The Atacama Desert, Chile

The driest desert in the world and the most surreal

star-gazing destination in the southern hemisphere, the Atacama is an ethereal

place to visit, where the salt-encrusted earth crumbles under your feet; where

the sunsets are fiery-red and where the night skies put on a magnificent show.

Desolate and harsh yet incredibly enchanting, the Atacama is

in the northern fringes of Chile, bordering the world-famous Bolivian Salt

Flats. If you have some extra time you could easily discover both in the one

single unforgettable journey.

The Amazon Rainforest, various destinations

The Amazon is one of South America’s most celebrated

highlights and the one destination everyone who visits South America wishes to

explore. Yet once you’re over and not overly keen to rough it out in a tropical

jungle budget-lodge – them pesky insects and soul-sucking humidity and all –

then rest assured you can still head here and experience this resplendent

wilderness. From luxury lodge-based tours to Amazon River cruises aboard

gorgeous river boats (yes, they also come with air-con and window fly-screens,

nowadays!) the options for exploring the

Amazon in comfort and style are plentiful. You can still

enjoy all the on-land excursions you wish, cuddling anacondas and chasing

sloths (or was it the other way around?) visiting remote Amazonian communities

and simply relishing being in the heart of the world’s grandest and most

important rainforest, all the while still getting a great night’s sleep,

feasting on superb cuisine and indulging in a refreshing shower at the end of

the day.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

We certainly wouldn’t begrudge any over-55s from heading to

the Brazilian party-capital to shimmy it up with the best samba dancers at the

annual Rio Carnival, yet let it be known that Rio de Janeiro is actually a

pretty spectacular city to discover at any time of year. Steeped in hundreds of

years of fascinating history – as the birthplace of African-imported slavery

into the continent – Rio is a powerhouse of attractions.

The famed Christ the Redeemer statue will welcome you with

open arms (well, he does that for everyone) and guides you along one of the

most picturesque coastlines of all. With a great array of museums, fun shopping

options, exceptional cuisine and a long list of sightseeing highlights to suit

everyone, Rio will bewitch you for days on end. And come sunset, when you’re

enjoying a sundowner on your private hotel balcony overlooking glitzy

Copacabana beach, you may well think there’s no more exciting place in the

world to be.

Yalvac Indent City of Antiocheia in Pisidia

Seeking the distinctive historical texture that underlies the county of Yalvac, we are led to the remains of the ancient city of Antiocheia in Pisidia.

The first buildings our eyes light upon seem to be strewn over the hillsides and among the ravines. The principal entrance to the city was located on its western side. The present form of the Western Gate, the guardian of the city’s security, dates to 21 2 and is decorated with reliefs of weapons and armor.

From there we stroll along the street called Cardo Maximus and make a sentimental visit to the abodes of the city’s erstwhile owners. Who knows whose house we may end up in as we ply these narrow, straight streets? The old town had two forums, that of Augustus and that of Tiberius. Located on the eastern side of the city, they were the focal-points of its life. Even the first workers’ strike in the world was taken at the Forum of Tiberius in AD 46. As we walk along, from time to time we realize that we are treading.

With this pensive thought in our hearts, we reach the aqueduct, gracing the north side of the city like a necklace.

The magnificent fortifications that once encircled and sheltered the acropolis of Antiocheia measure about three thousand meters in length. These walls underwent expansion and repairs in Roman and Byzantine times. Who knows how many sentries guarding these walls gazed dreamily upon the magnificent view around him?

Goddess Kybele

The sacred precinct of the acropolis, the city’s highest point, contains a temple dedicated to Emperor Augustus. Originally a temple to the goddess Kybele was located here. It was replaced by a temple dedicated to the moon-god Men afterwards. Still later, an elaborately decorated Augustus temple, dedicated to the Emperor who established the first and biggest Roman colony in the area, was built on the site in the late 1st century BC. From the standpoint of both its architecture and its decoration, the Temple of Augustus is a unique example of its kind. In the early 5th century, the temple was converted into a Christian church.

As you take in the scene before you, the very air you breathe seems charged with the millennia-old mystical inspiration of goddesses, gods, and emperors.

Despite being located on a hill, Antiocheia has a well-organized city plan and a developed infrastructure.

1 st-century propylon or monumental gate is situated where the Augustus and Tiberius forums join. Over its central archway are reliefs of Genius with wings and Nike that are indescribably elegant in the artistry of their execution.

Forum of Tiberius

The Forum of Tiberius (which dates to AD 15-40) is located at the eastern terminus of a column-lined street that dates from the 1st century AD and was one of the most important parts of the city. Large quantities of glass, pottery, and bronze objects have been unearthed in the shops of its gallery. The city’s theater is built into the side of a hill near the downtown area.

