Tourism push threatens Turkey’s ancient sites

by Melanie Renzulli on

The age-old battle pitting historical preservation against tourism infrastructure development is coming to a fever pitch in Turkey. In an effort to increase tourism, which is set to earn Turkey $21 billion in 2011, the Turkish government recently transferred some archeological excavation permits from non-Turkish to Turkish universities. This unprecedented move, according to The Art Newspaper, is “a cracking of the whip over foreign scholars regarded as not working fast enough to transform the country’s extensive array of antiquities into tourist attractions.”

Turkey lays claim to an impressive catalog of antiquities, ranging from Greek and Roman ruins to the remains of ancient Hittite settlements to Byzantine and medieval Arab treasures. Its most famous archeological attraction is Ephesus, an ancient Greek and Roman city and the home of the Library of Celsus, one of the most iconic ruins of ancient Rome. Ephesus attracts more than two million visitors each year making it the perfect example for both sides of the preservation vs. tourism debate.

Infrastructure development to handle both the influx of tourists and the increased urbanization of Turkey’s populacealso threatens Turkey’s cultural heritage. For example, seven years ago, workers building a new station for the Istanbul metro system uncovered a Byzantine harbor which included the ruins of 32 buried ships. While a work stoppage was ordered to preserve these artifacts, Turkish officials, particularly Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who complained that “bits of old potsherds” were getting in the way of development, have grown weary with the slow progress of infrastructure projects. Other antiquities, such as the ancient Roman spa town of Allianoi, have already become victims to Turkey’s efforts to modernize. Allianoi now lies buried beneath the Ilya River as part of the Yortanlı Dam project.

In recent years, Turkey has emerged as one of the world’s fastest growing economies as well as an increasingly popular destination for tourists. It shall be interesting to see how Turkey’s antiquities fare as these two factors force the country towards more development.

Photo © Melanie Renzulli

Göbekli Tepe: the ancient temple that changed our view of the beginning of civilization

by Sean McLachlan on


On a dusty hilltop in southwestern Turkey is an ancient temple that shouldn’t exist.

In 9,000 BC, people set up a series of round buildings decorated with giant “T”-shaped pillars carved with pictures of animals and humans. The buildings are 10-30 meters in diameter with a taller pair of pillars in the center and smaller ones at regular intervals around the circumference. The pillars range from 3-6 meters tall and weigh 6-10 tons each.

The hauling, cutting, and setting up of the pillars would have taken a huge amount of work, especially considering that 11,000 years ago people had no metal tools, no agriculture, not even any pottery. The temple at Göbekli Tepe has taught us that people were setting up major buildings before they even lived in towns. It’s turned out idea of prehistory upside down.

Now Göbekli Tepe is undergoing conservation by the Global Heritage Fund in order to preserve it for future study and protect it from looters.

One of the most intriguing aspects of Göbekli Tepe is that only about 5 percent of the site has been excavated. Who knows what this temple, built by hunter-gatherers 6,000 years before Stonehenge, will teach us next?

[Both images courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Serial public art around the world

by Libby Zay on

Public art exhibitions featuring a common sculpture that is multiplied and then embellished by various artists have been popping up in cities worldwide since 1998. Artistic director Walter Knapp first came up with the idea and convinced artists to dot Zurich, Switzerland with a collection of artfully-decorated lions. Within a year, Chicago businessman Peter Hanig had taken the idea and ran with it, using life-sized cows for an exhibition titled CowParade that is still circling the world today.

This idea of serial public art spread like wildfire into over 70 cities across the United States and many other locations worldwide. Tourism administrations seem to think the installations draw a crowd, while the exhibitions typically end in pieces being auctioned off to charity. It’s a win-win for all–unless, of course, you think the artworks are an eyesore.

From mermaids to gorillas, click through the gallery below to see a sampling of serial public art from around the world.

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Expat fusion cuisine: combining foreign foods with favorites from home

by Meg Nesterov on

Part of the fun of traveling is trying new and exotic foods. Many travelers try to eat only locally and eschew the familiar, though eating at American chain restaurants abroad can be its own experience. But when you make a foreign country your home, you have to adapt your tastes and cooking to what’s available locally while craving your favorites from home. I’m lucky enough to live in Istanbul with an amazing food culture heavy on roasted meats and grilled fish, fragrant spices, and fresh produce. Some foreign foods like pizza and sushi have been embraced in Istanbul, but Turkish food has remained largely uncompromised by outside influences and passing trends. Convenience foods are still a new concept in Turkey but you can always grab a quick doner kebab or fish sandwich on the street if you aren’t up to cooking.
In my own kitchen, I’m learning to work with Turkish ingredients and dishes and mix in some favorites from home, creating some “expat fusion” cuisine. Meat-filled manti ravioli gets an extra zing with some Louisiana hot sauce. In the hottest days of my pregnancy this summer, I craved pudding pops from my childhood, making them more adult with some tangy Turkish yogurt. One ingredient I miss here is maple syrup, which is generally only produced in North America, and hard to find and expensive in the rest of the world (a small bottle in Turkey costs about $20!). One of my American friends brought me a bottle this summer and I poured it over pancakes (surprisingly easy to make from scratch when you can’t get a mix) and my favorite Turkish treat, kaymak. Kaymak is a clotted cream popular on the breakfast table, served with a crusty loaf of bread and honey, available in most local supermarkets but best eaten fresh in a cafe like Pando’s Kaymakci in Istanbul’s Besiktas neighborhood. I draw a lot of inspiration from my friend and fellow expat Joy, who was a professional pastry chef back in Baltimore and now chronicles her mouth-watering cooking in her Istanbul kitchen on her blog, My Turkish Joys. She posts beautiful food photos and recipes with both American and European measurements to help US and Turkish readers recreate her dishes such as sour cherry pie. Afiyet Olsun (that’s Turkish for bon appetit)!

Gadling readers, have you created any expat fusion foods with ingredients from your travels? Make us hungry and leave us a comment below!

Photo of the day – morning coffee in Thailand

by Meg Nesterov on


How do you take your coffee? Flickr user LadyExpat posted this lovely setup from Chiang Mai, Thailand. Coffee is a thing beloved around the world and served differently everywhere. Turkey may be famous for its dense and tiny cups of coffee, but tulip-shaped glasses of tea and ready made Nescafe are more popular with locals and the muddy stuff is served more as digestif. In Italy, don’t even think of ordering a milky coffee past breakfast or your waiter will warn you of getting a stomachache. In Argentina, I looked forward to sweet media lunes each morning with my cafe con leche.

What’s your favorite place for coffee? Upload your java pix to our Gadling Flickr pool and we could use one as a future Photo of the Day.