Soundtrack of Kavakyelleri

This soundtrack is from one of the most popular serial films, Kavakyelleri. I watch it every thursday. It's about the story of four friends.

Antalya, The Most Touristic City of Turkey

Antalya Marina

The city of Antalya stretches along the bay bearing its name, and is built at 39 meters altitude on a rocky coastline. One is immediately struck by the Taurus mountains rising to 3086 meters above this coastline, intersperesed withvalleys of varying sizes. Land and sea everywhere meet the beaches stretching for miles or the steep cliffs. The Taurus mountains against the blue backdrop of the sky, the precipices and especially the caves close to the sea add another dimension to the beauty of the region.

Small and large streams emerging from the west side of the Taurus water the plains on their journey to the Mediterranean. This translucent running water, cascading into the sea at points along the coast, is another attractive sight.

The plant life of Antalya is extremely varied. Every kind of tropical plant can be found along the coast. Visitors to Antalya are struck by the size attained by the different species of cactus. When you reach the foothills of the Taurus, you will see they are covered in the typical Mediterranean maquis, while the forests are full of thriving oaks and pine trees. The coton and sesame plantations and citrus and banana groves of the plains have a beauty of their own.

Antalya Beach

In Antalya the four seasons only appear on the calendar, as there is no real winter here, so much so that when in 1985 for the first time in 60 years snow fell, it was front page news.
The summers are hot and rainless while the other months are warm and often rainy, with a mean annual temperature of 18.7 °C. On average there is no rain for 309.5 days a year. It is very rare for the temperature to drop below zero. During the last 40 years the highest recorded temperature was 44.6 °C. In Antalya the average humidty rate is 64%, whereas the seat temperatures are 17.6 °C in January, 18.0 °C in April, 27.7 °C in August and 24.5 °C in September.

Termessos

Termessos is perhaps the most interesting ancient city in Antalya region. It is a Psidian city built at a height of 1050 meters in the Taurus Mountains. Termessos constitutes an unusual synthesis of a large number of rare plants and animal species, which are under protection in the Termessos National Park. When turning off the Antalya-Burdur highway (11 km.) in the direction of Korkuteli, the Termessos signpost will be seen 14 km. further on, and Termessos itself is a further 9 km. A visit to this site requires time and the stamina to walk uphill, because Termessos is built entirely on a mountainous area difficult to access.

The inhabitants of Termessos were known as the Solyms but unlike those of other cities of the time they did not come from the sea and were entirely of Anatolian origin. What is known of their history commences principally at the time that Alexander the Great surrounded the city in 333 B.C., which he likened to an eagle's nest and failed to conquer. Termessos, after a gradual decline, was finally abandoned in the 5th century A.D. Some of the remains found there are the walls, the Hadrian's triumphal arch, the cisterns, the theater, the gymnasium, the agora, the odeon and the heroon. Among the tombs which are scattered far and wide can be seen those of Alcates, Agatemeros and the Lion decorated sarcophagi, which are extraordinary.

Hadrian's Gate

This is one of the best preserved monuments in Antalya. This Roman edifice was built in 130 A.D. to honor the Emperor Hadrian. Formerly the city walls enclosed the outside of the gate and it was not used for many years. This may be the reason why it has not been destroyed, and it was only revealed when the walls collapsed. It is considered as Pamphylia's most beautiful Gate. The upper part has three apertures in the shape of a cupola, and except for the pillars is built entirely of white marble. The ornamentation is very striking. The original Gate was two storeys but little is known of the top storey.

On either side of the Gate are towers, which are known not to have been built at the same time. The southern one is known as the Julia Sancta tower and is a work of the Hadrian era. It was constructed of plain stone blocks. While the base of the northern tower belongs to antiquity, the upper part is left over from the Seljuks.

It is worth while stopping in front of the Gate and reflecting for a few moments. On the one hand you are standing on modern Antalya's dual carriageway, lined with palm and orange trees, Ataturk Caddesi, while behind you is ancient Attaleia, the past and the present separated by Pamphylia's most beautiful Gate, which itself has on either side towers representing the art and civilization of two different epochs. This blending of the epochs is something peculiar to Antalya and can be often seen.

www.antalya-ws.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antalya

http://www.allaboutturkey.com/antalya.htm

She is My Favorite

Candan Ercetin, the singer, is one of my favorites. Last year she's started to a program in tv. Below you'll watch her singing a turkish folk song in her program. This folk song is sang almost in every turkish entertainments, like weddings etc.