Elaborately decorated, the theater consists of three main parts. Originally it had a seating capacity of 5,000, but this was later, in the Roman times, increased to 15,000. One very unusual feature of this theater is its tunnel which is 8 meters wide and 62.5 meters long. This is unique among the theaters of the ancient world. It was, also in this theater that St. Thecla was exposed to torture.

Large quantities of glass, pottery, and bronze objects have been unearthed in the shops of its gallery. The city’s theater is built into the side of a hill near the downtown area. Elaborately decorated, the theater consists of three main parts. Originally it had a seating capacity of 5,000, but this was later, in the Roman times, increased to 15,000. One very unusual feature of this theater is its tunnel which is 8 meters wide and 62.5 meters long. This is unique among the theaters of the ancient world. It was, also in this theater that St. Thecla was exposed to torture.

Nymphaeum

The city’s monumental fountain (nymphaeum) consists of two parts. The first is an elaborately decorated facade of columns that contained the fonts; the second is a large reservoir lying behind the facade in which water was stored. Scattered around the city are smaller fountains from which Antiocheia’s ice-cold water bubbled forth.

A public bath is located at the northwestern corner of the city. Dating back to AD 25, it is a typical example of Roman bath architecture with separate hot, cold, and cool sections, dressing- rooms, service areas, and places to store water and supplies. The city’s stadium stands to the west of the acropolis where the foothills of the Sultan Mountains begin. Built in the 3rd century BC, it measures 190 meters long and 30 meters wide.

The stadium apparently underwent much development during Roman times and in its heyday it was the scene of exciting sports events and competitions, thrilling races, and bloody gladiatorial combats sometimes between man and beast, and sometimes between man and man. All in all, the stadium is where the strong vanquished the weak and where humanity’s savage and martial instincts were catered to and allowed to run free and untrammeled.

Crown of Antiocheia

The jewel in the crown of Antiocheia that makes it a place of pilgrimage is the Church of St Paul, the city’s first Christian church and also its biggest. Located 200 meters south of the Roman baths, it was erected on the site of the synagogue in which Paul delivered his first sermon, as described in Acts 13, by the city’s grateful inhabitants and dedicated the church to him. The building has a typical basilica plan. Excavations at the site have revealed the existence of a smaller church that was built here before the present one. The church is the most impressive in appearance with its mosaic-tiled floor and wall of columns.

Beneath the smaller church, the remains of a synagogue can be identified. This indicates that there were at least three stages of construction on this site. The first was the synagogue, which was rather large in size. In the early 3rd century a small church was built on the spot. Sometime in the early 4th century, the church we see today was put up. Numerous graves and skeletal remains have been discovered within the church. The church’s floor is decorated with specially-designed mosaics. Among the inscriptions on the floor of building is a reference to an Orthodox church leader named Optimus, who is known to have been the bishop of Antiocheia in 375-381.

In 46, St Paul accompanied by St Barnabas delivered his first sermon in the synagogue which was later replaced by the church. The church quickly became a place of pilgrimage for the faithful and a setting in which many other saints were to deliver sermons of their own.

The existence of seven churches in the city indicates that it was a religious center.

The aqueduct, which has become a symbol for the whole ancient city, was built in Roman times. Extending along the northern side of the city, it brings water from a source located ten kilometers away. The aqueduct is amazingly well preserved, especially when one considers that it was built in the first century AD. Despite the passage of nearly two thousand years, this structure that supplied the ancient city with its beneficial water still stands proud and tall.

Source Link: https://balkans.marietaminkova.com/indent-city-antiocheia-pisidia/

Military dictatorship – Uruguay’s darkest chapter

Uruguay remained neutral during the Second World War yet it

couldn’t remain immune to the international economic depression that soon

followed. As prices for its much-admired wool fell drastically, the country was

itself plunged into financial hardship, leading to the rise of a socialist

guerrilla movement, the Tupamaros.

The complex consequences of the guerrilla movement (which

included the kidnapping of the then British Ambassador) resulted in a military

coup in 1973, and the new instated military dictatorship would see the country

face its darkest historic period yet. Uruguay suffered under this brutal rule

for just over a decade and, at one point, was voted the country with the highest

number of political prisoners per capita and dubbed ‘The Torture Chamber of

Latin America’.

Much as in Argentina and Chile, Uruguay also suffered the

loss of thousands of ‘disappeared’ citizens. Despite democracy being eventually

reinstated in the mid-1980s, it would take until the turn of the new millennium

before the country once again found its economic footing and political

stability. Today, the country is in the process of arresting and sentencing

leaders which were instrumental in the 1973 military coup and subsequent human

rights violations.

Uruguay today – Stronger than ever

With a strong collective social conscientiousness, ample

individual rights and policies which are inclusive and immensely tolerant,

Uruguay is indeed considered one of the world’s most ethical and

environmentally-friendly nations.

