Known in earlier times as Anatolia and Asia Minor, Turkey is a land that has witnessed the rise and fall of so many great and advanced civilizations it has inherited a legacy of outstanding art and architecture that ranks among the foremost in the world. It’s been said there are more ancient buildings and monuments, ruins and excavations in Turkey than Greece and Italy combined. We went there in search of art and found it — both ancient and modern, sometimes crafted in unusual media.

Istanbul, June 2007
First impressions of this fabulous city of 15 million that famously straddles the Bosphorus between Europe and Asia, are cobbled streets sweltering under a hot summer sun seething with western and eastern Europeans, Asians, Muslims and Arabs dressed in garb and speaking in languages as colorful and varied as their countries of origin. It’s easy to imagine nothing much has changed through the ages.

Once hunkered down behind impressively fortified walls and known as Constantinople, this great center of religion and learning, power and wealth was an important stop along the Silk Road, the busiest port on the Mediterranean and the richest city in Christendom. Behind its daunting chain of double walls pierced by fortified gates and strengthened by almost 200 towers the city prospered, withstanding wave after wave of invaders for more than a thousand years until it was captured by Mehmet II in 1453 marking the beginning of the Ottoman Empire.

Enough of the great fortress walls remain to still intimidate but today the city’s skyline is dominated by the lumpy outlines of the Blue Mosque, with its towering six minarets built by the same stonemasons who built the Taj Mahal, and the awe-inspiring dome and minarets of rose-pink Hagia Sophia the more than 1400-year old ‘Church of Holy Wisdom’ that ranks among the world’s greatest architectural achievements. Within these mosques, mosaics and calligraphy have been elevated to a dazzling art form. Fine-featured mosaics of holy figures peer down from the domes and walls that are also decorated with passages from the Koran artistically written in bold black letters forming elegant shapes, patterns and designs. Here in the old quarter is Topkapi Palace home to a glittering collection of priceless treasures amassed during the 470-year reign of the Ottoman sultans.

Down by the ferry terminals, next to the faded facade that was once the terminus of the fabled Orient Express, are the covered alleyways of the ancient Spice Market where colorful, aromatic powders have been sold since the days when the precious cargo arrived in wooden ships from Egypt or by camel trains from the distant Orient. And not far away sprawls the cramped indoor maze of narrow streets and passages known as the Grand Bazaar, where more than 5,000 shops and stalls have been selling goods from throughout the Ottoman Empire and beyond for more than 600 years.

Cappadocia, July 2007
Famed for one of the most remarkable landscapes on earth, Cappadocia’s draw is its valleys of naturally-formed, tall, conical, rock outcrops known as peri bacalari or fairy chimneys. Early Christians fled here from the Middle East to this remote and desolate region in the 4th century leaving scores of these outcrops carved into hidden chapels adorned with exquisite frescos. We took an early-morning, hot-air balloon ride gliding over the bewitching landscape as the orange dawn streaked across the sky.

Around Keyseri are the remains of entire underground cities: labyrinths of narrow subterranean passages, at times only waist-high, connecting dozens of rooms, kitchens, stables, storehouses, churches, wine cellars and ventilation shafts that are believed to have accommodated thousands during the 6th to 9th centuries, keeping them hidden from attack sometimes for a year or more.

Nearby is the pretty, leafy town of Avanos, for centuries famed for its beautiful pottery and ceramics thrown, painted and glazed by hand, some by masters of the craft recognized worldwide. We visited the legendary studio of Kaya Seramik Evi. Many of the delicate, intricate designs found here are painstakingly reproduced from originals that adorn the sultans’ palaces and the country’s most important mosques. Avanos is also famed for its stunning silk carpets, the most collectable of which have 900 knots to the inch and the maker’s name woven into the pattern.

The Turquoise Coast and the Aegean, July 2007
The southern coast of Turkey is a craggy ribbon of sandy coves, inlets and bays of crystal-clear waters ideal for sailing, swimming and snorkeling. Now known as the Turquoise Coast, this Turkish Riviera of picturesque harbors and fishing villages teems with boats, para-sailors and sun worshipers by day and throbs to a disco beat by night. But behind this contemporary façade lies a much more ancient history.

Brooding over the popular resort of Bodrum is one of the most impressive fortresses on the Mediterranean, the castle built on a peninsular by the Knights of St. John to protect pilgrims on the way to the Holy Land. Nearby is Halicarnassus the site of the ancient tomb of King Mausoleus one of the seven wonders of the ancient world that gave us the word mausoleum but was torn apart by the knights to build their castle.

Today, traditional wooden boats known as gulets leave the picturesque port of Fetiye to cruise the Turquoise Coast for two or three days of gentle sailing and sight-seeing, but once these ancient ports were important trading centers for seafaring Greek and Roman traders. Then, none was more important than Ephesus.

Ephesus, one of the greatest ruined cities of the western world, is a World Heritage Site and therefore protected from development and commercialism. There are actually several cities built here one atop the other. The spectacular ruined city seen today dates back to the 4th century when Ephesus flourished under Roman rule as their chief port on

the Aegean. Even in ruins, the Library of Celsus is the ancient site’s magnificent centerpiece. But its villas, lavishly decorated with finely painted murals and vibrantly colored mosaic floors, are as equally impressive as its temples, arches, fountains and colonnaded streets.

St. John the Evangelist took Jesus’ mother Mary to Ephesus in AD37. Today, her modest stone house is a shrine revered by both Christians and Muslims. Nearby also are the ruins of the Temple of Artemis, another of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

We head back to Istanbul to start our journey home but we have one more stop to make. Our visit to Turkey would not be complete without seeing the ruins of the ancient city of Troy, the pivot of Homer’s Iliad and the place where the decade long Trojan War was fought. A thriving port city four thousand years before Christ, Troy is truly legendary but sadly there is little left to see. But, like much else about Turkey, its shadows are long and its echoes are powerful.

Learn about The Weatherburn , a Naples Florida Art Gallery.