns on the northwestern side of the Cistern.

The important point in the Basilica Cistern is that the common people believe that this cathedral was built around the third or fourth century BC and was destroyed immediately after the destruction of Constantinople in the revolts of Nica (532 AD).

The reconstruction of the cathedral’s Cistern was on the agenda of the Emperor Justinian’s restoration project, but unlike the Cistern, the cathedral itself no longer exists today.

Learn about the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul

Basilica Cistern “Yerebatan Sarnıcı” in Turkish means the reservoir that sank in the ground and is located 150 meters southwest of Hagia Sophia, it is important to know that it’s one of the most wonderful buildings in Istanbul.

It is worth noting that there are hundreds of old water cistern hidden under the city of Istanbul, which in the distant past was a source of water supply for citizens who lived in these areas, and the largest of these buildings is the Basilica Cistern.

This cietern is located below a site that was previously a Roman church, it was called the Basilica Cistern, and this great and historical vault was named after this church, which was once located on the hill of Constantinople (Istanbul Today), not to mention that the Basilica literal meaning is “a place of worship” and indicates Historical texts to the great churches of the Roman Empire, which you will see its magnificence and grandeur by visiting this magical place.

When you walk alongside these columns and the corridors of this mysterious cellar, a strange feeling captures your attention, with the upside down Medusa heads of these columns! That old legendary character. As you will then realize the great historical and archaeological value of Istanbul.

How was the Basilica Cistern discovered?

As mentioned above, the Basilica Cistern was not used in the Ottoman Empire, and until this vault, it was forgotten for a long time. Of course due to the instability of anything in that period, this forgetfulness continued only until the middle of the sixteenth century and specifically in 1545 AD, in that time Geologist Petrus Gyllius traveled to Constantinople at the request of the first king in France to research ancient Roman manuscripts.

One day Gyllius was wandering around an alleyway near Hagia Sophia, where he heard about a local well called Basilica Cistern. He searched for the locals who claimed they were taking their water from a nearby large basement, and sometimes fishing there. This was the first spark in the mind of Gyllius.

Gyllius, he was very curious about these words, as he went after these allegations to find out what was going on, entered the wooden building there and went to the basilica basement, after going down the stairs of this very cold cellar. He was surprised by the greatness of this place, where he saw many marble pillars, then “Petrus Gyllius” boarded a boat to discover as much as possible about this cellar.

Gyllius then collected all the information and details. He published it later about his journey.

How to go to the Basilica Cistern

As mentioned above, Basilica Cistern is located in the center of Istanbul and in Sultanahmet district, near the famous Hagia Sophia Museum.

If you choose Hagia Sophia first to visit, head to the museum southwest and you can reach the reservoir in just 5 minutes on foot.

So as you can see, the road to the Basilica Cistern is very easy and it can be easily reached from anywhere in the city, by bus and taxi, and you can also use the Istanbul metro line or the tram if you like.

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