As the country continues to implement incredible

environmental policies it has reached impressive levels of sustainability:

today, almost 95% of Uruguay’s energy today comes from renewable sources. Socially,

the country is also to be admired. Same-sex marriage, legalized in 2013, is one

of the many ways the country upholds LBGTQ rights and the country in general is

very receptive to the public voice. Protests and strikes are not uncommon in

Uruguay and are usually driven by a perceived unfairness for minorities (women

or the less-affluent, for example) but, in this country, the protests actually

lead to lasting reforms.

A splendid country with ease-of-access from Buenos Aires,

charming colonial towns, glitzy seaside resorts and a countryside that’s

relaxing, unique and captivating, Uruguay really is one of Latin America’s

hidden secrets and offers a wealth of things to do. Visit our Uruguay Tours

page for inspiration and do contact us for more info on how to best add-on a

stint in Uruguay to your South American travel plans.

Zoe Was Open-handed

When all was ready, the other business was carried on. There were lawsuits to be settled, questions of public interest, or contributions of money, audiences with ambassadors, controversies or agreements, and all the other duties that go to fill up an emperor’s time.

Most of the talking was done by the officials concerned, but sometimes, when it was necessary, the empresses also gave their instructions, in a calm voice, or made their replies, sometimes being prompted and taking their cue from the experts, sometimes using their own discretion.

Zoe was a woman

For those who did not know them it may be instructive if I give here some description of the two sisters. The elder, Zoe, was the quicker to understand ideas, but slower to give them utterance.

With Theodora, on the other hand, it was just the reverse in both respects, for she did not readily show her inmost thoughts, but once she had embarked on a conversation, she would chatter away with an expert and lively tongue. Zoe was a woman of passionate interests, prepared with equal enthusiasm for both alternatives death or life, I mean.

In that she reminded me of sea-waves, now lifting a ship on high and then again plunging it down to the depths. Such characteristics were certainly not found in Theodora: in fact, she had a calm disposition, and in one way, if I may put it so, a dull one. Zoe was open-handed, the sort of woman who could exhaust a sea teeming with gold-dust in one day; the other counted her staters when she gave away money, partly, no doubt, because her limited resources forbade any reckless spending, and partly because inherently she was more self-controlled in this matter.

o put it quite candidly (for my present purpose is not to compose a eulogy, but to write an accurate history) neither of them was fitted by temperament to govern. They neither knew how to administer nor were they capable of serious argument on the subject of politics. For the most part they confused the trifles of the harem with important matters of state.

Even the very trait in the elder sister which is commended among many folk today, namely, her ungrudging liberality, dispensed very widely over a long period of time, even this trait, although it was no doubt satisfactory to those who enjoyed it because of the benefits they received from her, was after all the sole cause, in the first place, of the universal corruption and of the reduction of Roman fortunes to their lowest ebb.

S: https://private.ensartourguide.com/zoe-and-theodora-part-2/

The robust and big Tower of Galata

After 1261, the Genoese have been settled in Galata, the place they’ve left a monument of their occupation within the robust and big Tower of Galata, that shaped their watch-tower and citadel, and the place they established, on the very gates of the capital, so robust a rival, that, as Gibbon observes, “The Roman Empire would possibly quickly have sunk right into a province of Genoa, if the Republic had not been checked by the damage of her freedom and naval energy.” These overseas communities have been allowed to be self- governing, as far as the Byzantine Authorities was involved.

That they had their very own courts of justice, and their very own locations of worship, even the Saracens being allowed to own a mosque. A sure variety of homes, a sure extent of territory, and specific piers at which their ships may moor for discharging or receiving cargo, have been assigned to them, and, as a rule, they paid decrease duties than native retailers did.

Generally, it appears they have been liable to render army service, as if feudal vassals, however to all intents and functions they loved underneath the Byzantine emperors very a lot the place which foreigners in Turkey now occupy, in advantage of the Capitulations granted by Sultans to European residents. The unique copies of a number of of the industrial treaties between the Empire and the Italian States are preserved within the archives of Venice, Genoa, and different cities of Italy, and furnish an fascinating chapter within the historical past of diplomacy and commerce.

Essentially

the most picturesque portion of the Golden Horn

Essentially the most picturesque portion of the Golden Horn is that which lies between the 2 bridges. Alongside the Galata shore, a big flotilla of gaunt native barges, with quick masts and lengthy indirect yards, is usually moored, ready to be employed within the transhipment of the cargoes that depart or attain the port Right here additionally a mass of native delivery is laid up for the winter, after the style of the early days of navigation. It’s a dense forest of naked masts and poles concerned in a community of cordage, with the steep hill, upon which the stone homes of Galata and Pera are constructed as a rocky background. After an evening of rain, the scene modifications.

