" The sound stops short, the sense flows on" Chinese saying
While walking through the old part of Beyoglu (Istiklal avenue), you'll come across an eclectic Ottoman building called Cité de Pera just opposite Galata Palace, today's Galatasaray Lycee. It might remind you some of the 19th century buildings in Paris and Vienna with their beautiful architectural ornaments on their facades. ... Continue Reading →
An endangered Greek dialect which is spoken in north-eastern Turkey has been identified by researchers as a "linguistic goldmine" because of its startling closeness to the ancient language, as Cambridge researcher Dr Ioanna Sitaridou explains. https://www.greecehighdefinition.com/blog/2017/5/26/archaic-greek-in-a-modern-world
“Nowhere else could we have started the Hogarth Press, whose very awkward beginning had rise in this very room […] Here that strange offspring grew & throve; it ousted us from the dining room […] & crept all over the house. And people have been here, thousands of them it seems to me” Virginia Woolf’s... Continue Reading →
“Let the land prosper and thrive, and let the land be protected”…..from the myth of the Illuyanka. Spring equinox was celebrated as a fertility ritual in the Land of the Hatti. The celebration of these rites were reflected on some rock reliefs that were discovered in Ancient Anatolia.
...The knot of fear United in peace Every now and then Juxtaposed Just a few steps apart Looks at each other compassionately On the shores of Istanbul The Ezan The Bell The Hazan Beki L. Bahar This pretty village lies on the European side of Bosphorus. When the Byzantine emperor Basil commissioned a... Continue Reading →
“Let the land prosper and thrive, and let the land be protected”.....from the myth of the Illuyanka. Spring equinox was celebrated as a fertility ritual in the Land of the Hatti. The celebration of these rites were reflected on some rock reliefs that were discovered in Ancient Anatolia. A cuneiform tablet found during the excavations contains... Continue Reading →
Judith Starkston Judith Starkston as an historical novelist and researcher hands one a telescope to peer back into Anatolia’s past. In her novel, Hand of Fire, she tells about Trojan Women and their roles in Ancient Anatolia and Mycenean Greece, particularly about Briseis’s, the captive woman who sparked the bitter conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon... Continue Reading →
All my life, my only dream was to write a little bit more, a little bit better. Yasar Kemal Acclaimed as one of the greatest writers in Turkish, has died in Istanbul aged 92. He was the first Turkish writer nominated for the Nobel prize for literature. His works often chronicled the lives of... Continue Reading →
Strolling through Beyoglu-Istiklal Caddesi (Old Pera) There are two versions for the origin of the name Beyoglu, which in Turkish means “Son of a Prince”. One version has it that the name stems from that of Alexius Comnenus, son of Prince Alexander of Trebizond. After Trebizond fell to the Turks in 1461, Fatih brought Alexius... Continue Reading →
Constantinople had its own distinctive holidays, including some with pre-Christian overtones that lingered well into the Middle Ages. Each new year began with Calends on january 1-4, when residents hung laurel wreaths on doors, held costumed parades, and exchanged gifts. The ancient feast of Bota on january 3 originally involved public prayers and sacrifices with... Continue Reading →
Legacies of Ancient & Modern Cultures 