Did you know this before ?

• THE ONLY CITY IN THE WORLD LOCATED ON TWO CONTINENTS IS ISTANBUL WHICH HAS BEEN THE CAPITAL OF THREE GREAT EMPIRES - ROMAN, BYZANTINE AND OTTOMAN - FOR MORE THAN 2000 YEARS. 
• THE OLDEST KNOWN HUMAN SETTLEMENT, DATING BACK TO 6500 BC., IS IN ÇATALHÖYÜK, NEAR KONYA IN THE CENTRAL ANATOLIAN REGION OF TURKEY. THE EARLIEST LANDSCAPE PAINTING IN HISTORY EXISTS ON A WALL OF A ÇATALHÖYÜK HOUSE. IT SHOWS THE ERUPTION OF A VOLCANO, PROBABLY THAT OF NEARBY HASANDAG. 
• TWO OF THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD STOOD IN ANATOLIA: THE TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS AT EPHESUS AND THE MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNASSUS - BODRUM. 
• THE FIRST COINS WERE MINTED AT SARDIS, THE CAPITAL OF THE ANCIENT KINGDOM OF LYDIA IN WESTERN ANATOLIA, AT THE END OF THE 7 TH CENTURY BC. LYDIA IS THE FIRST KNOWN CIVILIZATION IN THE WORLD TO USE MONEY AS A MEANS OF EXCHANGE. 
• MANY IMPORTANT EVENTS IN THE BIRTH OF CHRISTIANITY OCCURRED IN TURKEY. APOSTLES ST. JOHN, ST. PAUL AND ST.PETER HAVE ALL LIVED AND PREACHED IN ANATOLIA. ABOUT THREE MILES AWAY IN THE FORESTED MOUNTAIN ABOVE EPHESUS IS THE HOUSE OF VIRGIN MARY (MERYEMANA EVI), A MODEST STONE HOUSE WHERE THE VIRGIN MARY LIVED HER LAST DAYS. IT IS BELIEVED THAT ST. JOHN BROUGHT MARY TO THIS SITE AFTER CHRIST'S CRUCIFIXION. VATICAN DECLARED THE HOUSE OF THE VIRGIN MARY A HOLY SITE IN 1967. 
• THE SEVEN CHURCHES MENTIONED IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION, THE LAST BOOK OF THE BIBLE, ARE ALL LOCATED IN ANATOLIA: EPHESUS, SMYRNA, PERGAMUM, THYATEIRA, SARDIS, PHILADELPHIA AND LAODICEA. 
• ANTIOCH, ONCE CALLED THE "QUEEN OF THE EAST" AND KNOWN AS THE THIRD LARGEST CITY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY. ST PAUL BEGAN HIS THREE MISSIONARY JOURNEYS FROM THERE AND IT WAS AT ANTIOCH THAT THE FOLLOWERS OF JESUS WERE FIRST CALLED CHRISTIANS. A CAVE KNOWN TODAY AS THE GROTTO OF ST. PETER OR THE CHURCH OF ST. PETER IS BELIEVED TO BE WHERE THE APOSTLE PETER PREACHED WHEN HE LIVED IN ANTIOCH. IN 1963, THE PAPACY DESIGNATED THE SITE AS A PLACE OF PILGRIMAGE AND ALSO RECOGNIZED IT AS THE WORLD'S FIRST CATHEDRAL.  
• ANATOLIA IS THE BIRTHPLACE OF MANY HISTORIC LEGENDS, SUCH AS: THE POWERFUL PHRYGIAN KING MIDAS, THE WORLD'S FIRST HISTORIAN HEREDOTUS AND ST PAUL, THE APOSTLE. ARCHEOLOGISTS FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA MUSEUM OPENED THE TOMB OF KING MIDAS IN 1957. THEY DISCOVERED SOME OF THE EARLIEST AND BEST PRESERVED WOODEN FURNITURE IN THE WORLD.  
• ST. NICHOLAS, KNOWN TODAY AS SANTA CLAUS, WAS BORN IN PATARA AND SERVED AS BISHOP OF MYRA (DEMRE) ON TURKEY'S MEDITERRANEAN COAST. IT IS BELIEVED THAT NICHOLAS DIED IN MYRA ON DECEMBER 6TH AT THE AGE OF 65. THE VILLAGE IS HOME TO THE FAMOUS CHURCH OF ST. NICHOLAS WHICH HOUSES A SARCOPHAGUS BELIEVED TO BE THE ORIGINAL TOMB OF ST. NICHOLAS.
   
