A journey into Turkish cultural heritage through fact and fiction
Last updated 9/18/2009 3:07:06 PM
Historians are recreating the legendary Evliya Çelebi ride
Archaeologists from the University of Toronto have uncovered a store of ancient cuneiform tablets dating to the Iron Age period between 1200 and 600 BC whilst working at the 2,700-year-old remains of an ancient Turkish temple that began as a holy Neo-Hittite site, named Tell Ta’yinat.
The Tell Ta’yinat site is located in the Hatay province of south-eastern Turkey not far from the City of Antakya.
The area has long served as an archaeological hotspot of ancient history since the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute discovered an ancient temple that mirrored the descriptions of King Solomon’s Temple in the Old Testament.
Several palaces designed in the Bit-hilani style were also uncovered.
Numerous artefacts were found inscribed with the ancient languages of Luwian/Neo Hittite, Neo-Assyrian and Aramaic, which identifies the site as ancient Kunulua, the capital of the Neo-Hittite/Aramean kingdoms of Unqi and Patina.
The historical celebration doesn’t stop there.
In September 2009, a group of historians and horse enthusiasts will set off on The Evliya Çelebi Ride from Istanbul to recreate Evliya Çelebi’s journey of 1671.
Evliya Çelebi’s ten-volume Seyahatname, or "Book of Travels", is the most often cited source for Ottoman history. The Evliya Çelebi Ride will map out the Evliya Çelebi Way, a sustainable tourism route through the Turkish countryside.