Turkey...A country of a thousand faces...a history as long as civilization is old...a land as diverse as any continent...A world of infinite variety and beauty...

Turkey is where western civilization, as we know it, originated. Almost 9,000 years ago, in the 7th millennium BC, the oldest known human settlement was created in Catalhoyuk. Since that time, Turkey, known also as Anatolia or Asia Minor, has been the home to some of the greatest civilizations the world has known: The warrior Urartians and Hittites, the cultured Lycians, and the intellectual Ionian Greeks, all of whom left the marks of their civilization upon the land. The city of Istanbul alone has been the seat of three empires, the Roman, the Byzantine and the Ottoman and the home of the three major religions of the world, Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Today, you have the unique chance in Turkey to visit the ancient monuments, as well as the monasteries, churches, synagogues, mosques and tombs from a wide variety of historical periods.