|
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||
| Eastern Europe Moscow & St. Petersburg Budapest/Vienna/Bratislava/Prague Ukraine/Belarus Uzbekistan Spain Morocco Ancient Civilizations Turkey Catalonia/Provence Alsace/Paris/Provence Israel |
Turkey
Istanbul  Izmir Bursa Cappadocia
Where Europe Meets Asia | |
| |
| Turkey, home to several lost ancient civilizations and Hellenized kingdoms, a center of Christian religious life, heartland of the Ottoman Empire, was also a major center of Jewish life. With a diverse artistic and cultural heritage, it is a virtual museum without walls, with nine thousand years of history and civilizaiton to explore. | |
| |
 | |
| |
 | In addition to the fascinating cities of Istanbul, with its unique position on the Bosphorus at the junction of Europe and Asia, and Izmir, Ephesus, Aphrodisias and Sardis each with their ruins of ancient cultures, visit the surrealistic villages surrounding Cappadocia, to see the remains of dwellings and churches carved into the rock. |
More recently, Turkey provided shelter to Jews fleeing from the Nazis in World War II. Istanbul, Izmir and Bursa today have thriving Jewish communities, the majority of which are Sephardic Jews who have brought their culture, arts, and religion from the heart of Spain into the bosom of the Moslem world. |
 |
| |||||||
| |||||||
