Off the cruise ships:

Yes... but, why Turkey !
Below, you will find some basic information:

• A treasure of history, a melting pot of civilizations and cultures.
• A dynamic nation of 75 million people with average age of 27
• Committed to democracy and pluralism... a multi-party parliamentary democracy since 1946.
• A unique secular democracy model among more than 50 states with predominantly Moslem population.
• A free market economy
• A member of NATO since 1952, Turkey is a part of the EU Customs Union since 1996, a candidate country to the EU since 1999 that started accession negotiations in October 2005.
• A physical and cultural bridge between Europe and Asia, in the heart of Eurasia, bordering 7 nations and four seas.
• A significant contributor to the development of the newly independent states of Central Asia and the Caucasus.
• A prospective energy terminal of export of Caspian oil and natural gas.
• Contributor to UN peacekeeping operations world-wide.
• A modern telecommunication and transportation network.
• 16th largest and 4th fastest growing economy in the world.
• 4th biggest donor country in the world with respect its GNP.
• Russia alone, the investments of Turkish private entreprises amount to $10 billion.
• With an average annual growth rate of 5%, the fastest growing country in the Mediterranean.
• One of the 10 big emerging markets.
• Welcomed 22 million, expecting 30 million visitors in 2010.
• Two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World stood in Turkey - the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, Bodrum.
• St. Nicholas, known as Santa Claus today, was born and lived in Demre (Myra) on Turkey's Mediterranean coast.
• Paul was born in Tarsus, located in southeastern Turkey.
• The first man ever to fly was Turkish. Using two wings, Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi flew from the Galata Tower over the Bosphorus to land in Usküdar in the 17th century.
• Many archeologists and biblical scholars believe Noah's Ark landed on Agri Dagi (Mount Ararat) in eastern Turkey.
• The famous Trojan War took place in western Turkey, around the site where a wooden statue of the Trojan Horse rests today (20 minutes drive away from Dardanelles).
• Turks introduced coffee to Europe.
• Julius Caesar issued his celebrated proclamation, Veni, Vidi, Vici (“I came, I saw, I conquered”), in Turkey upon defeating the Pontus, a kingdom in the Black Sea region of Turkey.
• Alexander the Great conquered a large territory in what is now Turkey, and also cut the Gordion Knot in the Phrygian capital (Gordium), not far from Turkey's present-day capital (Ankara).
• Aesop - famous all over the world for his fables and parables - was born in Anatolia (Asian part of Turkey).
• Homer was born in Izmir on the west coast of Turkey. He depicted Troy in his epic Iliad.
• Part of Turkey's southwestern shore was a wedding gift from Marc Antony to Cleopatra.
• The number of archaeological excavations going on in Turkey every year is at least 150.
• Writing was first used by people in ancient Anatolia (Asian part of Turkey). The first clay tablets - in the ruins of Assyrian Karum (a merchant colony) - date back to 1950 B.C.
• The last home of the Virgin Mary is in Selçuk, Turkey.
• Leonardo Da Vinci drew designs for a bridge over the Bosphorus, the strait that flows through Europe and Asia. (Although Da Vinci’s bridge was never built, there are now two bridges over the Bosphorus)
• During the Gulf War in 1991, Turkey welcomed nearly half a million Kurds from Northern Iraq.
• Turkey provided homes for some 350,000 Bulgarian refugees of Turkish origin when they were expelled from their homelands in Bulgaria in 1989.