Explore The Cultural Crossroads Of Turkey

Feasting, faith and fresh discoveries at the cultural crossroads of Turkey.

- Saumya Ancheri

“Is Istanbul always this beautiful?” I ask our guide Ekrem Korkmaz, who smiles back. The light suffusing Eminönü harbour is turning the pier incandescent; it seems to catch on to everything and hold tight. We hop on the ferry to Üsküdar district on the Asian side of the city, which is split from Eminönü by the hyper-real, intoxicating blues of the Bosphorus Strait.

The half-hour ride is the difference between Asia and Europe—or, as celebrated Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan may have put it, between the sun and the moon. Approaching Üsküdar, my eye fixes on Mihrimah Sultan Mosque, shining white like a beacon by the jetty. The mosque was built by Sinan on commission from Suleyman the Magnificent, the longest-reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire. It was made for his daughter Mihrimah, whose name means ‘sun and moon’.

As the story goes, Sinan was in love with the princess and later quietly built a twin mosque on the European side. It’s said that on her birthday on 21 March, the sun sets behind this mosque just as the moon rises behind the Asian one. Legend or not, the romance of it gives me goosebumps.

We encounter legends everywhere on our weeklong trip. In southeastern Anatolia, we traverse land linked to the Garden of Eden, in the Fertile Crescent where Abraham, father of three monotheistic religions, was born. On a cruise to the dam-drowned medieval city of Old Halfeti, we pass a castle where St John is said to have made copies of the Bible and hidden them. A few hours later at Mount Nemrut, we watch the sun rise over a spectacular, crumbling tomb built by a king who equated himself with the gods. We pause in Konya in central Anatolia, home to Sufi poet Rumi. We finish at Istanbul by the Bosphorus, which Greek mythology’s Jason and Medea sailed in search of the Golden Fleece.