Turkey Travelogue

The only thing that was missing from our last (and near perfect) Australia trip was my long history monologues. Hence, for the next trip, I decided to over compensate by picking Turkey, a land with multiple, independent histories needing several lengthy podcasts to plod through. First, there is the History of the Turks and how they ended up here starting from their homeland somewhere in the vicinity of Mongolia. Second, there is the history of what was happening in the present day Turkey when the Turks were making their way here i.e. the History of Byzantium. Then, there are the bits that happened before and after and with the likes of Göbekli Tepe, the "before" bit is quite a bit longer than the entirety of the Roman Empire. As if these weren’t enough, history was being created as we made our way to Turkey. The wettest July in history almost ruined our trip with our flight dropping us with bare minimum time to make our connection to Kayseri.

Kayseri is the regional capital of Cappadocia, the land of fantastic landscapes, more magical than any fairy tale and more surreal than any Dalí painting. Kayseri was one of the several Casearias that the Romans founded all over their vast empire. Given that the letter "C" was always hard in Latin, Kayseri is phonetically closer to the original Roman pronunciation. The soft volcanic rocks of the region was home to several rock-cut edifices dating back millennia. The first ones were carved during the times of Hittites, one of the great Bronze Age kingdoms, famously fighting the great Ramesses to a draw at Kadesh. Several churches and monasteries were created during the height of the Byzantine empire. Later, bigger underground cities were created in order to serve as refuge from the incessant Arab and Turkish raids during the later half of the first millennium AD.

We spent three nights in Cappadocia in its most famous tourist hub, Göreme. It is the perfect base for a quick day trip to Cappadocia and also for a longer stay with forays deeper into the region. It is home to one of the two absolute must-sees in Cappadocia: the Göreme Open-air Museum, a clutch of astonishing rock-cut churches that houses the best and the most vibrant frescoes in the entire region. Do not miss the pretty little El Nazar Church that one can reach by a kilometre of off-roading with the turn-off a kilometre before the museum. The other must-see is exploring one of the several underground cities of Cappadocia and the largest and deepest of these is located in Derinkuyu, an hour by road from the heart of Göreme. As if fresco filled millennia-old churches and breathtaking landscapes aren’t enough, Cappadocia is also the premier hot-air balloon destination on the planet. If you are going to get on the balloon only once in your life, it has to be here. I mean, literally here in Göreme as that is where the balloons take off from. The quickest pilgrimage to Cappadocia would be spending two nights in Göreme with the day split between the land (i.e. the museum), the underground (city) and the air. That would be enough to give an average person the most memorable day of their lifetimes.

But we had three days, a rental car and a guide book that told us where to go. So we could explore a bit more. The best of these bits was the half-day walk along the Ihlara Valley. This tree-lined valley with several isolated rock-cut churches where you are guaranteed to find yourself alone, with a lovely tea stall at half way point dishing out delicious gözlemes and fresh orange juices, was easily one of the best walks we have done so far in our travels. One other walk we did was the highly recommended Rose and Red valleys of Göreme. The scenery was spectacular, so was the solitary 10th century church at the midway point and if not for the baking heat which became unbearable by 10 am, we would have rated this second walk as our best. Apart from the walks, the other memorable bits were coming face to face with the rare Smiling Mary fresco at the Eski Gümüşler monastery, the wonderfully remote churches of Soğanlı Valley, the late evening stroll at the impressive open-air museum at Zelve and the sunrises we witnessed at the Sunrise Point and Uçhisar Castle in Göreme. Three days also gave us the buffer days for ballooning. Balloons are quite fickle and they only fly when the windspeed is guaranteed to be within 10 to 20 kmph and we had the right conditions on only one of the three mornings we spent here. And the flight did live up to all the hype and all our expectations. Watching the sun rise on this dreamy landscape was indeed an unforgettable experience of a lifetime!

On our last day in Cappadocia, we had just enough time to check out some of the wonderful Seljuk architecture of Kayseri (it was one of the three capitals of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum) before we caught the late afternoon flight to Istanbul. The city-tour had to wait. We first hired a car and headed to Edirne, the erstwhile Adrianapolis founded by the emperor Hadrian in the 1st c AD during this famous traipsing around his empire. If you look at the map, it is clear that Edirne is almost as west you can go before you run out of Turkey. The reason why anyone would want to come to this corner is because way back in 1362, Murad I, the third Ottoman sultan captured the city and made it the new capital of the empire. Hence, Edirne is home to some of the greatest Ottoman buildings. The best of these is the grand Selimiye Mosque, built by the greatest Islamic architect Mimar Sinan. Contemporary of Michelangelo and no less in greatness or talent, Mimar rated this mosque as his greatest achievement. Despite all of its interior closed due to renovation and one of its minarets bandaged by scaffolding, the mosque was picture perfect. It was commissioned by Sultan Selim II and completed in 1575, long after Edirne ceased to be the capital and hence, not an example of early Ottoman architecture. For that you just need to look away from the masterpiece. Within eye-sight are the 1414 Old Mosque built by Mehmet I, 1435 Muradiye Mosque and the 1447 Üç Şerefeli Mosque, both built by his successor Murad II. You can see the evolution of Ottoman architecture if you see them in the chronological order starting from the Old Mosque where all domes were equal in size and height culminating in the Selimiye where the central dome started dominating over the rest. A few kilometres away from the cluster of mosques is the large Complex of Sultan Bayezid II. Built in 1488, the complex houses a mosque, hospital and a medical school, the latter two remaining in operation for four centuries until the Russo-Turkish War of 1878. Apart from the mosques, Edirne is also famous for its Ottoman bridges, famous enough to have a dedicated Wikipedia page and sturdy enough to remain operational till date. We drove over a couple, the 1842 Meriç Bridge and the 1615 Tunca Bridge. Yes, 1615. Still functional. And we drove over it. Twice. Goosebumps that lasted till the end of the trip.

