Arts, Culture & History

There’s a moment in The Time Regulation Institute, the novel by acclaimed Turkish author Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, where the protagonist Hayri Irdal explains the...

“Zeytinyağı gibi üste çıkma!” or “Don’t stick out like olive oil!” This time last year, my husband and I were sipping olive oil at a...

Eleven essentials for the Turkish home: 1. Hamam kit – Regular trips to the hamam are an Istanbul institution. With this in mind it’s no...

Sometimes it’s the unseen that is the most fascinating. The imagination can drift back to a time far before we existed to wonder about...

In a city whose skyline is spiked with thousands of minarets, it is sometimes forgotten just how many churches are snuggled in the back...

Mimar Sinan was, without a doubt, the greatest architect of the Ottoman empire. His importance and influence are often compared with his contemporary Michelangelo, and it's an established...

In the final month of 2019, the first Coronavirus case was recorded in Wuhan, China. The pandemic has since spread nearly all over the...

Certain things that are second nature at home can be a minefield abroad. Etiquette in all of its various forms is especially tricky. Despite...

Emilie Varlet and Gabrielle Reeves began exploring Istanbul's hans in the summer of 2014, when they first started their sketching adventures in the city. They have...

As a follow-up to our interview with rapper and all-round nice guy of Turkish hip-hop, Ege Çubukçu, we asked him to put together a playlist for those...

Contemporary Istanbul, the city's premier international art fair, is back for its 18th edition, bringing together art enthusiasts, collectors, curators, and artists from around...

Like many of history’s greatest culinary discoveries, that of coffee stemmed from a noisy, restless goat and his attendant farmer’s desire for an undisturbed...

You may not be aware that there is either a museum or a synagogue in central Karaköy, downhill from Galata Tower and directly facing the tram stop....

Born on the 15th of January 1902 in Thessaloniki, where his father was serving as an Ottoman government official; Nazım Hikmet Ran, commonly known...

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl with shiny blonde hair that ran down her shoulders and sweet hazel eyes which sparkled...

Dayla Rogers continues her conversation with artist and researcher C.M. Kösemen about the Dönme and their history.  You are a person of Dönme background. A...

The Byzantine Chronicles, a new blog by Yabangee contributor Timothy Mottram, sets out to shed light on some of Byzantium’s history through fictitious narratives. Each...

The 90s was a unique period all over the world and the same goes for Turkey. In Turkey, alongside its distinctive music genres and...

When you traverse the streets of Turkey you can see it all around. Everyone is sitting around consuming it. It’s red, it’s hot and...

In this month’s ‘Famous Turk’ article, we’re looking at Mevlana – known more popularly in the English-speaking world as ‘Rumi’ – the Anatolian philosopher...

Now if you have watched Dan Brown’s Inferno, the movie with Tom Hanks, and have been a diligent tourist in Istanbul, you’d recognize the...

2021 marked the first official season of legal excavations in Amos Ancient City near Marmaris, Muğla. This ancient settlement dates back to roughly 3,000...

Contemporary Turkish cinema often oscillates between bland, commercial movies (that range from broad comedies to over-sugared romances) and magnificent under-performing films that demonstrate the concerns...

Why make such a list? Because after each two hour journey home from Taksim in the early hours of the morning, I have to...