"Civilisation abounds at the cultural crossroads
Turkey offers the best of East and West, writes Nick Jackson
FOR centuries Istanbul led the civilised world, straddling Occident and Orient and the mighty Bosphorus. Still standing are monuments to that leadership: the domed Byzantine Church of Hagia Sophia and the slender minarets of the Blue Mosque, together with myriad other sublime arrangements from the drawing boards of the sultans’ architects such as the Topkapi Palace, a bejewelled treasure."
More:Civilisation abounds at the cultural crossroads - Times Online