The following morning we did something that no one could do up until two years ago: drive over the Dardanelles. Known to the Ancient Greeks as the Hellespont, it is a narrow natural strait that connects the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara and it was bridged for the very first time in 2022 when the 1915 Çannakkale Bridge was constructed. (Well, that Xerxes did create a makeshift bridge during his invasion of Greece, but it was temporary and he didn’t hire a car, so that doesn’t count). This modern bridge is the longest suspension bridge on the planet (well, as of August 2024). And the name 1915 refers to the famous Gallipoli campaign that the Ottomans won against the Allies. Unfortunately, we did not have time to visit the site. The several memorials that we saw in Australia were dedicated to their soldiers martyred in this 1915 battle. Our route also took us past some large sunflower farms that Thrace (to give the region its name) is famous for. Unfortunately, it was late in the season and most of the flowers were facing the ground instead of the celestial body. All this driving had a destination and a pretty famous to boot: Troy.

Troy was inhabited from about 3600 BC to 500 AD and was strategically important town throughout its history, thanks to which it was constantly under threat from external attack. It was destroyed and rebuilt at least nine times over this 4000 year period and the famed war detailed in Iliad happened (i.e. if it happened at all) during the late Bronze Age (~1300 BC) when Troy was a vassal of the Hittite empire. Troy was called Wilusa in Hittite. Wilusa became Ilios/Ilion in Greek and hence the name of the famous epic. Walking the atmospheric ruins and ruminating over its history was a wonderful way to spend the morning. The site also contains a very well laid out modern museum. A half hour north of Troy lies the seaside city of Çannakkale and it houses the famous Trojan Horse. Yes, the very same one that was used in the 2004 movie Troy. It was as photogenic as you would expect it to be given that Hollywood made it specifically to look great for movie cameras. The horse could house at most half a dozen soldiers in its belly, barely enough to take over a community kitchen let alone a walled city. Three more hours on asphalt brought us to Bursa, the capital of the Ottoman empire before Edirne. Orhan, the second Ottoman Sultan captured it in 1326. Surprisingly, we still had enough time to check out one of its attractions and we chose the Muradiye Complex as the perfect place to the end the long day.

The complex was built in 1426 by Murad II, well after the capital had shifted to Edirne. It houses a pretty mosque and a dozen tombs belonging to the sultan and his family. The most lavishly decorated of the tombs belongs to Cem Sultan, the son of the famous Mehmet, the conqueror, and the one who lost the battle of succession to his half-brother, Bayezid II. We started the following morning at the Grand Mosque of Bursa. The penultimate crusades ended with the defeat of the Latins at the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396 AD. The winning Ottoman sultan, Bayezid I, had promised to build 20 mosques in case of victory. But once the victory was achieved, he built this Grand Mosque (with 20 domes) hoping Allah would not notice the difference. But Allah did take a note. Just three years after the mosque was built, Bayezid suffered a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Ankara in 1402. He was captured alive by Tamerlane and died in captivity, the only Ottoman sultan to suffer this fate. The hill opposite to the mosque, called Tophane, offers excellent views of the building. It also houses the tombs of the first two Ottoman sultans, Osman-gazi and Orhan-gazi, and we were quite surprised to see how humble these edifices were for being the final resting place of the founders of one of the greatest empires the world has seen.

On the other end of the town lies a complex of buildings built by Sultan Mehmed I in the early 15th century. Predictably, chaos had followed the defeat of Bayezid at the Battle of Ankara. His son Mehmed I finally reunited the empire in 1412 and immediately started to build this complex. The complex consists of a mosque, his tomb and a madrassa. The former two is popularly referred to as Green Mosque and Green Tomb, thanks to the brilliant Iznik tiles that adorn its interiors and we would rate the mosque as the prettiest we had seen on the trip. A little before the complex lies the 1442 Irgandi Bridge which kind-of looks like Ponte Vecchio copy/pasted into Anatolia. And a little after the complex lies the religiously important Emir Sultan Mosque. Amir Sultan was a dervish and a scholar, but more importantly, the son-in-law of Bayezid I (and hence, the brother-in-law of Mehmed I). After taking in all the visual delights (and some tasty baklavas) Bursa had to offer, we drove to Istanbul, returned the car and hopped skipped and jumped our way to the heart of the ancient city. We still had time to make a quick visit to one of the city’s (and probably the planet’s) highlights: the Hagia Sophia.