Then from each yard and mast heavy, damp sails are unfold within the heat, misty, morning air, and also you appear to look upon a flock of nice sea-birds opening their wings to bask within the sunshine. Alongside the alternative shore, surmounted by the domes and minarets of the Mosque of Sultan Suleiman, the financial institution is fringed with native craft, laden with fruit or oil from the islands of the Mgean Sea, or bringing planks and beams to the timber-yards at Odoun Kapan from the lands beside the Danube. Timber has been saved at that time ever because the days of Justinian the Nice, if not ever because the metropolis was based.

The History Of Harput

Centrally located in eastern Anatolia, Elazig promises visitors a rich feast of history and culture.

Dating back to the 3rd millennium B.C., Harput was home to numerous tribes from the Hurrians to the Seljuks. The castle at Harput, where legend has it that milk was used to alleviate a water shortage during the construction, has ensured regional security since the time of the Urartus.

Made by sculptor Nurettin Orhan, the monument to Belek Gazi, a key figure in Harput’s history, in the courtyard of the Great Mosque is a reminder of this important ruler.

Dabakhane River to the north of Harput Castle is rich in minerals. Boasting thermal properties, its waters are highly recommended for gastrointestinal and liver ailments as well as for depression.

Turkey’s second largest dam reservoir, Keban Dam not only supplies a major portion of the country’s power needs, it has also brought the local people resort areas where they can enjoy freshwater fish.

Elazig Archaeology and Ethnography Museum is located on the campus of Firat University School of Engineering. The museum, which reflects the region’s archaeological wealth, features exhibits of finds unearthed in archaeological excavations in the area around Keban Dam Reservoir as well as examples of the region k ethnographical richness. Closed Mondays, the museum is open other days 8 a.m. to 5p.m.

Young at heart

With its orange- scented coasts, Wild festivals and architectural wonders, valencia is spain’s forever- young city bythe sea. And it’s poised now to becomethe mediterranean’s new star. Here are five reasons to see valencia.

City of art and learning

With its vast squares and modern architecture, this is perhaps the city’s most striking quarter. In addition to Oceanographic, one of Europe’s largest aquariums, the Cuidad de las Artes y las Ciencias with its museum, cinema and opera draws upwards of five million visitors annually. And the area’s fantastic architecture bears the signature of native son Santiago Calatrava.

The silk market

Near the Plaza de la Reina where the cathedral stands, one of the city’s iconic structures with its gothic lines and octagonal bell tower, there is another interesting building, the historic 15th century Lonja de la Seda, or silk market. Declared a world cultural heritage by UNESCO, it is surrounded by historic churches and other buildings.

Albufera lagoon

This lagoon in Albufera Nature Park is 11 kilometers south of Valencia. A wetland protected as one of the Mediterranean’s unique biological reserves, it is fed by natural underwater springs. A boat tour at sunset on the lake, which is a center of attraction for bird watchers, is another Valencia pleasure.

Benicassim festival

One of the world’s leading open-air music festivals, Benicassim is gearing up for this summer with the slogan, “Four days of concerts, eights days of camp, 100 artists and more (short films, theater, art, dance and courses). The big guns of this year’s festival,

July 14-17, include Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Mumford & Sons, Portishead and The Strokes,

Barrio de carmen

A leisurely stroll down the Barrio de Carmen, the city’s eating, drinking and entertainment district, is de rigueur for getting to know Valencia. The wind-swept streets lined with century-old buildings will let you feel the heartbeat of the everyday life unique to this part of town.

You can also sample here the Spanish snacks known as tapas to the accompaniment of live Flamenco music.

S: https://travel.doturkey.com/harput/

While his Majesty was praying

A few persons went away while his Majesty was praying; but all the pilgrims stayed, and I stayed with them. Several of the officials walked about on the gravel, talked, smoked, and drank orangeade, which a servant brought to them on a silver tray. Now and then from within the mosque came to us the loud murmur of praying voices.

The soldiers of the body-guard descended the hill from the gates of Yildiz on foot, leading their horses, and assembled outside the courtyard. They were followed by a brilliant squadron of cavalry in dark-blue-and-red uniforms, with green-and-red saddl -cloths; their blood-red flag was borne before them, and their own music accompanied them. The soldiers in yellowish brown had piled arms and were standing at ease, smoking and talking.

Twenty minutes perhaps went by, then a Gladstone bag was carried out of the mosque. We all gazed at it with reverence. What was in it? Or, if there was nothing, what had been recently taken out of it ? I never shall know. As the bag vanished, a loud sound of singing came from within, and a troop of palace guards in vivid-red uniforms, with white-and-red toques trimmed with black astrakhan, marched into the court led by an officer. Some gendarmes followed them.

