Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Today's Turkiye is an absorbing mixture

of the modern and the ancient of eastern

and western influences...

vibrant cities, archeological sites, and

stunning natural landscapes.

Modern Turkiye is a global powerhouse,

but this is nothing new, as the country has

been an important player on the world stage

throughout the past.

The history of the region dates all the way

back to ancient antiquity.

And some of the earliest civilizations

were established in this area, leading to many thousands

of years of kingdoms, empires, and states.

It's this rich and fascinating history,

combined with the country's cultural diversity, world

famous cuisine, and a rapidly modernizing infrastructure that

makes it a very popular destination with visitors

from all over the world.

Ancient history has never been made

more alive than in Turkiye's magnificently

preserved archeological sites.

Be immersed in these remarkable destinations

as we take a glimpse into the lives and times of the people

who lived in them so long ago.

Welcome to Turkiye's Astonishing Antiquities...

Revealed From the Air and From the Ground.

The history of Turkiye is mythical and at times violent,

dating back many thousands of years

to the ancient antiquity, when the area was known

as Anatolia or Asia Minor.

In this four-part series, we're going to visit quite a number

of these sites to marvel at what they are today,

and come face to face with what life

was like when they were thriving

cities and communities.

Much of our journey will follow the mail route of ancient Rome,

which went through the major population and

political centers of the time.

We've called this series Turkiye's

Astonishing Antiquities because that's what they truly are...

Astonishing.

Guiding us along the way, a leading experts

on the history of this area, especially the cultural

and religious aspects.

David Trim is a Historian, Archivist,

and Educator, who specializes in European military

and religious history.

He's been a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in London

since 2003.

It's a privilege to be part of this project.

As an historian, I love visiting

Turkiye because it fires my historical imagination.

NARRATOR: Dr. Marina Garner grew up in Brazil,

where she studied theology and taught religion before moving

to the USA in 2013, where she has

since completed a PhD in Religious Studies

at Boston University.

At the inception of the Republic of Turkiye,

Turkish laws regarding women were ahead of its time.

Before many countries allowed women to vote,

Turkish women were voting.

NARRATOR: Dr. Jon Paulien is Professor of New Testament

and Dean of the School of religion at Loma Linda

University in California.

He has authored over 25 books and is a keen traveler.

I love the sights, the sounds,

and the smells of Istanbul.

You may not be aware of it, but it's

the only major city in the world

that's actually lies on two continents.

And the continents are divided by a body

of water called the Bosporus.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Over four absorbing being episodes,

we'll be visiting many of the country's key historic sites.

Many of these have been so well-preserved

that they provide a compelling insight into what life was

like when they were thriving cities and communities

thousands of years ago.

Turkiye is a land that's as fascinating as its old.

As the natural crossover between Europe and Asia,

it's had great significance in culture,

art, religion, and trade.

We're using modern imaging technology

to help reveal the secrets and wonders

of these ancient places.

Camera drones provide truly spectacular and revealing

overviews, enabling us to better appreciate just

what the ancient architects and builders were able to achieve.

Secrets will be revealed.

History will indeed come alive as we

travel through the rich past and exciting

present of Turkiye.

So let's take a quick overview of what's ahead.

In this series.

Prepare to be truly stunned by ancient Ephesus,

a grand port city established by the Greeks

in the 10th century BC on the Aegean Coast.

The original ancient harbor silted up many centuries ago.

These ruins are breathtaking, both in their extent

and the state of their preservation.

There's an amphitheater that could seat 25,000 people,

a baths complex with flushing toilets,

and what remains of the Temple of Artemis,

considered in its day, one of the seven wonders of the world.

And this is the awe inspiring Library of Celsus.

It once held around 12,000 scrolls,

making it one of the largest libraries in the ancient world.

Around 35 kilometers up the Aegean Coast from Physis

is Smyrna, which was another important ancient port,

and it's believed the birthplace of Homer.

The remains of the ancient city's Roman-era Agora,

or Forum, stands in contrast to the rather plainer buildings of

modern Izmir that are nearby.

But here they are 2,000 years later.

At Pergamum in Northwestern Turkiye,

is the amphitheater, to top all amphitheaters, literally.

It's set into a steep hillside and originates

from the third century BC.

The 80 rows of seats could accommodate

an audience of 10,000.

