27 Awesome Facts About Turkey

Turkey is a predominantly mountainous country, and true lowland is confined to the coastal fringes. About one-fourth of the surface has an elevation above 4,000 feet (1,200 meters), and less than two-fifths lie below 1,500 feet (460 meters). The culture of Turkey combines a heavily diverse and heterogeneous set of elements that have been derived from the various cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean, Western Asia, Central Asia, Middle East, with Eastern European and Caucasian traditions.

1. Turkey shares borders with Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest, black sea to the north, Georgia by northeast, Armenia by east, the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan and Iran, Iraq to the southeast, Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Aegean Sea to the west.
2. The country adopted its official name as Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, which translates to English as the Republic of Turkey. They declared it to be a republic on October 29, 1923.
3. According to GreenMatch’s findings, Turkey is the most polluted country in the European continent with 4.33 tonnes of carbon dioxide per capita. Whereas Sweden is the cleanest country in the European continent.
4. The Grand Bazaar, located in its biggest city Instanbul is the oldest shopping mall in the world. The Shopping mall is covered by 61 streets and contains over 3,000 independent vendors that sell everything from carpets to jewelry. The shopping mall started construction in the year 1455 and was completed in 1730. Every day around 250,000 shoppers come here.
5. Turkey is an old and renowned name in winemaking. The country is the 6th largest producer of grapes globally, and in the year 2017, it produced 4,200,000 tons of grapes.
6. Most of the country’s people are Sunni Muslims consisting of 80.5% of the total population, and shia-aleviler Muslims is about 16.5%.
7. There are 18 UNESCO world heritage sites in the country, out of which sixteen are cultural and are two mixed sites.
8. Istanbul is the only country that lies in two continents, i.e., Asia and Europe. In ancient times it was called as Byzantium, then it became Constantinople of the Romans and finally Istanbul of the ottoman.
9. The country is home to the largest proportion of Syrian refugees and has 3.6 million refugees from Syria.
10. Coffee was introduced in France in the year 1657 and in Austria and Poland after the 1683 Battle of Vienna when coffee was captured from supplies of the defeated Turkish.
11. The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas, who was born sometime around 280 A.D in Patara, near Myra, which is in Turkey today.
12. As of 2013, there were 82,693 mosques in the country, out of which Instanbul had the highest number of mosques, 3,113, while the tunceli province has the lowest with 117 number of mosques. The Çamlıca Masjid of Istanbul is the biggest mosque in the county.
13. There are over 73 mountain peaks in the country, out of which mountain Ararat is the highest mountain peak with an elevation of 5137 meters (16853 feet). The total mountain peaks that are above 3000 meters are 63.
14. The tulip flower was originally a wildflower use to grow in the central Asia. Turkey became the first country in 1000 AD to first cultivate the flower. It is also the national flower of the county.
15. Oil wrestling or the grease wrestling is the national sport of the country. It is called so because the wrestlers that participate in the wrestling are first doused with olive oil before practicing the sport.
16. According to the geographical calculation of 1974 by Andrew J woods, the center of all land surfaces on earth is the Kırşehir city of Turkey.
17. Turkish is the main language in the country, but more than 30 ethnic languages are spoken in the country. However, besides the main language, only a small number of people speak other ethnic languages.
18. Turkey is the 6th most visited place in the world and number 1st Islamic country that is most visited by tourists from every part of the world. In the year 2018, 45.8 million tourists visited the country.
19. Out of the seven wonders of the world, two reside in turkey. The first one is the Temple of Artemis (Artemision) of Ephesus, and the second is the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus of Bodrum.
20. The Tünel is a historic subway railway line in Istanbul. It connects two Stations connecting the two quarters of Karaköy and Beyoğlu and was inaugurated on January 17, 1875. It is also the second-oldest extant subterranean urban rail line in the world, just after the London Underground (1863).
21. The top 5 exports of Turkey in the year 2018 were Cars ($12.9 Billion), Delivery Trucks ($5.38 Billion), Vehicle Parts ($4.63 Billion), Jewellery ($4.29 Billion), and Crude Petroleum ($3.65 Billion).
22. The top 5 imports of Turkey were Refined Petroleum ($12.4 Billion), Gold ($11.3 Billion), Scrap-Iron ($6.47 Billion), Vehicle Parts ($6.45 Billion), and Cars ($6.11 Billion).
23. The nation is the biggest consumer of tea on the globe, with a per capita tea consumption of approximately 6.96 pounds per year. Ireland comes on the second spot.
24. Turkey is the 6th largest tea producer globally, with an annual production of about 212,400 tons of tea.
25. It is also the third-largest producer of tomatoes globally, with an annual production of 12,750,000 tons of tomatoes.
26. The national animal of the country is the Grey wolf. Whereas the national bird is the redwing.
27. The current Turkish flag is derived from the late Ottoman flag, which was adopted in the late 18th century and was acquired in its final form in the year 1844. The flag was legally standardized in the Turkish Flag law on May 29, 1936.