Then the chief of police tripped forward with nervous agility, and made us all cross over and stand with our backs to the bank in a long line. An outrider, dressed in green and gold, and holding a big whip, rode in on a huge strawberry-roan borse. Behind him came a green-and-red brougham with satin cushions, drawn by a pair of strawberry roans. A smart coachman and footman sat on the box, and on each side rode two officers on white horses.

Now the singing’ ceased in the mosque.

People began to come out. The sultan’s son, less flushed, passed by on foot,

answering swiftly the salutes of the people. The brougham was drawn up before

the bright-yellow carpet. Nazim Pasha once more stood there talking with

several officials. The soldiers had picked up their arms, the sailors were

standing at attention.

Holidays are coming, winter holidays. I can

tell you about lovely places

to visit in Bulgaria. If you are a ski fan then Bulgarian resorts are for

you – Borovets, Bansko, Pamporovo. You will like it there.

Then there was a very long wait.

“The sultan is taking coffee.”

Another five minutes passed.

“The sultan is sleeping.”

On this announcement being made to me, I

thought seriously of departing in peace; but a Greek friend, who had spoken to

an official, murmured in my ear:

“The sultan is awake and is changing his

clothes.”

Vladimir Korolenko (1853-1921)

Korolenko spent a great part of his life in exile. Much of his writing is based on incidents gathered in Siberia. It is surprising that his exile
did not embitter him. His stories, which are half romances, are sympathetically and simply told.

The Old Bell Ringer is one of his most beautiful tales. The present version is by Maxim Lieber.

The Old Bell-Ringer

It was growing dark. The tiny village, nestling by the distant stream, in a pine forest, was merged in that twilight peculiar to starry spring nights, when the fog, rising from the earth, deepens the shadows of the woods and fills the open spaces with a silvery blue mist. … Everything was still, pensive and sad. The village quietly slumbered.

The dark outlines of the wretched cabins were barely visible; here and there lights glimmered; now and then you could hear a gate creak; or a dog would suddenly bark and then stop. Occasionally, out of the dark, murmuring forest emerged the figure of a pedestrian, or that of a horseman; or a cart would jolt by. These were the inhabitants of lone forest hamlets going to their church for the great spring holiday.

The church stood on a gentle hill in the center of the village. The ancient belfry, tall and murky, was lost in the blue sky.

The creaking of the staircase could be heard as the old bell-ringer Mikheyich mounted to the belfry, and his little lantern, suspended in mid-air, looked like a star in space.

It was difficult for the old man to climb the staircase. His leg served him badly, and his eyes saw but dimly. … An old man like him should have been at rest by now, but God spared him from death. He had buried his sons and his grandsons; he had accompanied old men and young men to their resting place, but he still lived on. ’Twas hard. Many the times he had greeted the spring holiday, and he could not remember how often he had waited in that very belfry the appointed hour. And now God had again willed that…

The old man went to the opening in the tower and leaned on the banister. In the darkness below, around the church, he made out the village cemetery in which the old crosses with their outstretched arms seemed to protect the ill kept graves. Over these bowed here and there a few leafless birch trees. The aromatic odor of young buds, wafted to Mikheyich from below, brought with it a feeling of the melancholy of eternal sleep.

S: https://travel.docappadocia.com/the-old-bell-ringer-part-1/

The name of Byron carved in bold letters

Upon one of the columns I found the name of Byron carved in bold letters. But I looked in vain for the name of Turner. Byron loved the Cape of Sunium. Fortunately, nothing has been done to make it less wonderful since his time. It is true that fewer columns are standing to bear witness to the old worship of the sea-god; but such places as Su- nium are not injured when some blocks of marble fall, but when men begin to build. Still the noble promontory thrusts itself boldly forward into the sea from the heart of an undesecrated wilderness. Still the columns stand quite alone.

All the sea winds can come to you there, and all the winds of the hills winds from the FEgean and Mediterranean, from crested Euboea, from Melos, from Hydra, from /Egina, with its beautiful Doric temple, from Argo- lis and from the mountains of Arcadia. And it seems as if all the sunshine of heaven were there to bathe you in golden lire, as if there could be none left over for the rest of the world.

The coasts of Greece stretch away beneath you into far distances, curving in bays, thrusting out in promontories, here tawny and volcanic, there gray and quietly sober in color, but never cold or dreary. White sails, but only two or three, are dreaming on the vast purple of Poseidon’s kingdom white sails of mariners who are bound for the isles of Greece. Poets have sung of those isles. Who has not thought of them with emotion? Now, between the white marble columns, you can see their mountain ranges, you can see their rocky shores.

Many are the things

to do in Bulgaria. My country is not yet very well discovered and I am sure

you would love it. It’s nature, history and great emotions.

