“One hundred million should tide you over until tomorrow,” said Salih, our guide, as he extended a fistful of bills in various colors.

The loan was accompanied by an informative list of the various denominations of Turkish currency. It immediately became apparent that it was going to be easier to memorize the various colors than count the zeros on each bill. We never did figure out the value of the numerous coins that collected in our pockets and purses, but they were invaluable to gain entry into public bathrooms, trams and buses.

The morning after our arrival, we discovered a nearby ATM and were amused to find that, not only were we millionaires, but our bank balance in Lira easily made us billionaires. The actual value of Salih’s loan was approximately 67 dollars. This complicated monetary system has now changed. At the end of 2004, six zeros were dropped from all paper denominations. This simplification was made possible because the rampant inflation that plagued the country for many years, often in excess of 800 percent, has been brought down to a manageable 12 percent.

Still visible today, especially in the smaller villages, are jewelry stores with windows displaying racks of identical gold bangles. These plain bracelets are worn by the women in the family and sometimes cover their arms from wrist to elbow. Known as “mama’s bank,” a bracelet is removed and sold when the family faces an emergency expenditure.

“The gold has historically kept its value much better than the volatile currency,” Salih said. With inflation under control, a new threat faces the country in the form of the credit card. The cash economy of the past guaranteed that families were virtually debt-free. They bought what they needed and paid with the cash on hand. It remains to be seen how the Turkish people will handle the new concept of interest, which in theory is banned by the Islamic religion.

Visitors to Turkey usually arrive in Istanbul. This vibrant city straddles two continents and almost three millennia of history. The capital of three major empires, the Roman, the Byzantine and the Ottoman, Istanbul, or Constantinople, as it was once known, is truly the crossroads between East and West. Situated on the narrow Bosphorus Straits between the Marmara Sea and the Black Sea, it is as strategically located today as at any time in its history.

The continent of Europe, which comprises only three-percent of Turkey, is connected to Asia by several beautiful, but always traffic-clogged bridges. Getting around in Istanbul is determined, not so much by the distance between points of interest, but by the time of day you are traveling. Public transportation, either by bus, tram or taxi, is plentiful and relatively cheap; but the wise traveler will avoid early-morning and late-afternoon excursions whenever possible. A roundtrip ferry-boat cruise allows you to examine up-close the many Ottoman Palaces, fortresses, historic wooden houses, suspension bridges and fishing villages on both sides of the Bosphorus. A leisurely lunch in one of the many small restaurants along the water is a special treat. Here, away from the chaotic city, it is possible to combine fresh fish sandwiches and mussels with incomparable people watching.

Gate 1 Travel used a comfortable, full-sized tour bus to deliver us to nearly all the must-see attractions throughout Turkey. At the end of the day, they were flexible enough to allow passengers to disembark along the way if they wanted to continue exploring on their own.

Our first day in Istanbul began with a visit to the famous Grand Bazaar and the nearby Egyptian Spice Market. Covered stalls, filled with an array of colorful spices, candies, cheeses and various foodstuffs, made the crowded spice market come alive with an exotic mixture of aromas and sounds. The most popular purchase was the aromatic red saffron, which varied greatly in quality and price, but was always a bargain compared to the prices in the United States.

The nearby Grand Bazaar is much larger. Also covered, it consists of more than 4,000 shops, several banks, mosques, fountains and restaurants. This chaotic labyrinth is possibly the world’s largest souk, and has been described as both Istanbul’s best and worst shopping. Before you even enter one of the 18 gates, you are accosted by a bevy of persistent rug merchants offering apple tea and a seemingly unending selection of carpets and kilims.

Once inside, the quantity of merchandise is staggering and you may well lose your way as you wander deeper into narrow streets filled with jewelry, copper, ceramics, leather, hookah pipes, antique icons, Turkish daggers, knock-off purses, embroidered pillows, blue evil-eyes, musical instruments and, of course, more carpets. The best strategy for visiting the market is a two-pronged approach. On your first visit, allow yourself to wander aimlessly to get the flavor of the place. Then, when you return, you will have some idea which merchant is going to empty your pockets. I somehow ended up with a carpet that I had no intention of buying, but it looks so good in my den and it was “such a bargain” that I cannot imagine allowing it to languish in some dark corner of the bazaar under piles of larger rugs. It is said that Turkey has 100,000 mosques and 1 million carpet stores.

Our first stop after leaving Istanbul was Troy, which is actually nine cities built on top of each other. Those who follow history know of the destruction caused by wars as one civilization after another occupied Troy. Lesser known is the damage caused by nature as numerous earthquakes toppled the heavy marble structures. I found the actual ruins to be a disappointment, since much of what remains is buried. Siemens, a German archeological group, is still conducting excavations.

