Did You Know?

Interesting Facts about Turkey

1. The only city in the world located on two continents is İstanbul which had been the capital of three great empires; Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman for more than 2000 years
2. Legend has it that St. John brought Virgin Mary to Ephesus where she spent her last days in a small house on Mt. Koressos (Bülbül dağı) near Ephesus
3. Early Christians escaping from Roman persecution nearly 2000 years ago sheltered in Cappodocia in Central Anatolia
4. Part of Turkey’s southwestern shore was a wedding gift that Mark Antony gave to Cleopatra
5. The famous Trojan wars took place in western Turkey
6. Turkey introduced coffee to Europe
7. St. Nicholas, also known as Santa Claus, was born and lived in Demre, Turkey
8. Turkey is the birthplace of the many historical figures and legends such as the Poet Homer, King Midas, Historian Herodotus and St. Paul
9. Long before the discovery of America, English merchants discovered the Çulluk, a kind of bird in the Turkish countryside, and began exporting it back to England, where it became very popular, and was known as a 'Turkey bird' or simply a 'turkey.'
10. "Turkiya" means "season's beginnings" or "beautiful" in Swahili
11. How was the name of country Turks & Caicos Islands derived? The popular story is the name Turks being derived after the indigenous Turk's Head "fez" cactus, and the name Caicos, a Lucayan term "caya hico," meaning string of islands. A more romantic, origin of the name is a reflection of the Islands' pirate history, when 17th and 18th century pirates used the islands as hideouts and preyed upon the passing Spanish treasure ships bound for Europe. The term "Turk" for a pirate stemmed two centuries earlier when the Ottoman Empire dominated the Mediterranean and Turkish corsaries harried European Atlantic shipping, thus translated "Turks" Islands becomes "Pirate" Islands!