A snow-white goat warming

Behind and below me I heard a slight

movement. I got up and looked. And there on a slab of white marble lay a

snow-white goat warming itself in the sun. White, gold, and blue, and far off

the notes of white were echoed not only by the mariner’s sails, but by tiny

Albanian villages inland, seen over miles of bare country, over flushes of

yellow, where the pines would not be denied.

There is an ineffable charm in the

landscape, in the atmosphere, of Greece. No other land that I know possesses an

exactly similar spell. Wildness and calm seem woven together, a warm and almost

caressing wildness with a calm that is full of romance. There the wilderness is

indeed a haven to long after, and there the solitudes call you as if with the

voices of friends.

The Lycian Way

Mustafa Kiziltas (Lyum 2011 first place)

“I’ve been first for two years in this marathon in which athletes from around the world compete. The Lycian Way combines rich history with magnificent natural beauty and is one of the world’s finest trails for an ultramarathon. Turkey’s second ultramarathon is going to be run in Cappadocia the summer of 2012. ”

Birmingham, at the heart of the uk with a population of over one million, is a destination of limitless opportunity, offering visitors an eclectic mix of things to do.

The city oozes style, culture and charm and attracts over 32 million people a year with its level of vibrancy and excitement. Whether it is heritage, culture, food, shopping or sport, there’s plenty of choice to keep you entertained in Birmingham. Birmingham’s early history as a city dates back to the early 12th century when Peter de Birmingham, holder of the manor, gained the right to hold a weekly market. Once famous as a ‘city of a thousand trades’, Birmingham is renowned for its pioneering past and was a world leader in the production of jewelry, pens, guns, buttons and buckles.

This exciting history has left visitors to Birmingham with a number of outstanding heritage attractions to discover, explore and enjoy, including great old vehicles and machines at Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum, the Motor Heritage Centre and Coventry Transport Museum. The Jacobean splendour of Aston Hall, the delightfully restored timber framed farmhouse Blakesley Hall and the magical Sarehole Mill in Hall Green, which formed the inspiration for JRR Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’, are all well worth a visit, and the Black Country Living Museum creates a tribute to the people that once lived in the heart of industrial Britain. Birmingham’s flagship National Sea Life center offers a spectacular undersea voyage and is located alongside the city’s beautiful and historic canals. Birmingham promises you a shopping experience second to none. From clothing to jewelry, the world’s leading brands and shops offer a rich array of products to suit your taste.

Food for thought

Over the past decade Birmingham’s food scene has seen the city transform itself into the ultimate dining destination. Birmingham has over 200 topranking restaurants in the city center, spanning 27 countries across the globe, from Europe and the Far East to the Caribbean and the Americas. Birmingham has a hugely compelling and eclectic arts scene with world class and inspirational organizations and venues right across the cultural spectrum.

The diverse range of galleries, concert venues, theaters and cinemas the city has to offer are second to none. Since opening over 100 years ago, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is now home to more than half a million artifacts. Renaissance masterpieces, 9,000-year- old Middle Eastern treasures and the world’s largest collection of Pre-Raphaelite art are all on show here.

Housed in one of Birmingham’s finest Art Deco buildings, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts was designed by Robert Atkinson, one of Britain’s leading architects of the 1920s and 30s. And it displays major works by Monet, Turner, van Gogh and Picasso, while Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery, located in the neo-Gothic Oozells Street School in Brindleyplace, features exhibitions across two floors, spanning photography, painting and sculpture.

Source: https://travel.doturkey.com/lycian-way/

The strength of the Orthodox Church

The Church was “rapidly losing all hold on the popular mind.” The strength of the Orthodox Church was in the villages “where people are ignorant and superstitious, but it weakens in proportion to the size and culture of the towns.” The establishment of the independent Bulgarian Church in the 1870’s was “one of those ebullions which end in nothing” because the people in “casting away old oppressions” gained nothing better.

The Bulgarian nation, according to the American clergyman needed not “desolation” but “reformation.” There was hope, with the aid of the American missionaries, this reformation would become a reality. “The Bulgations,” wrote Mutchmore, “notwithstanding all these and other disabilities, are more accessible to Christianity than any of their neighbors, they are more brainy and manly arid have more in them worth saving than any of their neighbors.”41 The Americans, through their missionary activity, publications, and Robert College would help the new, free, “redeemed Bulgaria” to become “the wonder of all the Danubean provinces.”

Mutchmore admitted that the Bulgarians themselves were working hard to change and modernize their country. The author presented some aspects of Bulgaria’s history to prove some of his preconceived notions. Bulgaria’s awakening was “inspired by the great Pan-Sclavistic idea” and her “small revolution” was “instigated by Russia.” He recognized that Russia “espoused ostensibly the cause of Bulgaria” and through the Treaty of San Stephano the country was freed from the Turks. Mutchmore blamed the powers, especially England, for the failure of San Stephano.