That's quite a climb if you were sitting at the back.

At Sardis, can be found the partially restored remains

of a third century synagogue, which at the time,

was the largest outside Palestine

and a remnant of a thriving Jewish community that

existed in the city during Roman times.

Also, here is a very large baths and gymnasium complex,

with a great many of the facilities

that we'd expect to find in any modern resort.

So life was a lot more comfortable for these people,

and yes, more civilized than might be imagined.

This provided the foundation for the development

of complex societies encompassing

philosophies, politics, religion,

art and inevitably, war.

Ancient Turkiye has many associations

with the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments.

The apostle Paul was born in the Southern city of Tarsus.

And on his third missionary journey,

ended up spending three years living

and preaching in Ephesus.

The fledgling Christian church at Ephesus,

is also one of the seven congregations given

special messages from God in the book of Revelation,

known as the Seven Churches of Revelation.

In fact, all were located in what is now modern Turkiye.

So a journey through this country's

astonishing antiquities is not just a journey through nearly

four millennia of history, but also contributes something

to our understanding of the origins of modern society,

of who we are today and why.

In this episode, we're delving into this history to find out

how these remarkable ancient sites came into being

and some of the people who helped shape them.

Then we'll head for Istanbul, the dynamic city of history,

culture, religion, and art.

Its unique location has played a major role in world history

and has informed its past and present,

and more than likely, will impact its future.

Turkiye's many attractions may be from the past.

But the country is also very much in the present, reveling

in its intoxicating cultural mixes,

as expressed in its varied architecture, food, music,

and arts, and continually looking forward to its role

in the world of the future.

[music playing]

When you're talking about a history of Turkiye,

you're really talking about two very different things.

One would be the history of the Turkish people,

who began to arrived in the area of Asia

Minor around 1,000 years ago.

But recorded history goes back another 2,500 years in that

territory of Asia Minor.

And it all goes back to a people called the Hittites.

NARRATOR: Indo-European people who

migrated East from the vast Eurasian steppes.

The Hittites arrived in the area

during the third Millennium BC.

They quickly established themselves

with their agricultural practices

and began trading with neighboring tribes.

By the 17th century BC, they had been successful enough

at both war and commerce to establish a substantial Hittite

Empire, challenging the other big superpowers of the day,

the Egyptians and the Assyrians.

They had their own language, which

became dominant in the region that

was also known as Anatolia.

It covered the most western part of continental Asia

and which is mostly now modern Turkiye.

The Hittite empire was flourishing

and basically dominated the area

of what we call Turkiye today.

But then the Hittite empire crumbled,

and for quite a while, there were smaller kingdoms

like Lydia and Phrygia in that area for maybe 800 years

or so until the Persians came under Cyrus,

and they united the entire territory

that we call Asia Minor.

And they were replaced by Alexander the Great,

a hundred or so years later.

NARRATOR: Alexander the Great is,

of course, a major, even legendary

figure in ancient history.

He was Alexander III of Macedon, or Macedonia.

And he was king by the time he was just 20.

Alexander was an empire builder par excellence.

A student of Aristotle when he was a teenager.

By the time he was 30, Alexander

had built an empire that extended

from Greece to Northern India.

From 334 BC, it only took his massive armies around a year

to progress southwards from the west of Anatolia,

across the Taurus Mountains, and reach the Syrian border,

overrunning all before them.

And then later on came the Romans,

and they also governed a United Asia Minor

for many hundreds of years.

And the climax of the Roman period in Turkiye

was when the Emperor Constantine, about 300 years

after the time of Jesus, he moved the capital of the Empire

from Rome to Byzantium, as it was called,

and it became renamed Constantinople.

Today, it is Istanbul.

NARRATOR: The Byzantine empire was an eastern extension

of the western Roman Empire.

And the name is derived from the city of Byzantium, which

had a much longer history, having been founded sometime

between 685 and 670 BCE.

There's some mythology surrounding the city's origins

and its founders, but what's known

is that the original colony was Greek, and thanks

to its important location, it was soon an important center

of trade and commerce.

This inevitably made it an attractive target for invaders,

and it was subsequently the property of the Persians,

then the Spartans, reclaimed by the Greeks, and in BC 156,

besieged by the Romans.

