Turkey is a country with a multiple identity, poised between East and West, where mosques coexist with churches, and remnants of the Roman Empire crumble alongside ancient Hittite and Neolithic sites.

Istanbul, the country's cultural and commercial centre, straddles the Bosphorus straits and the Marmara coast. The city is a mix of old and new and also visibly the old imperial capital, and would take months of exploration to truly do it justice.

On the Sea of Marmara are the two earlier Ottoman capitals, Bursa and Edirne, and just beyond, the World War I battlefields of the Dardanelles.

On the Aegean Coast small country towns are swathed in olive groves, while the area is full of ancient sites like Assos, Bergama and Ephesus, which have been a magnet for travellers since antiquity. The Aegean coast is Turkey at its most developed, with resorts like Cesme, Bodrum and Marmaris.

On the interior of the Anatolian Peninsula you can explore the spectacular attractions of Cappadocia, with its famous rock churches, subterranean cities and landscape studded with "fairy chimneys", as well as the Selcuk architecture and dervish associations of Konya.

Turkey is an immensely rewarding place to travel, not least because of the people, whose reputation for friendliness and hospitality is richly deserved.