Western Turkey has a phenomenally strategic geographic position as a crossroads for ancient trade routes and cultures. This has put it center-stage of the major cultural periods of European/Middle Eastern development for over 3,500 years--from the Hittites of 1500 BC through Greeks to the long-lasting, immense Roman Empire, and from western Christian crusades in the thirteenth century to more successful establishment from the east in the 1400s of the Ottoman Empire until the early 20th century. This long history leaps out and hits you at every turn !