Baths

Turkish Bath Houses have been used by the Turks for thousands of years. Although they are not as popular as they used to be, many are still in use today. Basically, they are a cross between swimming pools, health clubs and communal baths! Although they can look quite plain from the outside, the interiors are often very beautiful.

So what happens at a Turkish bath? Well, a visit is made up of several steps. First you get changed. You would only wear a small towel – don’t worry, men and women use the baths at different times! Next you would enter a very hot, dry room to get warm. Then you go into an even hotter, steamy room which makes you sweat all of the dirt out of your skin, a bit like a sauna. The fourth step is to wash the dirt off with soap in a large, hot bath. The Bath Houses employ people who would then give you a massage to relax your muscles. After being scrubbed and rubbed, you would then take cold swim to get your body back to its normal temperature. After getting changed, you can either lie down and relax, or go for a cold drink.

How does that sound? Strange? Nice? It would certainly leave you feeling clean and relaxed. Can you imagine a place like that in Britain?

Mosques

Turkey is a Muslim country - nearly 99% of people are Muslims. Throughout the country there are places of Muslim worship called ‘mosques’. Turkish mosques are often very big and beautiful buildings with a large dome on top of them. Over any city skyline you can see many of these brightly coloured domes, some of which are as big as 30 metres in diameter.

Turks wear plain clothing and remove their shoes when visiting mosques. In some areas of Turkey, women even cover their head, shoulders, arms and legs when they go there. The Muslim holy day is on Friday, and mosques get very busy and full at prayer time.

The oldest mosque in the country is the Uli Cami (Great Mosque) of Diyarbakir, which dates back to about 600 AD. Mosques were originally built as a very important of the community. The Fatih mosque in Istanbul was built in the 1660s, and included 16 religious schools, a library, a hospital, a hostel and a public kitchen. Today they are mostly used for prayer.

The Ancient City of Troy

Troy, a city on the west coast of Turkey, was made famous by a Greek writer named Homer (no, not Simpson!). He wrote many books, including The Odyssey and The Iliad, about wars between the Greeks and the Trojans, sometime between 1500 and 1200 BC.

Most people thought that the books were just stories rather than facts, until in 1871, a German explorer called Heinrich Schliemann discovered what are believed to be the ruins of the ancient city of Troy.

The Trojan War is most famous for the legend of a giant wooden horse called The Trojan Horse. The Greek army had been trying to get into Troy for years, but couldn’t get past its high walls. Eventually they came up with a clever plan – The Trojan Horse.

The Greeks built the giant horse, and left it outside the walls of Troy at night. The next day, the Trojan army saw it and thought it was a gift from the gods. They brought it inside the city walls as a good luck charm. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t know that lots of Greek soldiers were hiding inside it! Late at night the Greeks came out and opened the city gates, letting the Greek army into Troy.

The Greeks started fires all over the city. The Trojans had been tricked, and woke up to find their city burning. When they tried to escape they were killed or captured by Greek soldiers, finally ending the 10-year Trojan war.

Not much of Troy remains today, but its ruins on the west coast are a reminder of Turkey’s long and interesting history.

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