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Fall In Love With a Country
Welcome to Turkey, a country that spans two continents and which for over ten thousand years has been the home of great cultures and civilisations of the World. Here you can enjoy the pleasures of East and West, old and new.

Turkey is a land of great contrasts. It honours and preserves the legacy of its past while looking forward to its modern future. The variety in Turkey never ceases to amaze its visitors. Here you can see landscapes of incredible natural beauty, places, sites of great antiquity, towns and villages with lovely examples of architecture from Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman times. In sharp contrast it boasts over eight thousand kilometres of coastline, innumerable gorgeous beaches and modern holiday resorts. Truly, every taste is catered for.
Once you have visited Turkey, enjoyed the friendliness and hospitality of the people, sampled the delicious food and marvellous local wines and drinks, you are sure to want to return again and again, each time making new discoveries and friends.

GEOGRAPHY:
Turkey is a large country lying partly in Asia and partly in Europe. Its location in two continents has been a central factor in its history and culture. Turkey has often been called a bridge between east and west. The country s area of 301.380 square miles includes 9.158 square miles in European Turkey, known as Eastern Thrace and a larger area of 292.222 square miles in Asia, called Anatolia. The Bosphorus the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelle divide the European and the Asian sides. Anatolia is a high plateau rising progressively towards the east and broken by the valleys of about fifteen rivers, including the Tigris and Euphrates. There are numerous lakes and some, such as Lake Van, are as large as inland seas. In the north the Pontic chain runs parallel to the Black Sea, giving place to a narrow, fertile coastal plain. Turkey enjoys a variety of climates, changing from the temperate climate of the Pontic region to the continental climate of the interior, then to the Mediterranean climate of the Aegean Mediterranean coastal regions. The coastline of Turkey s four seas is more than 5.000 miles.

CLIMATE:
The Marmara, Aegean and Mediterranean coasts enjoy a typical Mediterrenean climate with hot summers and mild winters. While the Black Sea Coast; has a more temperate climate with warm summers, mild winters and relatively high rainfall. Central and East Anatolia; steppe climate with hot dry summers and cold winters.

WHAT TO WEAR:
Marmara, Aegean and Mediterranean coast: light cotton summer clothing and cardigans for evenings.
Black Sea, Central and Eastern Anatolia - besides summer wear, warmer clothing should be taken for cool evenings and high altitudes.

SHOES and HATS:
Comfortable shoes would be necessary for visiting archeological sites. Sun hats advisable in the height of summer.

LANGUAGE:
The Turkish language is neither Indo - European nor Semitic, but belongs to the Uralo - Altaic group and has affinity to the Finno - Hungarion languages. Turkish is written with Latin characters and is spoken by some 60 million people outside of Turkey itself, in CIS countries the Balkan Lands and Asia.

MAJOR HOLIDAYS:
The official holiday in the week is Saturday and Sunday, and so offices are open from Monday morning to Friday evening. The major public holidays are as follows:

January 1st  New Years Day
April 23rd  National Sovereignty and Children s Day
May 19th  Sports and Youth Day
August 30th  Victory Day
October 29th  Independence Day