• ACCORDING TO THE OLD TESTAMENT, THE PATRIARCH ABRAHAM WAS BORN IN SANLI URFA, A CITY IN SOUTHEAST TURKEY. THE CITY'S ANCIENT NAME WAS UR OR EDESSA. A CAVE THERE IS THOUGHT TO BE ABRAHAM'S BIRTHPLACE. IT HAS BECOME A PLACE OF PILGRIMAGE AND IS NOW SURROUNDED BY THE HALIL RAHMAN MOSQUE. 
• TROJAN WARS, DEPICTED IN HOMER'S EPIC ILIAD TOOK PLACE IN WESTERN TURKEY IN ABOUT 1200 BC. A SYMBOLIC WOODEN HORSE AT THE SITE COMMEMORATES THIS LEGENDARY WAR. 
• ACCORDING TO THE LEGEND OF THE GREAT FLOOD MENTIONED IN BOTH THE KORAN AND THE OLD TESTAMENT, NOAH'S ARK LANDED AT MOUNT ARARAT (AGRI DAGI) IN EASTERN ANATOLIA. FOR CENTURIES SCIENTIESTS HAVE LAUNCHED EXPEDITIONS ON THE MOUNTAIN'S SLOPES IN SEARCH OF THE REMAINS OF THE NOAH'S ARK. 
• THE WORD "TURQUOISE" COMES FROM "TURK" MEANING TURKISH, AND WAS DERIVED FROM THE BEAUTIFUL COLOR OF THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA ON THE SOUTHERN TURKISH COAST. 
• COFFEE WAS FIRST BROUGHT TO ISTANBUL FROM YEMEN IN THE 16TH CENTURY. IT WAS IN TURKEY THAT A NEW METHOD OF PREPARING GROUND COFFEE -NOW CALLED TURKISH COFFEE- WAS INVENTED AND TURKS INTRODUCED THIS NEW DRINK PREPARED IN THEIR OWN WAY TO EUROPE BY THE 17TH CENTURY. PIERRE LOTI, VICTOR HUGO, DUMAS, MOLIERE AND BALZAC ARE AMONG THOSE WHO ARE KNOWN TO HAVE ADMIRED TURKISH COFFEE. DRINKING COFFEE IS STILL AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF TURKISH CULTURE. 
• TULIPS WERE INTRODUCED TO HOLLAND FROM TURKEY BY OGIER GHISELIN DE BUSBECQ WHICH STARTED THE CRAZE FOR THE FLOWER IN THE NETHERLANDS AND ENGLAND. HE WAS THE AMBASSADOR OF CHARLES V TO THE COURT OF OTTOMAN EMPEROR SÜLEYMAN THE MAGNIFICENT IN 1554. 
• IT WAS FROM GIRESUN, A CITY ON THE BLACK SEA COAST OF TURKEY, THAT THE ROMAN GENERAL LUCULLUS EXPORTED THE FIRST CHERRY TREES TO EUROPE. GIRESUN IS A VARIATION OF THE ANCIENT NAME KERASUS, MEANING CITY OF CHERRIES, FROM THE GREEK WORD FOR CHERRY, KERASI. 

• PIRI REIS, WELL-KNOWN TURKISH CAPTAIN AND NAVIGATOR OF THE LATE 15TH CENTURY, PREPARED AND DREW THE MAP KNOWN TODAY AS "PIRI REIS MAP" IN THE CITY OF GALLIPOLI-TURKEY IN 1513. DRAWN ON GAZELLE HIDE, THIS MAP SHOWED THE THEN KNOWN PORTIONS OF THE WORLD: EUROPE, ASIA, AFRICA AND SUCH PARTS OF AMERICA AS HAD BEEN DISCOVERED. ERICH VON DANIKEN IN HIS FAMOUS BOOK "THE CHARIOTS OF THE GODS" ADVOCATES THAT HE WAS TAKEN TO AN AIRSHIP BY THE VISITORS FROM THE UNIVERSE TO SEE THE WORLD AND DREW THIS MAP WHICH RESEMBLES THE PHOTOS OF THE EARTH TAKEN FROM THE SATELLITES
  
  

• 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.
  

• Many archeologists and biblical scholars believe Noah's Ark landed on Agri Dagi (Mount Ararat) in eastern Turkey.
  

• 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.
  

• Homer was born in Izmir on the west coast of Turkey.  He depicted Troy in his epic Iliad.
  

• 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.
  

• The last home of the Virgin Mary is in Selçuk, Turkey.
  

• 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 Beyazid 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.(the world never kept its promise to help financialy)
  

• Turkey provided homes for some 313,000 Bulgarian refugees of Turkish origin when they were expelled from their homelands in Bulgaria in 1989.