The heartland of the country, this region is of a rugged, often startling beauty. It has witnessed several great cultures of the past and its importance is no less today as the cultural and political center of modern Turkey.
On a hill overlooking the Turkish capital of Ankara is Atatürk's Mausoleum - Anitkabir, a monument to the man without whom this land of dramatic physical contrasts would have been reduced to little more than a patch of steppeland. General Mustafa Kemal roused a people already exhausted by the Ottoman defeat in the First World War, drove the invading forces into the sea, and won back for the Turks their homeland. Given the name Atatürk, or "Father of the Turks", Mustafa Kemal founded the modern democratic Republic of Turkey, based on western laws. It was Atatürk who made the strategically placed Ankara Turkey's capital, and the city is a monument to his vision of a modern westernized state.
Looking back over his country's 10,000 year heritage, Atatürk said; "This nation is ready and resolved to advance unhalting and undaunted on the path of civilization." Around Ankara, this path of civilization stretches back a long way: to the Hittites, a proud and warlike people who ruled an empire from the Black Sea to Palestine in the 2nd millennium BC, and the Phrygians, a Thracian people who dominated the Anatolian plateau in the lst millennium BC.
To the southwest of Ankara, near Polatli, is the site of the Phrygian capital of Gordion, where Alexander the Great cut the famous Gordion knot that gave him the key to Asia. Also at Gordion is the great earth tumulus of King Midas, famed in the legend of the Golden Touch. Gathering the ancient civilizations of the land is Ankara's Museum of Anatolian Civilizations with its unique collection of Hittite sun discs and stag cult figures, Hittite reliefs and Phrygian metalwork. 
Fanning out from the foothills of the Taurus Mountains is the Plain of Konya, one of the cradles of civilization. Here on the grassland in Neolithic times, the wild bull and leopard roamed, animals that became the cult figures of Çatalhoyük, one of the world's first cities. Excavations date from 8,000 BC, where archaeologists entered the houses through the roofs. This site lies south of Konya near Çumra. It was not until the 12th century that the Konya Plain experienced its second cultural Renaissance, when the city became the capital of the Seljuk Turks. Migrating from the steppes of Central Asia, the Seljuks dealt the Byzantines a crushing defeat in 1071 at Malazgirt, which opened the floodgates to the Turkish settlement of Anatolia. Under the enlightened rule of the Sultan Alaeddin Keykubat, Seljuk culture reached its zenith in the 13th century. Seljuk art strikes a perfect balance between purity of line and intricacy of decoration, as reflected by Konya's many beautiful buildings, such as the Alaeddin Mosque, Karatay Medrese and the Ince Minareli Medrese.
In this atmosphere, where learning and art flourished, one of the great Muslim mystic movements was born. This sect, known to the west as the Whirling Dervishes of Konya, was founded by Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi, a mystic poet, whose tolerance and humanity were quite exceptional. There was not a trace of fanaticism in Mevlana, and he wished to encompass all men in his teachings based on love. As the symbol of the shedding of earthly ties, Mevlana devised a special ceremony accompanied by the ethereal sound of the reed flute. This memorial ceremony can still be seen in December, during the Mevlana week. Mevlana lies buried in a striking green tiled türbe or mausoleum, which is a site of pilgrimage. Attached to the mausoleum is the former seminary of the dervish sect, which is now a museum of articles belonging to the order.
Beysehir, southwest of Konya, was an important Seljuk center. Of interest are the beautiful Seljuk Esrefoglu Mosque and Mausoleum and the Kubad Abad Seljuk Summer Palace on the southwest side of the lake. At Aksehir, west of Konya, is the birthplace of the famous Turkish humorist, Nasreddin Hodja, whose jokes and tales have kept people laughing since the 13th century.
Göreme, known in Roman times as Cappadocia, is one of those rare regions in the world where the works of man blend unobtrusively into the landscape. Dwellings are known to have been hewn from the rock as far back as 4,000 BC. During Byzantine times, chapels and monasteries were hollowed out of the rock, and their ochre-toned frescoes simply reflect the hues of the surrounding landscape. Even today, troglodyte dwellings in rock cones and village houses of volcanic tuff merge harmoniously into the landscape.
On the fringe of the volcanic plateau are the cities of Kirsehir, Nevsehir, Kayseri and Nigde, all once centers of the Seljuk Turks, whose art adds a different dimension to the region. It is intriguing that just as the region was the center for the development of Christian monasticism in the 4th century, so too it proved a fertile area for the development of Islamic mysticism, science and art. Two humanitarian Muslim sects, the Ahi Brotherhood and Bektasi Dervishes, originated in Kirsehir and Hacibektas respectively, and several interesting buildings associated with these sects can still be seen. |
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