It should come as no surprise that Türkiye is home to a wealth of spectacular Ottoman mosques. The six-hundred-year Ottoman state left a powerful mark between its foundation in 1299, to its demise in 1923. This is especially true of the empire’s former capital Istanbul, and its heartlands in Anatolia and Thrace. What is particularly […]
I was not planning to write about my trip to Sofia, Bulgaria, where I attended a conference on Cultural Heritage in Migration. We all had an intense discussion on this issue with the conference organisers and participants, and later my personal experience of heritage in Sofia left me to conclude that I must address […]
Turkey is among the 37 countries participating at London’s inaugural Design Biennale at Somerset House, which ends this Tuesday. Their installation The Wish Machine falls under this year’s Utopia by Design theme, which explores a better imagined world. The exhibition is part of UTOPIA 2016 – a year-long commemoration of the 500th anniversary of British author […]
Mimar Sinan, born 15 April 1489 Considered to be one of the greatest architects of all time, Mimar Sinan served several sultans during the classical Ottoman period: Süleyman the Magnificent, Selim II and Murad III. The son of a stonemason, Sinan grew up in Kayseri where he received a technical education. He became a military engineer, rising […]
