The Alternative Guide to… Turkey
Turkey at a Glance
Capital city: Ankara (but Istanbul is the largest)
Population: 79.6 million
Local currency: Turkish lira (£1 = 4.2 lira)
Famous face: St Nicholas, the inspiration for Santa Claus, was born in modern-day Demre on the country's Turquoise Coast
5 things you never knew about Turkey
Turkey is a "biodiversity superpower" according to National Geographic. It has over 9000 native plant species, and is home to brown bears, wolves, hyenas and even leopards.
Do you like hazelnuts? Chances are the ones you eat come from Turkey - the country is reponsible for 80% of the world's production.
The Nobel Prize-winner Orhan Pamuk is Turkey's most famous modern writer, and his most successful novel, The Museum of Innocence, has spawned a real museum in Istanbul. The multi-storey building contains all the bits and pieces the author collected as he created the novel, and there's an exhibition for every chapter of the novel.
Tulips might be more normally associated with the Netherlands, but they originated in Turkey. They were first cultivated here around 1000 AD, but didn't reach Western Europe until about 600 years later.
Turkey's signature pudding, tavuk göğsü, is a mixture of milk, sugar, cinnamon and, wait for it... chicken.
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National dish
It's a close-run thing with the doner kebab, but baklava is possibly Turkey's most famous culinary export. This sweet treat is made of layers of filo pastry, which are then filled with nuts and slathered with a sweet honey or syrup.
If you see one thing in Turkey, make sure it's...
... Cappadocia. This otherwordly region is one of Turkey's most astonishing natural wonders, famous for its madcap topography, whimsical natural sculptures and surreal "fairy chimneys". One of its most impressive areas is also one of its most blush-inducing - there's a whole valley of natural penis-shaped rock formations called Love Valley (main picture at top of page).