Turkey
Straddling Europe and Asia, Turkey has enormously diverse scenery, with rolling central plains, soaring mountains, desert and orchards, white sand beaches and towering sea cliffs. The Hittites, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Selçuks, Ottomans, Armenians and a host of smaller civilizations have all added intricate layers of architecture, art and culture, creating a mosaic as rich as any of the gilded Byzantine glories. Today, Turkey's thousands of kilometers of magnificent coast, sunshine and fine food have turned it into a major tourist destination. Much more than that, it is still fascinating culturally - a modern, westernised country, with a largely Muslim population, cautiously spanning the divide between religions and cultures.Istanbul
The only city in the world to span two continents, Istanbul is a bustling, cosmopolitan place, officially founded by Emperor Constantine in AD 326 on the back of a much older village. It remained capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires right up until 1923, its illustrious past leaving a rich legacy of mosques, churches, museums and magnificent palaces, coupled with bustling bazaars and a vibrant street life. Istanbul is made up of three distinct cities. The old city of Istanbul is decorated with parks and gardens. Amongst hundreds of fascinating sights, the main attractions include Topkapi, the sumptuous palace of the Ottoman sultans overlooking the Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus; the delicately decorated Blue Mosque, the only mosque in the world with six minarets; the vast dome of Aya Sophia, built in 536 as a Byzantine cathedral, later a mosque and now a museum and, underground, the Yerebatan Sarayi, a vast Byzantine cistern supported by 336 Corinthian columns..