We all mention that this landscape is admired by everyone. The best proof for this statement is the devil’s table in Ayvalık district of Balıkesir county in Western Anatolia. There is an incredible place on the shore of Western Anatolia.

I guess that devil was looking for a nice place to have a rest and devil discovered Ayvalık. Devil sat down on a hill and watched the islands. Devil left a footprint in a rock on the edge of the hill.Today you can make a wish at this site. I have to confess that it has a taste. This is the view;

This is one of the different sight seeing place with a pleasant panorama. There are restaurants and cafes on the hill. Also it is famous for sunsets in the evenings.

We are tuning the time machine to 33 AD and our location is Ephesus. This is the immigration of Virgin Mary to Ephesus.

Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem and Jerusalem wasn’t safe for Christians. So St.Jean decided to run away from Jerusalem in order to survive Virgin Mary. They had been on a long way for months. They arrived to Ephesus. Ephesus was also under Roman Empire rule. They settled on a mountain nearby Ephesus by the help of inhabitants. She had spent her days there by praying to God. She had lived there till she was 101. Finally she passed away here. According to the rumor, her grave is nearby her house.

It is a pilgrimage place for Christians with the confirmation of Vatican. It is also a holy place for Muslims because Virgin Mary is one of the holy people for Islam. So this is a residence of holy spirit.

Visit İzmir and feel the spirit of Virgin Mary.

Note: This is a sightseeing place so you have to charge fee to enter here.

Tokat Castle is a very special place because it was used as prison for some famous characters of history. We are tuning the time machine to the Roman Age.

It was built between BC 30 and AD 395 for Roman border control then Byzantines had dominated this castle for 500 years. Then Turks came here. It was used as prison and one of the famous prisoner was Count Dracula. He was imprisoned here because he was given to Ottomans as a condition of an agreement by his father. He was trained by Conqueror Sultan Mehmed for a while.

Count Dracula wasn’t only one and also many prisoners such as Byzantine Emperor Diogenis were there. Some tunnels were discovered in castle complex. Also some rock tombs were discovered.

Briefly we witnessed Count Dracula and other prisoners in this voyage. If it had a mouth, I am sure that it would have told us many incredible stories.

We are going back to 1098 February and our location is Edessa (today’s Urfa ). Crusaders planned a campaign to rule Jerusalem. They achieved their purpose, they established a kingdom in Jerusalem. In addition to this kingdom, they established a county in southeastern region of this landscape.

Edessa was the site that was located strategically and Crusaders established a county in the region in 1098. It was collapsed in 1118.

Crusaders wanted to dominate the region and they established states.

We are going back to BC 412. We are going to meet a man called Diogenes. He was living in Black sea of Small Asia. He became one of the best known philosophers in ancient era. He was an extra ordinary man of the age.

Diogenes was a philosopher that was born in Sinop.He was born in BC 412. He was known as a man living in a barrel. He was a son of a banker family and he worked with his father but he had to leave Sinop for a conflict. He went to Athena and he focused on philosophy. His belief was to adopt on nature and to live in simplicity. His life principle was to live simple so he started to live in a barrel.

Although the philosophers had value in the public, his choice was to live in simplicity. One day Alexander the Great wanted to see that famous philosopher and asked him if he had any wish. His response was very interesting. He just wanted Alexander the great not to stand in front of him because Diogenes wanted to feel the sun rays.

He was an interesting character of philosophy.

This love story is dated back to Troy war epic. Amazon queen Penthesilea joined the Troy war as an alien of Troy. She was good at fighting so everyone paid attention to this warrior but they didn’t know that this warrior was a female warrior. She got so famous that Achilles wanted to fight with her.

Finally he got the chance to fight with her. Achilles won the struggle but when he saw the queen, he fell in love with her. It was too late for him.

Maybe we can see Achilles and Penthesilea when we visit Troy,if we are lucky.

Homer was the famous poet of ancient era because he was the author of Iliada. It was about the trip of a soldier to Greece after Troy war. It took ten years to come back to Greece.

It was a well known classic poet and everybody knew that poem Iliada. He was from Ionia and he lived in Smyrna.

Small Asia was the homeland of homer.

Alexander the Great was one of the first world emperors of ancient era. He dreamt his future and decided to build his own empire. He started his military campaign from Small Asia (today’s Çanakkale) and conquered almost whole Asia and North Africa.

If we could travel in time and wanted to go that period, probably you would face a developed Greek civilization and powerful army of Alexander. He came to Gordion (today’s Central Anatolia). There was a knot that couldn’t be untied for a long time. According to the myth, the person-who would achieve this goal- would be the conquerer of the world. He did it by his sword. Then he established his world empire. Oracle became true. That could be interesting to witness that scene.

I recommend you to imagine it.

One of the most powerful queens of ancient era Cleopatra was one of the visitors that came to this landscape. Tarsus was one of the important Roman cities because it was a busy port.

Cleopatra and Roman general Antonius were lovers. She came to Tarsus in order to meet her lover Antonius. Cleopatra entered the city from that gate.