Uskudar, set on the edge of the Bosphorus opposite the hipper and more popular Beşiktaş neighbourhood, is often dismissed as being too conservative and suburban. Yet once upon a time it was a vibrant and exciting city. Uskudar History It was founded in the 7th century BC by Greek colonists who gave it the name…
While the country known as Turkey has a history going back hundreds of years, had it not been for the Turks’ decisive victory during the Turkish War of Independence in a key action in the province of Kütahya, led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha (now famously known as Atatürk, father of the Turks) in 1922, the…
Serefiye Cistern (Şerefiye Sarnıcı in Turkish) was built on the orders of Emperor Theodosius II who ruled Constantinople from 428 to 443 AD. It was constructed as a water depot to distribute supply to the inhabitants of Istanbul, then known as Constantinople. Fresh water was drawn from Belgrade Forest and its surrounds and reached the…
I’m Lisa Morrow and I was born on the 24th of July, coincidentally the same date in 1923 when the Turkish War of Independence ended. I’m considerably younger than that event but I am a Leo so I love celebrating my birthday. It’s never the presents I remember but the people I was with and…
I’d love to start this post by writing that I go to my local Istanbul street market in Göztepe every Monday but I can’t. My husband’s the one who goes. He’s known to the vendors as the Turkish looking foreigner (his mother was Italian) who buys the food for his family, rejects any apples, strawberries…
When I first came to Turkey more than 20 years ago, I experienced the sweet frenzy then known as Şeker Bayramı (sugar festival) for the first time. It marks the end of the fasting month of Ramazan. It would be logical to think the name Sugar Holiday comes from the amount of chocolate, baklava and…
Kadir Gecesi is thought to be the most important of the five holy nights in the Muslim calendar called kandil. According to the 97th chapter of the Koran and the traditions of the Prophet Mohammed, it is the night on which the first verses of the Koran were revealed to Mohammed. “We revealed the Koran on…
When I travelled through Turkey in 1996, Arabesque music was everywhere. On jukebox cafes, in crowded minibuses full of toothless farmers dressed in wool and smelling of sheep and damp, at bus stations and on stretched tapes in car stereo cassette players. Enormously popular, Arabesque could be heard everywhere but on the radio. As happened…
Turkey Earthquake 2023 – How you can help When does Berat Kandili fall? Berat Kandili is one of the five holy nights on the Muslim calendar called kandil, meaning candle. It is mübarek, a blessed night that falls on the 15th night of Şaban, which is the 8th month of the Muslim calendar. What is…
On the 23rd of April every year, the streets of Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and other large cities, towns and villages across Turkey will be full of local school children. Decked out in brightly clean school uniforms, with the neatest hair and straightest socks, they march proudly alongside fire trucks, police marching bands and other municipal…