We Brits and Tourism

Aksaray hidden city

Often I will hear a Brit say something like, 'I went to Spain but I didn't go to the tourist places, I went where the Spanish people are.' We don't always like to admit that we have been on a package holiday, we want something a little more sophisticated. We want to meet real people from the places we are visiting, we want to eat local food, we don't want a pre-packaged experience handed to us on a plate. We want something authentic, something that has potential to broaden our horizons, something that seems more meaningful. I used to be very suspicious of tourism; wasn't it inevitably detrimental to the environment? But now I am grateful to tourism because it can be an indispensable part of the economy of a country.

Mark and I are often tourists in our own country. How many history tours did our children endure? Arguably the worst was when we arrived in sone random person's drive and Mark pointed across two fields from their garden fence to a burial mound that we could barely see let alone examine. Türkiye, like Britain, is full of history and its unbelievably rich history is one of the most important things that it has to offer the tourist. And, a lot of the history is not only to be found in the places known to tourists but in every corner of the country.

With a couple of our most special Turkish friends, Mark and I set off for Konya, famous for its whirling dervishes and Seljuk architecture. It was a mere three hours drive. Mark, having driven for two hours, noted that there had been no recent mention of Konya on the road signs. Google maps informed us that we still had two and a half hours to drive before reaching our destination. We had missed the correct road turning. I quickly googled the town we were approaching, Aksaray (White Palace). Much to my relief I was able to persuade a disgruntled Mark to stop off there. A cursory glance at google suggested a few things of historical interest in this town, well down on the 'to see places' in Türkiye.

Mark's mood visibly improved on his inspection of the big central mosque, originally an old Roman church converted into a grand Seljuk mosque. He became particularly excited as we passed, on our search for lunch, a 2 metre stretch of Roman wall. The rest of us didn't really share his excitement, but from that fragment of history Mark had reconstructed in his mind the boundaries of the ancient city. After lunch we drove a few miles out of the town to find a Byzantine city hidden in an enclosed valley. It had largely escaped the raids of the Turks and Mongols due to its location. We had chanced upon a largely uncelebrated thousand year old city made of compressed sand and multi-storey buildings like the famous fairy chimneys of Cappadocia. And Türkiye is packed full of such things.

Mark and I are planning to run trips to Türkiye over the next years. We have one nearly full trip to follow in the footsteps of Paul on his first journey recorded in Acts 13 and 14 in March and another one planned for October to Cappadocia. In 2026 we would like to do four trips. Please ask me for more information and tell anyone else who may be interested. We can offer something off the beaten track, meaningful contact with local people, good local food and very definitely an authentic experience.