This siege resulted in extensive damage,

but the victorious Romans quickly

rebuilt the city, which then became even more prosperous.

In fact, it became such an important city within the Roman

Empire that Constantine I, also known as Constantine the Great,

moved his imperial residence there.

And that became new Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire.

And the Roman Empire while it fell in Europe around 500 AD,

it lasted nearly another 1,000 years in the territory

that we call Turkiye today.

And so at that time, Turkiye was a Christian country.

And the peak of that period was under the Emperor Justinian

around 530 AD, and the Emperor Justinian is the one who built

the amazing Hagia Sophia, largest religious building

in the world for 1,000 years.

Completed in 537, the monumental Hagia Sophia is

a manifestation of 1,500 years of cultural

and religious history.

It was built on the site of two earlier churches.

Today, it's one of Istanbul's major tourist attractions

and open to all visitors outside the hours

of Muslim prayer.

Only as recently, as July 2020, it was restored

as a fully working mosque.

But over the centuries, it's been a significant place

for not just the Romans, but Greek Orthodox Christianity,

the Roman Catholic Church, and from the mid-15th

century, Islam.

In 1934, after the founding of the modern Turkish Republic,

it became a museum.

But it was always a long standing aim

to re-establish it as a place of worship

for the Muslim faith.

Hagia Sophia, translates into English as "the Holy Wisdom

of God," and it took two months shy of six years to build,

which was incredibly fast for a building

of this size at this time.

The workforce comprised of 10,000 laborers,

along with hundreds craftsmen, architects,

engineers, stonemasons, skilled woodworkers, and goldsmiths.

Among them, it is said, was the Emperor Justinian

himself, who worked on the site daily and in all weathers.

The speed of construction amazed everybody,

including many who didn't expect anything so big to stay

standing for very long.

But it's worth noting that a dome of this size,

32 meters in diameter and 55 meters in height,

was not attempted again until the Duomo in Florence,

1,000 years later.

On Christmas Day, in 538, the Hagia Sophia

began its very long life as a place of worship.

Over the next couple of centuries,

it gained in importance as a destination for Christian

pilgrims from all over Europe.

Holy relics were acquired.

And Constantinople was perfectly located as a waypoint

between Rome and Jerusalem.

But this also meant it became caught

in the middle of several key religious conflicts

between the West and the East.

Firstly, in the eighth century, came a split

over images and icons between Roman Catholicism and Eastern

Orthodox Christianity, centering on those

held in the Hagia Sophia.

A ban was subsequently imposed, which

had considerable ramifications across the Byzantine Empire,

and in the end, significantly weakening its power.

Then, in the late 11th century, a wider struggle

began between Christianity in the West and Islam in the East.

This gave rise to the Crusades, which were initiated

from various cities across Western Europe and even

Scandinavia, with the main objective

of reclaiming Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the Muslims.

In 1095, the Emperor in Constantinople,

Alexios Komnenos, was facing a barbarian threat

from the new rulers of Persia and Southern

Turkiye, the Seljuks.

He was desperate.

Pilgrims were being massacred in Jerusalem,

and Alexios asked for help from Rome.

Pope Urban responded in the November of 1095,

summoning all of Christendom to the first great crusade.

This would save Byzantium and liberate Jerusalem for a time.

Constantinople was, again, an important stopping

point on these expeditions.

And by the time of the Fourth Crusade,

in 1198, other objectives were in play,

and even Eastern Christian communities were

subjected to bloody violence.

It all came to a head in April 1204

with the sack of Constantinople,

when churches were looted of their treasures and desecrated.

Some, including the Hagia Sophia,

were damaged by fires deliberately

started by the invaders.

The city would be rebuilt, but it was the beginning of the end

of the Byzantine Empire.

Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site,

perhaps the most significant date in the Hagia

Sophia's history is the 29th of May, 1453,

which marked the fall of Constantinople

after an arduous 53-day siege.

This was the culmination of several hundred years

of conquests by the Ottoman Empire

across Western Asia, Southeastern

Europe, and North Africa.

By 1453, there was only a remnant of the old Byzantine

Empire left... provinces, in what today is the country

of Greece, and a small enclave around what

today is the city of Istanbul, the ancient

city of Constantinople.

The Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, who became known as Mehmed

the Conqueror, was determined to eliminate

the Byzantine Emperor, who actually styled himself Roman

emperor because this was the last remnant

of the ancient Roman Empire.

[music playing]

Mehmed assembled a vast army and moved

on the city of Constantinople, determined to conquer it.

The Byzantines appealed to the West for help

as fellow Christians and received a small amount help,

but really not very much, they were facing

the enormous challenge of the might of the Turkish

armies alone.

NARRATOR: As the city's defenses were relentlessly

attacked by the Ottoman cannons, many of its citizens

took refuge in the Hagia Sophia's cavernous interior,

among them the Emperor Constantine IX.

The end, when it eventually came, was bloody.

Sultan Mehmed II's army entered the city at midnight

on the 29th of May and subjected it to three

days of rape and pillage.

The victorious Mehmed set up his throne under the great dome

of Hagia Sophia.

Hagia Sophia's 900 years as a Christian Cathedral came

to an abrupt close, and it was converted into an imperial

mosque of the Ottoman Empire, the minarets

being progressively added in the 15th and 16th centuries.

The Ottomans had besieged Constantinople before,

but had been unsuccessful.

But in 1453, they conquered the city.

Constantinople was no longer the seat of the Byzantine

or Roman Emperors.

Instead, it became the seat of the Ottoman Sultan.

The capture of Constantinople was

a springboard for further territorial conquest.

The Ottomans already had territories in the Balkans.

They now consolidated their conquest of Greece,

and then began to expand north and west

into Croatia and Hungary.

Eventually, Ottoman armies went as far as Vienna, the capital

of the Holy Roman Empire.

But there, they were defeated.

And the Ottoman tide receded somewhat.

NARRATOR: As progressively, as it had acquired territories

from the end of the 17th century and up to its defeat

in Vienna, the Ottoman Empire began surrendering what it had

gained, finding itself under attack on several fronts,

including from within.

By the mid 19th century, it was being called,

"The Sick Man of Europe."

In 1908, there was a revolution launched

by the Young Turks movement, Young Turks,

so-called because they were forward thinking modernists.

They wanted to transform the old ramshackle Ottoman empire,

and to some extent they did.

They introduced laws guaranteeing

freedom of the press, freedom of speech,

and abolishing Sharia law.

But in practice, these reforms are only carried

out up to a certain point.

NARRATOR: The Young Turk revolution took place

in July 1908, with a key objective being to reinstate

the Ottoman empire's parliament, which had been

suspended over three decades and putting

power into the hands of a Sultan

and his closest associates.

Perhaps more crucially, the empire

had been progressively shrinking in size

and faced new threats to its borders, which

stung the military into action, equally keen to overthrow

the existing powers.

The Young Turks were very keen to make

the empire more Turkish.

Now, even though Europeans at the time

called the Ottoman Empire the Turkish empire

or even just Turkiye, its borders were very widespread.

It included the whole of what is today Lebanon, Syria,

Israel, Palestine, Iraq, parts of Arabia,

and Libya, and Egypt.

So the empire was very cosmopolitan, very polyglot,

rather than just being a Turkish Empire.

One of the consequences of the Young Turks desire

to make the empire more Turkish was persecution of minorities.

In particular, the Ottoman government

persecuted Armenians, who were both ethnically

separate and Christian.

Persecution of Armenians came to a head

during World War I. Under the pressure of war,

the Ottoman government reacted to what

it saw as an alien minority with incredible brutality.

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians

were killed, and tens of thousands

more fled the country as refugees.

At the end of the war, the Ottoman Empire was defeated

and in effect lay prostrate in a disastrous state.

It seemed likely that its territory would be carved up

by the European empires, with various parts being handed out

to the different great powers.

Italy claimed part of the Turkish Empire,

Greece claimed part, France claimed part,

and the Greeks actually invaded and pushed

deep into Asia Minor.

It was at this point that Kemal Ataturk,

whose name actually means, "Father of the Turks,"

came to the rescue.

Thanks to his military and political leadership,

the modern Turkish Republic was founded,

and Kemal was able to negotiate successfully

with the French and the British and achieve

a peace treaty which established

a new Turkish Republic.

Its borders are those that we know of as Turkiye today.

Thus, we see the transformation of the once

great and cosmopolitan Ottoman Empire

into the modern Republic of Turkiye.

