SkyLife

Turkish Odyssey

Serif Yenen has worked as a tourist guide for many years. His Turkish Odyssey is an invaluable work in English about the history, culture, geography, customs and daily life of this ancient land. Thousands of years after that first long journey was recorded by Homer, this book is a fresh look at the setting of that epic story.

Yenen has learnt by experience what most interests foreign visitors to Turkey, and presents a comprehensive map of Turkish culture. The book opens with these famous words by the 6th century BC philosopher Heracleitus, "Everything flows and nothing stays", and continues with a quotation from Bozkurt Guvenc entitled "We Turks!... Who are we?", so introducing readers to the enigmatic process of change which runs through the history of Turkey and the Turks. As home to so many civilisations, cultures and religions over the millenia, Anatolia's history is an ever shifting kaleidoscope. Turkish Odyssey is successfully built on the metaphor of a journey through this ever changing landscape, illustrated by over 250 professional photographs, 3D computer animations, original maps and city plans, and a substantial glossary.

Browse through subject sections ranging from history, geography, and demography, to state policy, Anatolian culture, and regional tours. As well as fascinating facts this website is packed with useful information for everyone, such as distances between large towns, weights and measures conversion tables, and a chronology of Anatolian history. It is this combination which makes Turkish Odyssey well worth looking out for. For the past five months it has been available as a website, and has now also been published as a book. Whether on paper or screen, this is the perfect way to prepare for the real thing.