Ten Interesting Facts about Turkey
1. Tünel is the world’s second oldest underground railway
On January 17, 1875, the Tünel underground funicular began to operate, becoming the world’s second underground railway after the London Underground. Tünel continues to run between Beyoğlu and Karaköy and is one of the oldest surviving rail lines in continental Europe.
2. Turkey has one of the world’s oldest and biggest malls
Istanbul‘s Grand Bazaar, or Kapalı Çarşı in Turkish, dates to 1455 and was established shortly after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. Over the centuries it has grown into a warren of 61 streets lined by more than 3,000 shops and currently occupies a nearly incomprehensible 333,000 square feet. You’ll never possibly be able to explore it all, but that doesn’t keep people from trying — according to Travel + Leisure, the Grand Bazaar was the world’s #1 attraction in 2014, drawing over 91 million people.
3. Turkey is packed with cultural heritage
In fact, there are 13 spots in Turkey inscribed on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites, and a whopping 62 on the tentative list. They range from a Mesolithic temple (Göbekli Tepe) to a Biblical city (Ephesus) to a World War One battlefield (Gallipoli), and help make Turkey the sixth most-visited tourist destination in the world. The Aegean and Mediterranean parts of Turkey are home to many ancient Greek and Roman architecture. Whereas Middle and Eastern Anatolia hosts ancient Anatolian civilizations’ ruins.
4. Turkey is home to some of the most important sites in Christendom
Turkey’s population may be 99% Muslim, but these lands draw tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims each year. The Ecumenical Patriarch, spiritual leader of the world’s 300 million Orthodox, lives in Istanbul, a vestige of the Byzantine Empire. The grotto dug by the Apostle Peter in Antioch was the first Christian house of worship, while a 1st-century patriarchal church is said to have been located underground in today’s unprepossessing Istanbul district of Fındıklı. Istanbul is also home to the 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia cathedral, now a museum. And the Armenian Apostolic Church was founded 1,700 years ago in what’s today the city of Kayseri.
5. Despite appearances, Turkish is surprisingly easy to learn
The tongue-twisting, 70-letter Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesine, or “as if you are from those we may not be able to easily make a maker of unsuccessful ones,” in Turkish, is thought to be the longest word in Turkish, an agglutinative tongue whose dialects are spoken across a swath of Asia all the way to western China. Yet Turkish is pretty easy to pick up, following a language reform in the 1920s that simplified the vocabulary and moved from the Arabic script to the Latin alphabet.
6. Turkey is a bridge between Asia and Europe
Thanks to its geographic position, Turkey connects Asia and Europe to each other with Gallipoli strait and İstanbul strait. These connections are provided with 3 bridges in İstanbul. When you call a number from Asia, the code of 216 is used. Also the code of 212 is used while calling a number from Europe.
7. Four seasons can be experienced at the same time
Turkey is a country that is surrounded on three sides by the sea. There are shorelines more than 7000 km which are surrounded by Black Sea, Aegean Sea, and Mediterranean; but there is a continental climate in Central Anatolia region and East region. It means that you can go swimming and enjoy the sun in Antalya on April while one of your friend can go skiing in Erciyes Ski Center.
8. Turkey has an extraordinary cuisine culture
Turkish cuisine is rich in terms of meat, vegetables, and pastries. Ottoman Empire established domination on different regions such as; the Balkan States, Caucasus, the Middle East and the Middle Asia. Turkey, which is the inheritor of Ottoman Empire, offers the dishes of these regions by gathering. Visiting Turkey without tasting çiğ köfte, mantı, yaprak sarması, karnıyarık, künefe, baklava and many more would be somewhat unfinished.
9. Turkey is the largest producer of hazelnuts.
Turkey may be known for classics such as Turkish Delight or Turkish Coffee, but it is actually the world’s largest producer of hazelnuts. Turkish hazelnuts make up around 72.9% of the world’s supply, and the country’s Eastern Black Sea region produces approximately 60% of that.
10. Turkey gifted tulips to the world.
It’s uncertain where the first tulips were grown, but what is known is that the Ottomans popularized the flower and facilitated their introduction to Europe. The seeds of the world’s first speculative bubble were sown when a Flemish ambassador to the 16th-century court of Süleyman the Magnificent brought back the bulbous flowers to Holland. Other commodities for which Europe owes a debt of gratitude to Turkey are coffee and cherries.
