Turkey:Cradle Of Civilizations Essay, Research Paper

Cradle of Civilizations

Turkey is considered to be the country of sun and snow, history and future, religion and a place of wonders. Many civilizations took their place in history inside the borders of Turkey. Every place in Turkey has a different historic past. There have been more than forty capital cities of different civilizations on these grounds. Therefore, we need to know about certain characteristics of these cities in relation to their location, history and attractions. The cities we will focus on are Bodrum, Istanbul and Cappadocia.

Bodrum, also known as Halicarnassus is located in the southwest of Turkey. Bodrum, Heredotus s hometown, sports comfortable and uncrowded resorts built to cater to foreign tourists and Turkey s rich and famous (Poirier J1). Bodrum has an sunswept sandy coastline and clear unpolluted sea, so it attracts tourist who are looking both sun, sea and history. You can still visit Bodrum Castle. Using large stone blocks from the former mausoleum made it. The Knights of Saint John made the castle in 1415 (Poirier J1). Attractive night life in Bodrum can make anyone forget all about those historic places. There is a saying about Bodrum that explains this fact well: They say I was in Bodrum but I do not remember!

Istanbul, also known as Constantinople is located in the northwest region of Turkey. It is the biggest city in Turkey with a population over sixteen million. Istanbul is the city where two continents, Asia and Europe meet. The two continents are divided by the Bosphorus and tourists can join sightseeing yacht charters to see the Bosphorus. The Dolmabahce and the Beylerbeyi Palaces are located on the Bosphorus. There are walls in some parts of the Bosphorus. The walls of Constantinople, built by Theodosius II in the fifth century, protected the city from invaders for more than a thousand years, and are still standing today. (Hatzopoulos) One of the places which tourists show the most attention is Hadgia Sophia where is now voted to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World in the 21st century. The night life is amazing and many different people from many different places exist in it, so it is colorful. The huge and more populated it gets everyday, it still keeps confusing people and many problems come together with it. Some people believe that there is something in Istanbul s air that makes sleep useless.

Cappadocia is located in the middle of Turkey. It is considered to be the cradle of civilizations. Cappadocia is one of those rare regions in the world where the rocks of man blend unobtrusively into the landscape. Dwellings are known to have been hewn from the rock as far as 4000 BC. The city was formed because of volcanic eruptions. Violent eruptions of the volcanoes Erciyes Mountain and Hasan Mountain three million years ago covered the surrounding plateau with tuff. From this brittle rock the wind and rain has

eroded Cappadocia s spectacular, surrealist landscape of rock cones capped pinnacles and fretted ravinnes, in colors ranging from reds and golds to cool greens and grays

(Cappadocia). The daily tours may differ in sort because the whole city is a museum of history. Visitors have many choices to accommodate changing from five star hotels to small Turkish style pensions so everyone can find a place to stay through their budgets. Although the night life is not very attractive in Cappadocia, hotel s bars are always full of attractions and fun. The city is still standing although it is so old so some people may call Cappadocia a tree. This is because it has lived too long like a tree and it is still standing up like a tree would although it is dead.

Those walls and grounds have witnessed many battles and agreements in which the world s history has changed. These cities were cradles of history and emperors so the difference between them should be known well. They are the living wonders of the world and must take the first place in everyone s travel lists. These cities are ones of the latest of their kind so they should be protected well to be examples of history in the future.