Special Interest Tours
Are you a botanist, a biologist, a ethnographer, a photographer, an architect?
Or do you have other special interest?
From bird watching, and photography, to wild orchid viewing, local craft and production, natural
medicine, historic architectural styles, sporting events or Turkish lessons we can design your ideal holiday to suite your special interests. If you shared interest in advancing a specific area of knowledge and learning in Turkey, please do not
hesitate to contact us.
Photography :
Photography tours in Türkiye are getting more popular among travelers. Turkiye offers everything a photographer looks for.Culture , food , ruins, lanscape and nature are all ready and steady for people who love to be behind the lenses. During the phototours in Turkiye one can explore unique destinations like İstanbul , enjoy poetic landscapes in Cappadocia or amazing West coasts .
Turkish Cuisine :
Turkiye is a gastronomical heaven that attracts thousands of people from around world.Every region has its own unique cuisine that has been enriched over time by past civilizations and people from different etnics backgrounds. Who can ever claim that that the Turkish Cuisine is not one of the worlds best taste ? It is renowned for its wide variety of high-qualiyt fresh fruit and vegetables , different kinds of fish and fresh meat , delicious desserts , traditional drinks , famous spirits and a large selection of traditional produce.Wherever you look wherever you go , you can find good food and drink in Turkiye
This is one of the most popular sports in Turkey. Oil wrestling is in Turkish Yagli Gures. Wrestlers wear short leather trousers. These trousers called Kispet, and made of water buffalo leather and weighing 13 kg. Wrestlers cover themselves with olive oil. Wrestlers pair off and struggle to gain a grip on their opponent, before one is flipped over and pinned to the ground. Wrestler is in Turkish Pehlivan, and they are man or boy.
Oil Wrestling:
The large stadium beside the town of Edirne on the Greek Turkish border is the location for this annual summer wrestling festival, where over 1000 wrestlers come to participate in the week long “sudden death” style competition. The winner wrestler goes on to fight another winner wrestler, and so on, until there is only one wrestler left standing. The whole competition can take days. The most famous tournament takes place in Edirne by the end of June and beginning of July every year. In these days camel wrestling mostly restricted to the Aegean Region though it was once more widespread in Anatolia (the whole Turkey). In reality it doesn’t happen and camel wrestling is more akin to comedy than to bloody sport.
Camel Wrestling
The action starts around late morning but the crowds arrive earlier for a choice of view. For any kind of good seat the earlier you go the more choice of seat location. It is filling up briskly even at 9 am. Mostly Camel Wrestling Festival is held annually in January, usually the Sunday. Camel wrestling festival coincides with the camels’ breeding season (the reason they compete for females) and thus is not seen at any other time of the year. Local people picnic and take barbecues, tables, chairs… everything to “make a day of it”. Snacks and hot food are also sold. At camel wrestling festivals bets are placed, long-haired cross-breeds, known as “tulus”, are costumed up in colorful coats, females are brought in for motivation and the head-butting, tripping and chasing begin. Though the event is slowly dying due to the high cost of keeping and feeding a camel, it makes for a really good story at the next holiday gathering. Today there is a camel wrestling league in the Aegean region. You can watch the show around Mugla and in Selcuk, nearby Ephesus.
Carpets, Rugs:
There are 4 types of rugs produced in Turkey and these types classified according to the materials used. The categories include:
1- Silk on silk
2- Wool on wool
3- Wool on cotton
4- Viscone on cotton
It is impossible to prove exactly when and where rug weaving began, because there is no reliable source, but it can be traced back as early the Neolithic age (7000 BC ). Rug weaving in Anatolia first began with the arrival of the Turkish tribes who settled in this region, from the Central Asia.
Turkish knotting is double knotting and called as Symmetrical knotting. Each knot is made on two warps. In this form of knotting, each end of the pile thread is wrapped all the way around the two warps, pulled down and then cut.
Rug is a handicraft which consist of two parts; the skeleton of the rug, and the part which resembles a picture and is like velvet.
There are many different types of motifs and emblems which can be seen on the rugs such as Geometrical or Floral Designs. These compositions, motifs, and designs represent Anatolia, Cetral Asia and their civilizations. Each of the designs is meaningful, not an randomly drawing. Each motifs on the rugs represent the origins and culture of a society, therefore, a rug can be considered a cultural item.
Whirling Dervishes
The Whirling Dervishes trace their origin to the 13th century Ottoman Empire. The sema Ritual began with the inspiration of Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi (1207-1273) and was influenced by Turkish customs and culture. “Mevlâna” means “guide”, or “master”. “Rumi” means “from the Sultanate of Rum”.
In the symbolism of the Sema Ritual, the semazen’s camel’s hair hat in turkish sikke represents the tombstone of the ego; his wide, white skirt represents the ego’s shroud. By removing his black cloak, he spiritually reborns to the truth. At the beginning of the Sema, by holding his arms crosswise, the semazen appears to represent the number one, thus testifying to God’s unity. While whirling, his arms are always open: his right arm is directed to the sky, ready to receive God’s beneficence; his left hand, upon which his eyes are fastened, is turned toward the earth. The semazen conveys God’s spiritual gift to those who are witnessing the Sema. Revolving from right to left around the heart, he embraces all humanity with love.
The human being has been created with love in order to love. Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi says, “All loves are a bridge to Divine love. Yet, those who have not had a taste of it do not know!”
Turkish Bath (Hammam):
The Turkish Bath is the Turkish variation of a steam bath, which can be categorized as a wet relative of the sauna.
Roman and Byzantine bath tradition was adopted and then perfected by the Selcuk Turks, for whom the public bath took on an important role. It was not merely a place where believers could fulfill the Islamic precept of cleanliness, It was also a place in which to mingle, socialize and gossip. Many Turkish Baths were built during the Ottoman period, including forty by Sinan himself. Externally, they have a distinctive domed profile, with bottle glass directing beams of light inwards. Some hamams in Istanbul are over 250 years old. There were reportedly 4.536 private and 300 public baths in Istanbul in the 16th century. The Turkish Baths include a steam room, a series of 3 hot rooms of varying temperature, marble slabs for body scrubbing and an icy plunge pool. You should never take off cloth and go naked in the Turkish bath as this is considered rude, although it’s quite acceptable to wash your privates from underneath the loin cloth. There are also 2 relaxation areas. In one of these, people can have a lie down on a proper bed and have a snooze or enjoy an optional massage ( soap, oil etc. ). The other area has a television, radio… Tea, coffee cold drinks and snacks are also available. Almost all Turkish baths either have separate sections or times for men and woman, although there are a few Turkish baths in the touristic areas that cater for both, although women should be advised that the staff inside these baths are nearly all male.
In Turkey, the gelin hamam ( bride’s bath ) is a big part of Turkish culture even today. The bridal Turkish bath day often includes live music and many kind of food. Traditionally, unmarried women throw coins into the pool in hamam and make a wish that they will marry the man they hope to wed. Some of the five star hotels in Istanbul have bridal Turkish bath specials.
The “Pestemal” a large towel fringed at both ends and wrapped around the torso, from below the armpits to about mid-thigh, used when the bather made her way to the “Kurna” or marble basin. A pair of wooden clogs, in Turkish “Takunya”, of which there were many varied types. Carved exquisitely, these “Takunya” kept the bather’s feet clear of the wet floor. The “Tas” is the name given to the bowl used for pouring water over the body. The “Tas” was always made of metal with grooved and inlaid ornamentation. The “kese” that rough cloth mitt was carried in the soap case. Not only did the “Kese” scrape the dirt out of the pores, but it also delivered an invigorating massage.