A Turkish Love Song

This song means a lot to me. It is our love song with my husband before me got married. And in our wedding party, we came in the saloon with this song. It was charming...



The songs name is "We Stole Love From Angels"... Here's the lyrics in turkish and english.

We Stole Love From Angels
Look into my eyes underneath the light of the stars.
The wind has something to say to us, hear it.
Look into my eyes underneath the light of the stars.
The wind has something to say to us, hear it.

Sometimes the loudest screams are only a whisper.
Don't they know? Those great storms will come and pass.
(CHORUS)
We stole love from the angels,
We've become tightly attached to each other.
We stole love from the angels,
We've become tightly attached to each other.

Biz Aşkı Meleklerden Çaldık (turkish)
Bak yıldızlar altında gözlerimin içine
Duy rüzgarların bize anlattığı birşey var
Bak yıldızlar altında gözlerimin içine
Duy rüzgarların bize anlattığı birşey var

Bir fısıltı gibi bazen o en büyük çığlıklar
Bilmezler mi gelir geçer en büyük fırtınalar
(CHORUS)
Biz aşkı meleklerden çaldık
Birbirimize sımsıkı bağlandık
Biz aşkı meleklerden çaldık
Birbirimize sımsıkı bağlandık

Soundtrack of Calikusu, An Old Turkish Film

Below there's a video of an old turkish film soundtrack from 1986. I used to love this film and its soundtrack very much, so i want to share it with you. This film is based on a novel "Calikusu". It's about a girl who loves a man very much. But she had a heartbreak and she left the town, became a teacher in the anatolian villages. But in the years of 1900's the conditions are very hard especially for a woman in Anatolia. I hope you like it.

Hugs To Humanity

Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi is an Anatolian holy man who gave hope and inspiration to humanity. Mevlana was born in 1207 in Khorasan, and died in 1273 in Konya. He took his first lessons from his father Bahaeddin Veled, who was known as “sultan of scholars”. While he was studying Sufism he met Ahi Sems Tebrizi, and after this meeting his own ideas began to emerge. It is his poems about Sufism, however, for which he is chiefly remembered, respected and admired today.

The branch of love comes from ancient times, and its root from immortality,

That greatness is too much for this mind and morals,

Fade away, pass through your existence. Your existence is murder.

Love is nothing other than finding the truth.

According to Mevlana, love is the only thing necessary to attain God. A plant or an animal may also love, but it is only man who has the capacity to love with his body, mind, thoughts and memory. Mevlana exalts the state of being in love with a woman because if someone loves someone else, he also loves himself, humanity, the universe and God. The most beautiful love, “Love of Truth,” begins when someone reaches this level of wisdom. Followers of Mevlana (Mevlevi) spin around and around in a ritual called “sema.” This ritual symbolizes a world united in love and keeping step with the world’s universal rotation. While one of their hands points to the sky, the other hand points to the ground meaning “Love from God spreads to the earth”. The spirit bursts forth from God and is immortal. The sound of the nay (a reed flute) tells of man’s longing to return to his initial source.
He means that the universe is an endless place within the existence of God, and as a small part of the whole, man keeps that divine essence inside him by saying, “You who search for God, it’s you that you’re searching for....”

Come, no matter what you are,

Whether atheist or sun worshipper.

Whether you’ve backslid a thousand times,

Come, no matter what you are.

As we see, all mankind are brothers, and differences between religions do not square well with the divine presence. Mevlana attaches great importance to women and maintains that men and women are equal, saying, “The more you insist women should cover themselves up, the more you incite people’s desire to see them.
Like a man, if a woman’s heart is good, she will chose the path of goodness independent of your prohibitory actions. If her heart is bad, you can’t influence whatever you do.” Mevlana’s students were called Kitap-el Esrar (Clerks of the Secret). There were Muslims, Christians, Jews, Iranians, Armenians, Rums and Turks among them. His students from different cultures and religions collected his poems and gave them as a gift to later generations.

article from www.turkishculture.org

http://www.geocities.com/ee_adnan/mevlana.html

watch the sema show

Unesco declared that "2007, The Year of Mevlana". This year there has been a gorgeous sema show in Turkey with 300 whirling dervish. Click here to watch this show.

Happy New Year

I wish everyone a very happy new year. I wish there will be peace in the world. I wish everyone happiness, success, love and money. Below there are photos from Turkey on December 31, 2007.