NARRATOR: The Republic of Turkiye

was declared on the 29 of October 1923,

with Atatu?rk a -s -its first president

and Ankara as its new capital city.

Subsequently, Turkiye has become a member of the United

Nations, NATO, and the OECD.

And its not all been plain sailing,

and there have been periods of political unrest,

as well as several economic crises.

But today's Turkiye is enjoying relative stability and growth.

As a statement of confidence in its identity,

an official name change for English usage from Turkey

to Turkiye was announced in December 2021

as a better representation of the culture, civilization, and

values of the Turkish nation.

Occupying all of the Anatolian Peninsula

and a small part of the Balkan Peninsula,

Turkiye is surrounded on three sides by sea,

the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean to the south,

the Aegean to the west.

It shares borders with quite a number

of countries, including Greece, Bulgaria,

Iran, Iraq, and Syria.

Turkiye also boasts great geological diversity.

It's a country of mountains, plains, lakes, and coastlines.

But undoubtedly, one of the most stunning landscapes

in the world can be found on a high plateau

in the central region of Cappadocia.

Here can be seen dramatic and almost surreal

looking rock formations called fairy chimneys.

They're the end results of volcanic activity

and then millennia of erosion.

The softer materials at the top wearing away faster

than the harder of basalt at the base

to create the cone-like shapes.

During the Roman period, the early Christians

converted some of these chimneys

into homes, and even churches.

The caves, that are also part of this landscape,

became underground settlements, some of them

housing thousands of people.

There's no CGI trickery here.

These are very real.

And not surprisingly, this area has

been a huge attraction for visitors

from all over the world.

Undoubtedly, the best way to appreciate

the sheer visual impact of this landscape is from the air,

with the bird's eye view provided by a hot air balloon.

It's a pre-dawn start, but as the sun comes up

and the remarkable shapes of the fairy chimneys

are revealed, bathed in the warm early morning light,

the visual experience is one of the most

breathtaking on the planet.

Simply floating silently and slowly

as this awesome landscape slips by

is nothing short of mesmerizing and truly memorable.

[music playing]

While Ankara is the country's modern capital,

Istanbul is Turkiye's largest city

and also its financial center.

It's a city with over 2,500 years of history,

and it is steeped in the varying influences of the many

different peoples who have called

it home over the centuries...

Greek, Roman, Ottoman, and more recently, the modern era Turks.

Situated in northwestern Turkiye

and straddling the Bosphorus Strait,

Istanbul is where Europe and Asia shake hands.

Its highly strategic location, as the meeting point between

the East and the West made it the prized possession of its

various occupiers, and it served as a capital

city for close to 1,600 years.

The Romans called it firstly New Rome

and then Constantinople, named after the Emperor

Constantine I.

An indication of the city's immense commercial importance,

the Ottomans nicknamed it, "Gate to Prosperity."

In 1930, the newly established Turkish Republic

changed the name to Istanbul, the modern Turkish derivation

of Islambol.

[music playing]

With a population of nearly 16 million people,

modern day Istanbul is not only Turkiye's largest city but also

Europe's, and for the record, the 15th largest in the world.

Istanbul is a feast for the senses.

It's vibrant, busy, and exciting.

It was already a hugely popular destination

before the COVID 19 pandemic shut down international travel.

Now, it's very rapidly returning to similar numbers

of visitors annually, and there is just

so much to see and experience.

The Sultanahmet, or old city is a good place to start,

and its expansive square, known as the Hippodrome

of Constantinople, contains a number of ancient relics,

including the Theodosius Obelisk, which came from Egypt

and is over 3,500 years old.

From here, it's a short walk to the Hagia Sophia,

and also perhaps the best known building

in Istanbul, the Blue Mosque.

Officially, it's the Sultan Ahmed Mosque,

and it was commissioned by Sultan Ahmed I at the start

of the 17th century.

Its design was inspired by the much older Hagia Sophia,

just next door.

And the blue name comes from the tiles

and decorations that are a feature of the vast interior.

The multiple domes and six slender minarets

are a distinctive part of the Istanbul skyline.

Not far away is a mosque known as the little Hagia Sophia,

and it's called this because it shares a very similar history

as the bigger building.

