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Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye),its  known officially as the Republic of Turkey

The name of Turkey, Türkiye in the Turkish language, can be divided into two components: Türk, which means "strong" or "mighty" in Old Turkic. and usually signifying the inhabitants of Turkey or a member of the Turkish or Turkic peoples,a later form of "Tu–kin", a name given by the Chinese to the people living south of the Altay Mountains of Central Asia as early as 177 BCE; and the abstract suffix –iyemeaning "owner", "land of" or "related to" (derived from the Arabic suffix –iyya, but also associated with the Medieval Latin suffix –ia inTurchia).

Antiquity;)

One of the main entrance gates of theDolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul

Portion of the legendary walls ofTroy (VII), identified as the site of theTrojan War (ca. 1200 BCE)

The settlement of Troy starts in the Neolithic and continued into the Iron Age. Through recorded history, Anatolians have spoken Indo-European, Semitic and Kartvelian languages, as well as many languages of uncertain affiliation. In fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite andLuwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical center from which the Indo-European languages have radiated. The Hattians were an ancient people who inhabited the southeastern part of Anatolia, noted at least as early as ca. 2300.

The Celsus Library in Ephesus, dating from 135 AD.

The House of Seljuk was a branch of the Kınık Oğuz Turks who resided on the periphery of the Muslim world, north of the Caspian and Aral Seas in the Yabghu Khaganate of the Oğuz confederacy  in the 10th century. In the 11th century, the Seljuks started migrating from their ancestral homelands towards the eastern regions of Anatolia, which eventually became the new homeland of Oğuz Turkic tribes following theBattle of Manzikert in 1071.

The victory of the Seljuks gave rise to the Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate; which developed as a separate branch of the larger Seljuk Empire that covered parts of Central Asia, Iran, Anatolia and Southwest Asia.

Geography and climate

Turkey is a transcontinental Eurasian country. Asian Turkey (made up largely of Anatolia), which includes 97% of the country, is separated from European Turkey by the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and theDardanelles (which together form a water link between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea). European Turkey (eastern Thrace or Rumelia in the Balkan peninsula) comprises 3% of the country.

lovely places to visit 

Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, connecting Europe (left) and Asia (right)

Ölüdeniz Beach near Fethiye on theTurkish Riviera

Turkey is divided into seven census regions: Marmara, Aegean, Black Sea, Central Anatolia, Eastern Anatolia, Southeastern Anatolia and the Mediterranean. The uneven north Anatolian terrain running along the Black Sea resembles a long, narrow belt. This region comprises approximately one-sixth of Turkey's total land area. As a general trend, the inland Anatolian plateau becomes increasingly rugged as it progresses eastward.

Maslak financial district in Istanbul

TCDD high speed train

Esenboğa International Airport in Ankara

Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul hosted the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final

The most popular sport in Turkey is football.Turkey's top teams include Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş. In 2000, Galatasaray cemented its role as a major European club by winning the UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup. Two years later the Turkish national team finished third in the 2002 World Cup Finals in Japan and South Korea, while in 2008 the national team reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Euro 2008 competition. The Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul hosted the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final, while the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium in Istanbul hosted the 2009 UEFA Cup Final.

Istanbul Park racing circuit a few hours before the F1 Turkish Grand Prix