The American thought that the powers “had no right” and “no good reason” to intervene and save Turkey. At the Congress of Berlin the powers proceeded to divide up the domains of a sovereign Power to suit themselves, and to denude another nation of all the fruits of her losses and victories.” He thought this was unprecedented for “nothing like it has ever occurred in the history of the world.” To the American this was like the divisions of Poland.43

Praised Alexander Battenberg

Mutchmore praised Alexander Battenberg for his efforts to maintain the independence of Bulgaria and was critical of Russia’s policies. One of the reasons for his anti-Russian attitude was his fear that if Russia played a dominant role in Bulgaria, the Protestants would not be free to continue their missionary work.44 Notwithstanding the difficulties the Bulgarians had to face, Mutchmore believed, Bulgaria would be able to solve her problems.

The Bulgarian people, he wrote, “are bright more than bright. They have a better intellectual development than any of their neighbors, are industrious, and ambitious both to know and to do.” The Bulgarians were “physically superior, better dressed, and the better classes are more rapidly becoming European.” Bulgaria was in a period of transition “like a bird putting its head out of its shell only the head is out, the body is still fettered in the filthy prison house of the past.”

Kozan

Towards Kozan

Known in the historical sources as Sis, Kozan was one of the leading towns of the middle Ages. It is possible to see the vestiges of scores of churches and early period Turkish Islamic mosques in this town, which prospered thanks to its proximity to the trade routes.

Cilicia Monastery

Aka Sis Monastery, this building at Kozan was one of the region’s leading centers of Christianity between the 13th and the early 20th century. Believed to be the source of a number of legends and rituals in the area and rumored to boast over three hundred chambers, the monastery today consists only of its outer walls.

Hoskadem Mosque

Hoskadem Mosque is a fine example of Mamluk architecture, few examples of which are found in Anatolia but which enhanced the region’s architectural richness. It was built in the 15th century by the Emir Abdullah Hoskadem, one of the administrators in Anatolia of the Egypt-centered Mamluk State. Thanks to a series of repairs over time, it has managed to survive to our day. Like most of the early period Anatolian mosques, Hoskadem is also built on a rectangular plan.

Sabanci Central Mosque

Adana is among the places in Anatolia first reached by Islam. One of the main points of passage for the Syria- based Arab armies, Adana and its mosques have a past going back very far. And Sabanci Central Mosque, completed and opened for worship in 1998, is of a splendor befitting the city today. Capable of accommodating some 28,000 worshipers in its interior and exterior spaces, it is an outstanding example of classical Ottoman architecture built in our day, illustrating the fine points of the Islamic religion in the number of its minarets, windows, domes and semi-domes.

Koreken Church

This building is one of a relative few among the scores of church ruins large and small that have managed to resist time at Kozan, also known down the ages as Sis. Twenty minutes by car from Kozan center, it is also known among the locals as the ‘Kirkkapi’ or ‘Forty-Door’. Church.

Source: https://universal.doholidays.com/kozan/

Santa Sophia stands apart from all other buildings

Santa Sophia stands apart from all other

buildings, unique in beauty, with the faint face of the Christ still visible on

its wall; Christian in soul though now for so long dedicated to the glory of

Allah and of his prophet. I shall not easily forget my disappointment when I

stood for the first time in its shadow. I had been on Seraglio Point, and,

strolling by the famous Royal Gate to look at the lovely fountain of Sultan

Ahmed, I saw an enor- mous and ugly building decorated with huge stripes of red

paint, towering above me as if fain to obscure the sun. The immensity of it was

startling. I asked its name.

“Santa Sophia.”

I looked away to the fountain, letting my

eyes dwell on its projecting roof and its fretwork of gold, its lustrous blue

and green tiles, splendid ironwork, and plaques of gray and brown marble.

It was delicate and enticing. Its mighty neighbor was almost repellent. But at length not without reluctance, for I feared perhaps a deeper disappoint-ment I went into the mosque by the Porta Basilica, and found myself in the midst of a vast harmony, so wonderful, so penetrating, so calm, that I was con-scious at once of a perfect satisfaction.

At first this happy sense of being

completely satisfied seemed shed upon me by shaped space. In no other building

have I had this exact feeling, that space had surely taken an inevitable form

and was announcing itself to me. I stood beneath the great dome, one hundred

and seventy-nine feet in height, and as I gazed upward I felt both possessed

and re-leased.

For a long time I was fully aware of

nothing but the vast harmony of Santa Sophia, descending upon me, wrapping me

round. I saw moving figures, tiny, yet full of meaning, passing in luminous

distances, pausing, bending, kneeling; a ray of light falling upon a white

turban; an Arab in a long pink robe leaning against a column of dusky red

porphyry; a dove circling under the dome as if under the sky. But I could not

be strongly conscious of any detail, or be enchanted by any separate beauty. I

was in the grasp of the perfect whole.