Here, then, on a smaller scale, that's more easily appreciated

both inside and out, is encapsulated

Istanbul's fascinating religious journey

through the millennia.

It was built in 536 BC by the Roman Emperor Justinian, who

rightly earned himself the Epithet of Justinian

the Builder, and it became a Greek Orthodox Church

during the Byzantine period.

It remained a Christian church for some time

after the Ottomans arrived, but was finally

converted to a mosque in 1513.

The original interior would have been highly decorated

with colorful mosaics which are long gone,

but the variegated marble columns remain and the still

much beauty in the details.

The building's Christian origins are clear to see,

as are classical Greek design elements.

The Zeyrek Mosque, again, reflects

the city's 15th century transition

from Christianity to Islam.

It's in fact two Byzantine-era churches

and a Chapel that have been combined into one

impressively large building.

Both churches were built in the first half of the 12th century,

and the architecture is typically Byzantine,

as is the building technique.

Alternate courses of bricks recessed

into a thick bed of mortar.

Only the Hagia Sophia is larger.

Remarkably, this complex was abandoned in the late 15th

century and despite its importance

architecturally, was left to deteriorate

for hundreds of years.

Restoration works were started recently and are ongoing,

but the building is once again an active mosque.

Though Turkiye is a secular state,

it is a majority Muslim country.

The statistics tell us that anywhere from 95% to 99%

of the country is Muslim.

NARRATOR: Ethnically, just under 80%

of Istanbul's population is now of Turkish descent,

and also mostly Sunni Muslim, while around 17%

are of Kurdish origin.

The influence of Islam can be felt, seen

and heard throughout the city.

For one, five times a day, you can hear from the speakers

of the more than 3,000 state run mosques, the Adhan,

where Imams climb the minarets and announce

the time for prayer so that all Muslims can bow down and pray.

NARRATOR: The Adhan is known as the Azan in Turkiye,

and it's mentioned in the eighth verse of

the Turkish National Anthem.

Before prayers, Muslims are expected

to perform a purification ritual called Wudu.

This starts with the washing of the hands

so they're clean for the rest of the ritual.

First, the right hand is washed three times and then the left.

These three times represent the spiritual, the mental,

and the physical motivations.

Next, the mouth is washed three times

to signify that what you say would be

consistent with your actions.

Then the nose and the whole face

are also separately washed three times.

This is followed by the arms as distinct from the hands...

Again, right and then left, each three times.

The hair is wiped over front to back and the ears are cleaned.

Finally, the feet are cleaned up to the ankle right,

then left...

Again, three times.

This washing represents both a physical and spiritual

preparation for prayer, ensuring a purity

of body, mind, and spirit.

The influence of Islam can also be seen

in its amazing architecture.

For example, the Topkapi Palace,

which served as the home of the Sultans

during the Ottoman Empire, now houses holy relics

from the Islamic faith.

NARRATOR: Built in the late 1450s,

the Topkapi Palace was a royal residence for nearly 400 years,

and the complex was continually expanded during this time

so that it could eventually house up to 4,000 people,

made up of family members and a very

extensive retinue of staff.

Its design is a mixture of Ottoman,

Islamic, and European architectural styles, built

around four large walled courtyards, which

had their own significance.

Today, it's a museum, which opened in 1924

and celebrates the rich history of the Ottoman Empire.

MARINA GARNER: For example, the arm and the skull

of John the Baptist, which is considered a prophet

in the Islamic faith.

We also find Muhammad's bow and sword and his holy seal.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: While Islam is very much a part of modern Istanbul,

and the major mosques are as important as any of Europe's

great cathedrals, the city's secular life

has plenty to offer as well.

The city has just so many attractions it's hard to know

where to start, but perhaps a good place is the 14th Century

Galata Tower, which is an iconic element of the Istanbul

skyline, and provides a stunning

360 degree view that's more revealing than any map.

Once part of the city's all important fortifications,

the Tower stands at 67 meters in height.

And from the observation deck, can

be seen many of Istanbul's most famous landmarks,

including the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia.

Fortunately, elevators take visitors

nearly all the way to the top.

And what's more, there's a restaurant up

here serving traditional Turkish Ottoman food.

Not surprisingly, though, bookings are essential.

