Turkey

Photo: Whirling dervishes

Performing a Sufi ritual dance, whirling dervishes spin in southwestern Turkey.

Photograph by Eda Kaya, My Shot

Named the capital of the eastern Roman Empire by the emperor Constantine in A.D. 330, Istanbul straddles Europe and Asia. • The Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sofia—they merely top the long list of magnificent attractions. • Wend your way through the teeming spice market, then stop at a riverfront café for fish freshly pulled from the Bosporus. • Once the center of the Ottoman Empire, the region became a modern secular republic under Mustafa Kemal, or Ataturk, in the 1920s. • Turks are among the friendliest, most welcoming people in all Europe.

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