Back in the bus, we moved on to visit the city of Izmir and the ruins of Sardis before reaching the glorious and prosperous city of Ephesus. As both the capital of Roman Asia and the site of a large, wealthy port, Ephesus accumulated almost unparalleled wealth. The ruins today rank first among Turkey’s ancient sites in terms of sheer size and state of preservation. The Temple of Artemis, four times the size of the Parthenon, the extensive marble roadways, columned avenues and a gigantic sports coliseum make it easy to imagine this bustling city as it once was. To this day, Ephesus boasts a concentration of Classical art and architecture surpassed only by Rome and Athens.

Pamukkale has been drawing the weary and seriously ill to its thermal springs for 23 centuries. Hierapolis, the city of the dead, located in the same area, is covered with the ruins of thousands of tombs. Perhaps these bleak but beautiful monuments are giving silent testimony that the healing powers of the hot springs did not always live up to their expectations. Nevertheless, most of us spent an hour or so in the relaxing, steamy pool at our hotel that evening.

As we moved through the countryside between the vast agricultural fields, it was apparent why Turkey is able to grow all its own food with the exception of coffee. Fields stretched for miles on both sides of the road, and small farming villages could be seen every few miles. Salih used the bus time to regale us with stories of ancient Turkey that made each new site come alive. When it seemed that we could absorb no more history, he would try to give us some understanding of Turkey as it is today.

I came away with the impression that either modern-day Turkey made perfect sense or no sense at all. The country is 98 percent Muslim, and yet it is a secular state, and Islam is no longer the official religion. Women are not required to cover their heads, and most don’t. They have been given the same rights as men to hold jobs. Alcohol is legal and readily available. Prayer is a personal matter and the city does not shut down at each call to prayer. The call to prayer is in Turkish instead of the traditional Arabic. The government is a democracy, yet military service is compulsory, education is free and everyone is covered by the health system. There is very little abject poverty, and practically no one is wealthy. The revision of Turkey, as it is today, began in 1923 as the vision of a military politician by the name of Mustafa Kemal, who is better known as Ataturk. He became the first president of the Turkish Republic, but the amount of reform he accomplished in a short time appears to be the work of a benevolent dictator.

The time seemed to fly as we spent a night in Konya before arriving at the legendary Cappadocia area. The enchanting “fairy chimneys” that crowd the landscape are the results of thousands of years of volcanic activity in the valley. The soft volcanic rock, tufa, eroded and left the hard basalt to form unique mushroom and cone-shaped monoliths. The area has a long religious history, and today it is possible to enter the miles of underground cities and churches that allowed generations of Christians to hide from their enemies. Once it was safe, thousands of above-ground caves were carved into the soft tufa.

These rudimentary dwellings were inhabited until 1954, when the government deemed them unsafe for human habitation. No doubt, the fact that they had no running water, electricity or sanitary facilities had something to do with the decision, but most of the people were unhappy with having to abandon their rent-free premises. Pictures, better than words, give some idea of the strangeness and beauty of this area. Even then, it is impossible to convey the impression one feels standing surrounded by this barren moonscape. The best views and pictures can be obtained by taking the optional hot-air balloon trip early in the morning. We were lucky to have a clear, star-lit sky as we emerged from our hotel at 4 a.m.

We stopped briefly in Ankara, the capital and most modern city in Turkey, before returning to Istanbul for another two days of sightseeing. The Blue Mosque was first on the agenda. Impressive from the outside, this six-minareted, multi-domed structure is not blue. It is only when you have removed your shoes and entered the cool, carpet-covered interior that you notice the 20,000 shimmering blue Iznik tiles and the 260 stained glass windows that give the mosque its name. Elegantly and intelligently designed, the mosque is buttressed by an internal framework of iron bars and domes that have enabled it to withstand at least 20 earthquakes.

The nearby Aya Sofia, which is considerably larger than the Blue Mosque, gained four corner minarets after the Ottomans converted the church into a mosque. Beleaguered by earthquakes and generations of marauding crusaders, the Aya Sofia managed to endure and was at one time the most impressive building in the Byzantine world. In 1932, Ataturk declared that the Aya Sofia was no longer a mosque or a church. Today, it is a museum. The outside is quite austere, but the interior is definitely worth a visit.

The Grand Bazaar, which we had visited on our way out of Istanbul, was sadly not open when we returned. It was the end of Ramadan, an Islamic holiday. Beware of Turkish holidays when planning a visit, because the majority of the merchants are closed. We had been forewarned, and although my pockets were empty and my carpet safely packed away, it would have been fun to wander through the splendid market again.

I have only touched the surface of the things we did, saw and learned while in Turkey. Gate 1 Travel did an excellent job of showing us all the major attractions while still leaving plenty of time for independent exploration and shopping. All of us found the country to be safe and the people, without exception, friendly and helpful. This was a trip in the true spirit of Marco Polo Magazine: interesting, educational and adventurous.