what do you know about turkey

• Istanbul is the only city in the world located on two continents, Europe and Asia. In its thousands of years of history, it has been the capital of three great empires - Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman.
• The oldest known human settlement in the world is located in Catalhöyük, Turkey, dating back to 6500 B.C. The earliest landscape painting in history was found on the wall of a Catalhöyük house, illustrating the volcanic eruption of nearby Hasandag
• Two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World stood in Turkey - the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus in Bodrum
• The Turks introduced coffee to Europ
• The first coins ever minted were done so at Sardis, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lycia, at the end of the seventh century B.C.
• The word "turquoise" comes from "Turk" meaning Turkish, and was derived from the beautiful colour of the Mediterranean Sea on the southern Turkish coast
• The Turks first gave the Dutch their famous tulips that started the craze for the flower in England and the Netherlands. Bulbs brought to Vienna from Istanbul in the 1500s were so intensely popular that by 1634 in Holland it was called "tulipmania". People invested money in tulips as they do in stocks today. This period of elegance and amusement in 17th century Turkey is referred to as "The Tulip Age."
• The most valuable silk carpet in the world is in the Mevlana Museum in Konya, Turkey. Marco Polo's journeys in the thirteenth centuries took him here, and he remarked that the "best and handsomest of rugs" were to be found in Turkey.
• Many important events surrounding the birth of Christianity occurred in Turkey. St John, St Paul and St Peter all lived and prayed in southern Anatolia. Tradition has it that St John bought Virgin Mary to Ephesus after the Crucifixion, where she spent her last days in a small stone house (Meryemana Evi) on what is now Bülbüldağı (Mount Koressos). It remains a popular pilgrimage site for Christians to this day.
• Many archaeologists and biblical scholars believe Noah's Ark landed on Ağrı Dağı (Mount Ararat) in eastern Turkey
• The seven churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation are all found in Turkey: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea
• A cave known today as the Grotto of St Peter, or Church of St Peter, is believed to be where the apostle Peter preaches when he visited Antioch (Antakya, in southern Turkey). It is widely considered to be one of the earliest Christian houses of worship. In 1963, the papacy designated the site as a place of pilgrimage and recognised it as the world's first cathedral. Every year on June 29, a special service held at the church, is attended by Christians from around the world.
• Anatolia is the birthplace of many historic figures and legends such as the poet Homer, King Midas, Herodotus (the father of history) and St Paul the Apostle. Homer was born in Izmir on the west coast of Turkey. He depicted Troy in his epic Iliad
• St Nicholas known as Santa Claus today, was born and lived in Demre (Myra) on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. The village contains the famous Church of St Nicholas with the sarcophagus believed to be his tomb.
• The first man ever to fly was Turkish. Using two wings, Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi flew from the Galata Tower over the Bosphorus to land in Usküdar in the 17th century
• The famous Trojan War took place in western Turkey, around the site where a wooden statue of the Trojan Horse rests today.
• According to Turkish tradition, a stranger at one's doorstep is considered "a guest from God," and should be accommodated accordingly.
• Julius Caesar issued his celebrated proclamation, Veni, Vidi, Vici (“I came, I saw, I conquered”), in Turkey upon defeating the Pontus, a formidable kingdom in the Black Sea region of Turkey.
• Alexander the Great conquered a large territory in what is now Turkey, and also cut the Gordion Knot in the Phrygian capital (Gordium), not far from Turkey's present-day capital (Ankara).
• Aesop - famous all over the world for his fables and parables - was born in Anatolia.
• Part of Turkey's southwestern shore was a wedding gift from Marc Antony to Cleopatra.
• The number of archaeological excavations going on in Turkey every year is at least 150.
• Writing was first used by people in ancient Anatolia. The first clay tablets - in the ruins of Assyrian Karum (a merchant colony) - date back to 1950 B.C.
• Leonardo da Vinci drew designs for a bridge over the Bosphorus, the strait that flows through Europe and Asia. (Although da Vinci’s bridge was never built, there are now two bridges over the Bosphorus.)
• In 1492, Sultan Beyazıd II, after learning about the expulsion of Jews, dispatched the Ottoman Navy to bring them safely to the Ottoman lands.
• Likewise, Jews expelled from Hungary in 1376, from Sicily early in the 15th century, from Bavaria in 1470, from Bohemia in 1542, and from Russia in 1881, 1891, 1897, and 1903 all took refuge in the Ottoman Empire.
• As was the case during the Bolshevik revolution, Turkey served as a safe passage and haven for those fleeing their native countries during World War II.
• Turkey was one of the few countries in the world to welcome Jewish refugees escaping the horrors of Nazism.
• During the Gulf War in 1991, Turkey welcomed nearly half a million Kurds from Northern Iraq. The Kurds were fleeing the danger posed by Saddam Hussein’s regime.
• Turkey provided homes for some 313,000 Bulgarian refugees of Turkish origin when they were expelled from their homelands in Bulgaria in 1989.
• The first recorded international treaty in the world was the Treaty of Kadesh between theHittite and Egyptian Empires, Hattusilis III and Ramses II, in c.1275 BC.
• The oldest known shipwreck on Earth was found and excavated in Uluburun near Kas, in the Mediterranean of Turkey.
• Istanbul has the historical building of Sirkeci Train Station. This was the last stop of the Simplon-Orient Express - "kings of trains and train of kings" - between Paris and Constantinople (Istanbul) from 1883 to 1977. Agatha Christie was one of the passengers of this famous train.
• The number of species of flowers in Turkey is approximately 9,000, of which 3,000 are endemic. In Europe for instance there are 11,500 species. This shows the richness of flora and fauna in Anatolia.
• Cherry was first introduced to Europe from Giresun (Northern Turkey)
• Turkey has hundreds beaches and marinas which have the "Blue Flag" (A European award for the best clean water) on the Mediterranean and Aegean