Trip To Turkey: Antalya

AntalyaMuf Ben Omran

Antalya is the fifth most populous city in Turkey and the capital of its eponymous province. It is placed on the Southwest coast of Turkey bordered by the Taurus Mountains. Antalya is the largest Turkish city on the Mediterranean coast with over one million people in its metropolitan area, but with agglomeration this number reached 2.2 million in 2015. The city which is known now as Antalya was first settled about 200 BC.

The reign was taken over several times but for today’s people it is a huge fortune that the memories, statues, old town, many old building, architectures and baths survived the wars, and can present us the history values. Although Antalya was transferred to Italian control in the aftermath of World War I, it was retaken by the independent Turkey in the War of Independence (1919-1924). And today, it is Turkey biggest international sea resort, located on the Turkish Riviera. Large-scale development and governmental funding has promoted tourism. In 2014, about 12.5 million tourists visited the city and its area that is a “personal-record” of the city.

As for weather of the area, it is very attracting for tourists. Main reason is that the area is shielded from the northerly winds by the Taurus Mountains. Consequently, Antalya has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate with usually hot and dry wheatear in summer and mild and rainy winters. Around 300 days of the year are sunny. Even in off-season, before June or after August, it is a very convenient and pleasurable place to visit, to spend holidays there for low price. The mean sea temperature ranges between 16 Celsius in winter and 27 Celsius in summer. Average air temperature is about 34 Celsius, the low average is as low as 6.1 Celsius.

As I have mentioned before, there is a huge architectural heritage dating back up to Hellenistic times, most historical architecture in Antalya come from the medieval Ottoman period, with a number of mosques, madrasahs, masjids, caravanserais, Turkish baths and tombs giving the city a Turkish-Islamic character. Despite of all of this, unfortunately, historical architecture is concentrated in the walled city, Kaleiçi is the historic city center with narrow cobbled streets but its ancient structures are not well-preserved in the rest of the city of Antalya as the modern city was built on the ancient city. With its hotels, bars, clubs, restaurants, and shopping, it has been restored to retain much of its historical character. It is surrounded by two walls in the shape of a horsenail, one of which is along the seafront, built in a continuous process from Hellenistic to Ottoman times.

The historical harbor has a very romantic impress as the narrow streets extend from the harbor and branch off into the old city, surrounded by wooden historical houses. Cumhuriyet Square, the main square of the city which is very popular for both tourists and locals, surrounded by shopping and business centers and public buildings. There are sites with traces of Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Seljuk architecture and cultures. There are also examples of the local Greek architecture in the city, with five Greek Orthodox churches in the old city. This place is definitely recommended for people who are willing to get to know new cultures and people with their different culture and religion.

The walled city is surrounded by a large metropolitan area. With high rates of immigration since the 1970s, this area contains large “gecekondu” neighborhoods. Gecekondu is a Turkish word and its meaning is a house put up quickly without proper permissions. As we can conclude it from the definition these are not well-integrated into the fabric of the city and suffer from poor economic conditions and insufficient education. Gecekondu areas are concentrated in the Kepez district, which is not advised to visit for tourists, especially alone. It was estimated that there were 50-60 thousand gecekondus in Antalya and housing around 250,000 people, most of them are unemployed.

Antalya has beaches including Konyaaltı, Lara and Karpuzkaldıran. No one would guess it but here winter sports are held, accurately in Beydağları and Saklikent are used for this purpose.

I recommend everyone to visit it once, you can simultaneously learn a new culture and rest yourself on the beach.