An ideal bridge between East and West. Turkey, a country to discover

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A fascinating country with a thousand attractions to those from the cultural landscape: everything here is a discovery:
Istanbul is a magical city: its beautiful mosques and blue, that of Saint Sofia and the Mosque Nuruosmaniye.
Nuruosmaniye Mosque is near the Grand Bazaar.
The Blue Mosque (built 1609-1616) is in the Sultanahmet downtown in front of Hagia Sofia. Note Sultan Ahmed Mosque is the only one with six minarets and is also called Blue Mosque for the blue tiles used in interior decoration.
The mosque of Aya Sofia was commissioned by the Emperor Justinian I and built between 532 and 537. This Christian Church was transformed into a mosque by the Turks in 1453. Hagia Sophia means Holy Wisdom (Holy Wisdom) is also called Saint Sophia. Today, Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya in Turkish, Hagia Sophia in English) is a museum. At the entrance of the mosque in S. Sofia must raise the view to see what is perhaps the most famous Byzantine mosaic in the world: Christ Pantocrator, which is above the front door. Belli also the mosaics of the Church of Chora.
Then exploration of the most curious part of the city, underground, represented by the tanks. Whole range in the Byzantine period to compensate for the lack of water in case of siege, these huge vessels, often made with recycled materials, are a real discovery. The most famous is the Yerebatan Sarayi, Basilica Cistern (open every day except Thursday): a room of 140 meters long and 70 wide, covered by a vaulted ceiling supported by 336 columns. A path leads raggiurigerne the bottom, where there are two blocks of marble with a relief of Medusa.
One of intoxicating scents and colors along the famous Grand Bazaar of spices, hookahs and objects of any kind (nice slippers wholesale with the tip up) that fill the thousands of labyrinthine corridors of a market (there are 61 roads intersect!) the largest covered market in Istanbul.
I suggest a cruise on the Bosphorus which requires a whole day ... a peaceful, fresh and fantastic day. Journeys depart from Istanbul Sultanahmet (Golden Horn) in the morning .... and during the crossing is strange to think that along the two sides both worlds the West and the East so far in culture are so close geographically!
Finally, the Galata Tower and Topkapi Palace, that "the door of the gun" was the main residence of Mohammed II. Entering on the right, there are kitchens, recognizable from the outside for his fireplace, which they fed over 4,000 people. On the other side you enter the harem, but most is being restored, so we headed to the area of the Treasury, with precious stones, jade, crystal, thrones and swords. Next door is the room with the Holy Relics, containing the cloak of the Prophet, together with a tooth and its footprint.
Then the beautiful gardens and the landscape, from one side of the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus on the other.
After leaving Istanbul's other great emotion and Cappadocia with its underground cities carved into the tufa, its pinnacles, the Fairy Chimneys, where erosion has created spectacular effects, such as cones topped by blocks of hard rock, tens of meters high , Goreme and its embedded in the rock churches with frescoes still visible, Urgup and its cave dwellings: everything is spectacular! The region alone would be worth the trip to this country.
Then the wonder of the waterfalls of Pamukkale calcium oxalate (in turkish means "cotton castle"), whose thermal springs around 2700 meters long and 160 meters high, and stocks can be admired from a distance. Every second, 250 liters of hot water gush from the source.
The water contains large amounts of hydrogen and calcium carbonate, which merge to form calcium bi-carbonate. This natural phenomenon so deposited thick layers of limestone and travertine that seem to fall along the mountain slopes, making them look like a frozen waterfall, one of the most beautiful natural wonders across Turkey.
These are the highlights of a journey that is completed by the visit to Ankara, a city known only for its Museum of Archaeology: menagerie Konya and his caravan, Ephesus and the ruins of a city very famous in deo Romans and finally the sea ... the less apt choice because the holiday fell on a town Bodrum, given the Saint Tropez of Turkey. Perhaps more than the city the poor choice has been the resort, actually very anonymous when compared to a stay in a more lowered into the local community. Here beaches and lack access to the sea is represented by a concrete platform near the water's edge .... but other than that little flaw in Turkey we will return soon!