You may have heard someone at some point mention how cool Istanbul is, or how great the beaches are in Turkey.
And while that's totally true, Turkey is so much more than just that. It's a real melting pot for all surrounding cultures. For example...
1.
Greeks, Turks, and Arabs all claim the gooey deliciousness of baklava as their own invention.
2.
Greeks and Turks will also fight over who invented yogurt...
4.
And doner? Obviously Turkish.
5.
And of course you can find kebabs everywhere.
And beyond just food, there's all the history, like...
6.
Abraham was born in Turkey. Obviously he knew what was up, and there's a huge mosque complex dedicated to him
7.
Early Christians knew what was up too, and built their first cathedral in Turkey.
8.
Even the Virgin Mary thought Turkey was pretty fine, and she spent her last days there near the shore.
9.
There's also the Greco-Persian smorgasburg that is the tomb at Mount Nemrut.
10.
Actually, Turkey has got tombs covered, like these Pontic ones in Amasya.
11.
The Byzantines absolutely adored Turkey and built wicked monasteries throughout it.
13.
In fact, Mardin itself is just pretty incredible looking thanks to Arab and Kurdish influence.
14.
Of course, the Greeks and Romans also influenced places like Ephesus.
15.
And the Hittites also dug Turkey... Literally. They built underground cities at Cappadocia.
16.
The former city of Harran is a treasure cove of lost civilizations - from Babylonian to Crusader.
17.
The Armenians were also all about eastern Turkey. They even had their former capital, Ani, there.
18.
Kars must be the coolest damn city in the world, since the Turks, Russians, Georgians and Armenians all fought for it.
19.
Rumi, an Afghan Sufi mystic, lived, worked, and died in Turkey.
And, of course, there's always Istanbul.
20.
The Hagia Sofia always looked good, regardless if it were a Byzantine church, Ottoman mosque, or Turkish museum.
21.
Even after Rome fell, the Italians still didn't have enough of Turkey, as the Genoese built the Galata Tower.
22.
And the Grand Bazaar takes shopping to another level.
23.
And to honor their whole past, Ataturks mausoleum in Ankara features elements of all of Turkey's past inhabitants.
Of course, you could have always just looked at a map to get the gist of all this. Turkey even kind of looks like a bridge.