The voice of a child disturbed me.

Somewhere far off in the mosque a child

began to sing a great tune, powerfully, fervently, but boyishly. The voice was

not a treble voice; it was deeper, yet unmistakably the voice of a boy. And the

melody sung was bold, indeed almost angry, and yet definitely religious. It

echoed along the walls of marble, which seemed to multiply it mysteriously,

adding to it wide murmurs which were carried through all the building, into the

dimmest, remotest recesses.

Turned Mother Against

Frangois Coppee (1842—1908)

Coppee, the poet of the poor and humble, lived a long and uneventful life. His volumes of verse are characterized by qualities of sentiment and simplicity. But his novels, plays, and short stories, especially the last, are an integral part of his literary work. These, says Brander Matthews, “have qualities of their own; they have sympathy, poetry, and a power of suggesting pictures not exceeded, I think, by those of either M. de Maupassant or M. Daudet.”

The present version, translated by Walter Learned, is reprinted from Ten Tales by Franfois Coppee, by permission of the publisher, Harper & Brothers.

The Substitute

He was scarcely ten years old when he was first arrested as a vagabond.

He spoke thus to the judge;

“I am called Jean FranQois Leturc, and for six months I was with the man who sings and plays upon a cord of catgut between the lan¬terns at the Place de la Bastille. I sang the refrain with him, and after that I called, ‘Here’s all the new songs, ten centimes, two sous!’ He was always drunk, and used to beat me.

That is why the police picked me up the other night. Before that I was with the man who sells brushes. My mother was a laundress, her name was Adele. At one time she lived with a man on the ground-floor at Montmartre. She was a good work¬woman and liked me. She made money because she had for customers waiters in the cafes, and they use a good deal of linen. On Sundays she used to put me to bed early so that she could go to the ball.

On weekdays she sent me to Les Freres, where I learned to read. Well, the sergent-de-ville whose beat was in our street used always to stop before our windows to talk with her a good-looking chap, with a medal from the Crimea. They were married, and after that everything went wrong. He didn’t take to me, and turned mother against me.

Every one had a blow for me, and so, to get out of the house, I spent whole days in the Place Clichy, where I knew the mountebanks. My father-in-law lost his place, and my mother her work. She used to go out washing to take care of him; this gave her a cough the steam… She is dead at Lamboisiere. She was a good woman. Since that I have lived with the seller of brushes and the catgut scraper. Are you going to send me to prison?”

Source: https://balkan.privatetours.info/the-substitute-part-1/

The Topic Of Bulgaria

After all, I can not say how far his remarks to me have been totally of his personal making, however definitely they have been the remarks of a person who had studied the topic of Bulgaria thoughtfully and had arrived at sure particular conclusions. He spoke extremely of the self-control, power, and sobriety of the Bulgarians as a race, of their extraordinary aptitude in buying information and in assimilating the concepts in addition to the language of international nations, a flair which in no clever interfered with their intense sentiment of nationality. He professed to have been enormously impressed by the ability with which his Ministers males peasant-bom and self-educated picked up the information of public affairs and the manners of society.

The Bulgarian mind was, to his pondering, a kind of virgin soil wherein concepts took root quickly, and, after they had taken root, have been retained with all of the tenacity of a vigorous and uncultured reminiscence. As to his personal place, each overseas and at house, he spoke with extraordinary freedom. He didn’t conceal the mortification he had skilled at his remedy by the main international Powers, however added that in the direction of Russia he by no means had and by no means would specific himself in any other case than with respect and gratitude.

He might always remember, or want to neglect, that it was to Russia his adopted nation owed her liberation; that it was Russia who had created the military which secured her independence; Russia whose uniform he wore, and was proud to put on. Nothing, he was satisfied, might have been extra loyal or extra disinterested than the coverage of the late Czar in the direction of Bulgaria. It was since Alexander the Second’s demise that this coverage had sadly been modified.

Maintain on the Bulgarian

individuals

The Prince gave the impression to be underneath no delusion with respect to the character of his maintain on the Bulgarian individuals. The individuals, he mentioned, have been democratic of their traditions, their concepts, and their instincts. They’d accepted a monarchy, not from any robust summary desire for monarchical establishments, however as a result of they knew and felt the monarchy, as represented by him, to be important to their existence as an impartial nation.

He was satisfied that on this sense ninety-nine Bulgarians out of 100 have been staunch supporters of the reigning dynasty, the partisans of Russia not numbering multiple per cent, of the entire inhabitants. The bulk in favour of the Ministry in workplace on the time of our dialog was, in his opinion, a really massive one; nonetheless there was an opposition which could hereafter turn into formidable.