5 Things You Never Knew About Turkey By Shereena Lingiah At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Planning a trip to the gateway between Europe and Asia? Read on to discover five strange and interesting facts that will give you plenty to think about on your next holiday to Turkey.

The Name ‘Turkey’ Comes From an Old Chinese Word…

…Tu-kin. Apparently applied as early as 177 BCE, it was used by the Chinese to describe the people living south of the Atlas mountains of central Asia. Whether by accident or design, the word Türk in old Turkic meant ‘Strong’ and was aptly self-applied by the inhabitants of modern day Turkey. In addition to this, turk in Persian can mean ‘a beautiful youth’, ‘a barbarian’ and ‘a robber’. A mingling of compliments and criticisms in there, but who would like to live a life without controversy…?

The Turks Introduced Coffee to Europe

Picking up on the trend from the Middle East and Eastern Africa, the 16th century saw the arrival of Coffee into Turkish culture. The Ottoman historian İbrahim Peçevi said of the opening of the first coffeehouse in Istanbul:

“Until the year 962 (1554-55), in the High, God-Guarded city of Constantinople, as well as in Ottoman lands generally, coffee and coffeehouses did not exist. About that year, a fellow called Hâkem (Hakam) from Aleppo and a wag called Şems (Shams) from Damascus, came to the city: they each opened a large shop in the district called Tahtelkal'e, and began to purvey coffee.”

Trying the local coffee is now a ubiquitous part of any holidays to Turkey, and has affected Turkish culture so much that the Turkish word for breakfast, kahvaltı, literally means "before coffee" (kahve means "coffee" and altı "under").

Turkey is the Supposed Resting Place of Noah’s Ark

Based on interpretations of the scriptures, the resting place of Noah’s Ark described in the Old Testament is widely accepted to be Mt.Ararat, the highest point in Turkey. Though no conclusive evidence has ever been found of this, a number of sites have been suggested and investigated, with enough intriguing leads discovered to keep the myth alive. A technical climb that requires the use of a local guide, few holidays to Turkey are aimed at hiking its snowy peak in search of religious remains.

Istanbul Straddles Two Continents

The Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul, the 15th longest suspension bridge in the world, connects not only the two halves of the city, but the continents of Europe and Asia. Illuminated by a computerised LED light system, allowing it to glow its way through a variety of colours during the night, the bridge is a photographic highlight of many holidays in Turkey. It also attracts a host of curious publicity stunts, such as Venus Williams’ cross-continental tennis match against İpek Şenoğlu in 2005 which occurred in the centre of the bridge and lasted a mere 5 minutes before the balls were knocked into the Bosphorus…

Turkey Was Here Before Turkeys

Turkeys were first imported to Europe from Madagascar and via Turkey and the merchants responsible became known as turkey traders. Even when the birds began to be imported from the New World by the Spanish the trade route passed through North Africa, which in the 16th century was under Ottoman rule. This may help explain the peculiar homonym of Turkeys in the English language. Even more bizarrely, the Turkish name for the type of fowl is hindi, meaning Indian, and based on the misconception that the New World was in eastern Asia. Avoid confusion on your holidays in Turkey and have the lamb instead.

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