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Did you
know . . .
In 640 BC, for the first
time in history, coins made of electrum were used by the Lydians
in Sardis, in Turkey.
In ancient times Turkey
was known as Anatolia or Asia Minor.
King Midas was Anatolian.
Two of the Seven Wonders
of the World stood in Anatolia; the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
and the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.
The words of Julius Caesar
"Veni, vidi, vici" (I came, I saw, I conquered) were
proclaimed in Amasya, Turkey when he visited Anatolia in 47 BC.
When the Egyptians prohibited
the export of papyrus, the King of Pergamum ordered that a new
material be found. The new discovery was "parchment",
a fine material from sheep or goatskin.
Mount Ararat is in Anatolia.
According to some, it's the place where Noah's Ark landed.
St. Paul was born in Tarsus
in southern Turkey. He undertook most of his missionary journeys
and wrote most of his biblical epistles to early Christians in
Anatolia.
The seven churches of Asia
mentioned in the Revelation of John are all located in Anatolia:
Ephesus, Symrna, Laodicea, Sardis, Pergamum, Philadelphia and
Thyatira.
St. Nicholas, known as
Santa Claus, was born in Myra and served as the bishop for most
of his life. According to legend, he secretly bestowed dowries
upon the daughters of a poor citizen. This originated the custom
of giving presents on the eve of the feast of St. Nicholas, a
tradition later transferred to Christmas Day.
Istanbul houses the historical
building of Sirkeci Train Station. This served as the last stop
of the Simplon-Orient Express "king of trains and the train
of kings" between Paris and Istanbul from 1883 to 1977.
It still lives on in the pages of Stamboul Train by Graham Greene,
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, From Russia
with Love by Ian Fleming.
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