Legend has it that in 1638, the Ottoman scientist and inventor

Hezarfen Ahmed Chalabi strapped on a set of wings

and glided from the top of the tower

over to the Asian side of the city,

achieving the world's first intercontinental flight.

Down on the waterfront in the Eminonu quarter,

the busy harbor is a reminder of the city's

long history as an important commercial center.

This wide estuary is called the Golden Horn,

a reference to the riches it fed into Istanbul

over the centuries.

It flows into the Bosphorus Strait, the stretch of water

that separates Europe and Asia, but also links the Black

Sea with the Mediterranean.

The Galata Bridge is one of the four which span the Golden Horn

and is a popular spot for fishing...

A very popular spot indeed.

Another reminder of Istanbul's commercial activities

is it's amazing. covered bazaars, which are still

lively trading places today.

The huge Spice Bazaar is housed in a building

from the mid-17th century, which

is attached to the new mosque that

dates from the same period.

The rents from the many shops pay

for the upkeep of the mosque.

Spices were a very valuable commodity,

and the spice trade was extremely

lucrative for thousands of years,

but especially during the Middle Ages,

when Istanbul was ideally situated

to meet the huge demand from Europe for spices

from Asia and further east.

It was the last stop on the legendary Silk Road.

Also, spices such as cinnamon, cassis, and cardamom

would initially travel from India and southeast Asia,

to Egypt, and from there to Istanbul

via the Mediterranean Sea.

So this is also known as the Egyptian Bazaar

in the Turkish language.

The heady scents of so many herbs and spices in one place

is said to create its very own microclimate,

which is claimed to both entrance

and stimulate the visitor.

Talking of stimulation, coffee was another important trading

commodity for the city.

When the Spice Bazaar was opened in 1664,

there were already hundreds of coffeehouses

in this part of Istanbul.

A Turkish coffee is one of the many culinary experiences

of Istanbul.

It's black, frothy, and sweet, and traditionally,

poured from a long handled copper or brass pot, which is

called a "cezve" in Turkiye.

And Turkish food, once you get used to it, no matter where

you've come from, I think you will

never want to live without it.

The cheese breads are just amazing in their flavors

and textures.

And then there's all different kinds of meats,

shish kebabs and doner kebabs and lamb stew and dolma,

and many other things that you might not get every day.

NARRATOR: Shish kebab is traditionally

made with cubes of lamb, which are grilled on a metal skewer.

The shish in Turkish, the kebab translates as roasted meat,

which was the origins of the dish before grilling

became the more popular method of cooking.

The doner kebab is uniquely Turkish,

but is now enjoyed around the world, mostly introduced

by Turkish immigrants.

It dates all the way back to the 17th century.

Spiced meat is roasted on a vertical rotisserie,

and served with either salad or vegetables in a flatbread.

In Greece, it's a popular dish that's often

served also with hot chips.

There's a bustling nightlife all along the harbor front

and the nearby squares, with plenty

of places to enjoy the changing atmosphere as the sun

dips low in the sky.

The city takes on a new persona and character at night.

The street food vendors, cafes, and restaurants

are all ready to keep everybody fed and watered.

This is the time when both residents

and visitors can both enjoy the magic of Istanbul.

A cruise on the Bosphorus provides truly spectacular

views as daylight fades and the many bridges and mosques

begin to light up.

After a stunning show, as the sun sets over the busy harbor,

the city's distinctive skyline begins to glow,

and the buildings, both ancient and modern,

add another dramatic element to the nighttime experience.

Istanbul leaves a lasting impression on everybody who

visits this remarkable city, with its storied history,

unique geography, distinctive cultural influences,

and yes, fabulous food.

It's time for us to leave, too.

But there's so much more to come in Turkiye's

Astonishing Antiquities.

As we travel across the country to explore

some of the most remarkable ancient sites on the planet.

In the next episode, we'll be traveling to Tarsus,

another Turkish city with a very long history

and considerable religious significance.

It was a center of great culture and learning,

the place where Alexander the Great almost

died after swimming in the freezing waters of the River

Cydnus, where the great Roman orator Cicero lived

for a time, where Julius Caesar visited,

where Mark Anthony first met Cleopatra...

She sailed up the Cydnus on a barge dressed like Aphrodite...

And where the apostle Paul was born,

and would later return to bring Christianity to Asia Minor.

What a cast!

Don't miss it.

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