Iznik (Nicaea)

A small town on the eastern shore of Lake Iznik in northwestern Turkey, Iznik is the modern successor of the ancient Byzantine city of Nicaea, where in 325 AD the famous Council of Nicea was held. This historic town is a rural antidote to Istanbul’s traffic and sales pitches. The 60-km trip from Yalova to Iznik takes you aling fertile green hills punctuated by tall, spiky cypress trees, and past peach orchards, vineyards and cornfields – the heartland of the Byzantine Empire. Watch for the great Byzantine city walls: one entrance to the city is through the old Istanbul Gate on Ataturk Caddesi, which leads directly to the centre and to the ruined church Aya Sofya (Hagia Sophia), now a museum.

The town was baldly damaged in the War of Independence and now carries the cheerful air of a country town. Iznik is home also to Haci Izbek Camii, one of the town’s oldest mosques, dating from 1332; to the Green Mosque, Yesil Cami, built in 1492 out of green-glazed bricks; to underground tombs, a Roman theater, and ruined walls. The two straight boulevards in Iznik leading to the four principal gates in the city walls are hints for the town’s Roman grid layout.