Rome had conquered most of Anatolia in the 1st c BC. In the 4th c AD, (in 324 to be precise), emperor Constantine moved the capital of the empire to Constantinople. He converted to Christianity, made it the state religion and built the first Hagia Sophia on top of a pagan temple. The church did not last long. In 415, Theodosius II built the second Hagia Sophia. He is more famous for the formidable walls that he built to safeguard the city and these withstood innumerable sieges till the eventual fall in 1453. The second church also burned down, this time during the infamous Nika riots of 532 AD. Justinian (the emperor at the time), built the current structure a few years later. In the 8th century, the empire was gripped by Iconoclasm, a belief that attributed the recent defeat (at the hands of the Arabs) to the presence of icons which went against the word of God. The church lost almost all of its art in its wake. Hence, all the mosaics that we see today post-date this period. The church suffered more loses during the infamous 1204 Sack of Constantinople by the Latins. And in 1453, the Ottomans, under Mehmet, the conqueror, finally defeated and put an end to the 1500 year old Roman Empire. And they immediately converted the church to a mosque. And they, thankfully, had sense to plaster over the previous mosaics instead of destroying it. Very few buildings on the planet has witnessed more history and drama than Hagia Sophia and standing on its balcony and gazing at its interior was indeed a heart-stopping moment.

Following morning, we started at the other magnificent building of the city, the Blue Mosque. Built in 1607 by sultan Ahmed I, the mosque gets its moniker from the famous Iznik tiles that adorn its interior. Next up was the famous Topkapı Palace, the residence of Ottoman Sultans from Mehmed, the conqueror to the 31st Sultan, Abdulmejid I. The lavish courtyards, the marble terraces, the finely carved pavilions and not to mention its world famous harem was a visual treat and occupied us till lunch. After a quick in and out of the Archaeological Museum, we headed to the next set of famous mosques the city had to offer: the 1557 Süleimaniye Mosque, commissioned by Suleiman, the magnificent and built by the famous Mimar Sinan, the 1470 Fatih Mosque commissioned by and also housing the tomb of Mehmet, the conqueror and lovely little Kariye Mosque. Kariye started off its life as a Byzantine church in the 4th c AD and houses some of the best frescoes and mosaics of the late Byzantine period (9th to 12th c AD). Our hour long walk from Süleimaniye to Kariye also took us past the ubiquitous aqueducts that adorns any self-respecting Roman city, this one dating from 4th c AD and built by emperor Valens. We ended the day at the Galata Tower. The original tower built by Justinian was completely destroyed during the 1204 sack and what we see today is the 1348 reconstruction. The 205 ft tall tower offers the best view in the city, well worth the 30 minute wait we had to endure to get to the top.

I had mentioned that Topkapı remained the royal residence of the Ottoman sultans till the rule of Abdulmejid I. It was he who decided to build a lavish European style palace to serve as the new official residence. This Dolmabahçe Palace is where we started our final day and it was grand in every sense of the word. With richly decorated stately rooms, with majestic chandeliers, with artifacts ranging from tiny little teacups to giant Ming vases, the palace had it all. And the grandest room, the Ceremonial Hall is sure to take your breath away. After exhausting half the number of steps we had budgeted for the day (we were threatening to go past two lakh steps for the entire trip), we took a taxi to the 1856 Ortaköy Mosque, the top Instagram point in the entire country. The mosque with the first bridge that connected Asia and Europe as its background is one of the most photographed images in Turkey. We finally ended the short day at the famous Grand Bazaar. Built in 1453 under the order of Mehmet, the conqueror, this is one of the oldest covered market on the planet. And a great place to have a sumptuous Turkish lunch. And that reminds me that I hadn’t talked about food at all and let me conclude this travelogue recounting some of our memorable meals.

Vegetarian food was quite easy to find everywhere we went in Turkey. We practically survived on Gözlemes (stuffed parathas) in Cappadocia. In Kayseri, we had our first taste of the famous Turkish döner (they made it with finger chips tomatoes and mint). Our best meal in Edirne was at a restaurant opposite to the Old Mosque. They had a buffet with numerous vegetable dishes, beyaz pilaf (white rice) and stuffed grape leaves. The final Grand Bazaar meal had beetroot salad, hummus, vegetarian pita and a mercimek (lentil) soup. Of course, who can skip the desserts. Turkish delights, dondurmas and baklavas need no introduction. Among the fruits, melons (honeydew and water) were in season. They were selling it all along the highways, freshly harvested and they were sweeter than sugar. Fresh orange juice is what we woke up to throughout the trip and we were delighted to find a cherry tree with ready to eat juicy cherries right outside the Eski Gümüşler monastery. Turkish cherries cost a fortune in India and here we could eat it for free. What among these would we rate as the best? None. That award would go to the humble ayran, the Turkish buttermilk. Turks started off as nomads selling milk products to the settled world and they invented yoghurt (which is actually a Turkish word). Ayran is how we kept us hydrated and without it we would have been in hospital under saline drips mid-way through this trip.