History of the Middle East (the two-minute version)

Via Maps of War, a very cool animated map of the major military conquests that defined the history of the Middle East. (Press ‘Play’ on the map below to see the animation.)

Hat tip to Google Blogoscoped.

talking Turkey

Argh, what a horrible pun. So I guess since I have to go to Turkey later this summer, I might as well learn a bit about the place. Here are a couple of links I’ve found, I’ll post some more as I find them.

It seems that a fellow named Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is more or less responsible for modern Turkey. A short bio can be found on a fun, quirky site that I found; a longer and more glowing account of his life–and pictures!– can be found here.

The “Turkey Travel Planner” grapples with the broad spectrum of Anatolian history. If you have no patience with all that clicking, Lonely Planet sums it all up for you on a single page. The Oriental Institute, of course, has the ancient aspects well in hand. Pretty spiffy, huh?