Aerial Photos of Turkey

This was sent to us by the very nice staff at our present Marina. If you have a few minutes and a medium to fast connection, we encourage you to click on the link and see some National Geographic quality, low altitude, photos of a tiny fraction of the cool places in Turkey.

You may notice that the text below is oddly phrased. It is translated from Turkish, so you need to ‘read between the lines’ or try to see what the original thought probably was. That is a recurring problem with changing languages.

But, the photos speak all languages.

We (Dave & Janet) are well and hurrying to get as many things as we can, done before flying back to Istanbul on Feb 2. So, I will stop writing and get back to work, but I wanted you to see these photos. If you find other cool stuff about Turkey online, please pass it on to us.

Cheers,

Dave & Janet

 

 

Turkiye from 1000 feet 

Aerial Photos by Alp Alper 

http://www.alpalper.com/kitap/kitap.html

“What a pity! There’s no time to save the future
Even if we think about it from now on or don’t think about it
Furthermore it neither takes away from nor adds to our way of living
Not a thing! Because whatever there is in us for the future
It’s as if this is a dream, the decorating of life”
[The Park of the Hopeless / Edip CANSEVER]

To carry the past to the future
The above lines of Edip Cansever come immediately to my mind,whenever past and future are mentioned .The idea that there is no time left to save the future and that we do not even think about it, captures me and takes me to “The Park of the Hopeless.” But if such a beautiful poem has been written, it means that the past didn’t go by in vain and there is still time to save the future; it has to be, I think.

Prior to starting this project my friends who volunteered for this project and I were deeply concerned about all the historical destruction carried out in the name of avarice, the earthquakes, the smuggling of historical works, forest fires that hurt us inside when tracking them. All of these were only a few of the reasons that “triggered” the feeling that “It’s necessary to do something.” Therefore, we wanted to do such things to document earlier beauties, before the valuable things that we possess are destroyed. Let us offer them to future generations and let us give strength to their spirits in the name of protecting them…

The vulgar and thoughtless consumption of the bountiful Anatolian lands that was the cradle of civilization for centuries, especially began in the 1980s and increased due to wrong policies encouraging plunder. Ugly, concrete buildings rise as touristic facilities and summer home complexes, replacing the beautiful green texture of shoreline… Plenty of mistakes were unconsciously done during the process of restoration… The notion of “short-term profit” has consumed not only our future but also our children’s future. Neither the screams of trees that have been cut down nor the tears of the living in their habitat can stop the destruction and plunder of our natural wealth. ANNIHILATION! That was the sole stimulating force that made us take some action.

One of the first firmans (command) that Fatih Sultan Mehmet issued after he entered Istanbul says, “The head of the person who cuts off something young is to be cut off.” Moreover, Evliya Ηelebi wrote in his Travel Book, “A squirrel that took to the road from Van reached the Gulf of Iskenderun jumping from one oak tree to another without touching the ground.”. Whereas, in Turkey every year agricultural areas lose 500 million tons and throughout the whole country in general 1.4 billion tons of valuable top soil through erosion. According to the data of the Forestry General Directorate of 2005, from 1937 until 2005 as a result of 77,785 forest fires some one million 564 thousand hectares of forested area have been destroyed by fire and continue to be destroyed with every passing day.

The road taken to live Anatolia
Anatolia is known as the place where the sun and civilizations were born and where the oldest traces of man were on the Konya Plain from the Paleolithic (Stone) Age; there is the geography of its civilizations in which large empires have left their mark from the Great King Hattusili to Alexander the Great, from Alaattin Keykubat to Suleyman the Magnificent. Anatolia is a geography that has given shelter to hundreds of valuable scientists, architects and artists on its bountiful soil, of importance mystically and religiously, and has written its name on all the important roads of life from the Silk Road to the Royal Road where historic and religious roads intersect.

We set off on the road to experience step by step, swallow by swallow, the country of the mosaics that exist today sheltered in all Anatolia’s hundreds of years of colors. Not only seeing it in photographs or in the media but feeling it and going and touching it in its place… In doing this we chose what was difficult and what hadn’t been done until today. With the passion for the trip and discovery wrapped in time and place we made the effort to be able to reflect the difficulty of documenting the last beauties of Anatolia that had come down to our day.

According to the situation budget and land permitting, we depicted the beauties of Anatolia from the air and from a “deified” point of view. Some times while the first light of the morning and the sun were being born with a colored balloon… Sometimes with paragliding or a microlight giving the wings to the wind from a high summit and sometimes with a helicopter… In brief we tried to fly by every type of means that could fly and came to mind.Throughout the flight sometimes we found ourselves on the flame-colored wing of a flamingo, sometimes we found ourselves on the summit of Ararat, the mountain of legends. The magnificent volcano that once upon a time struck fear in Anatolia is dormant but is ready in its heart to explode at any moment. Or in the heart of the verdant green Black Sea meadows where there are hidden, lonely monasteries on the lands. One by one we discovered Anatolia anew. Feeling the wind in our hearts and on our faces, flying in the mountains and over the plains and the seas of Turkey like a bird with excitement and love. With a great hope that was always in our hands and in our hearts.

Holding tightly to our project more and more by seeing all those who believed in us clasping the hand of those who stretched them out to us. As the days and months went by, we advanced step by step. When we looked behind we felt pride in what we had succeeded so far.