Iznik was previously known as Nicaea. It was a very old centre occupied by Thracians, and called Helikare then Romans who called it Antigoneia, then Christians and somewhere it got the name of Nicaea, whether as by legend where Dionisyus the God of wine who had his wicked way with Nicaea daughter of Cybele and Sangarios ( the River God) or the wife of one of Alexander the Greats, Generals.....
Whatever the truth is regardless of my ideas, it is a place with a huge history for such a strange little settlement on a rather ordinary lake. And history is everywhere. The churches, later mosques, now museums, and the walls, old walls about 5km of them, the place is amazing.
One of the revalations so far is the history of this whole area. Whether it was in Albania, Greece, Turkey, the area has been occupied by invaders from every quarter, and more than once.
I stand in awe to think that as in so many of these places, men were doing all these things in this place 3000 plus years ago.
And as with my visit last year to Troy where the story of Adysseus started, there were civilisations built on top of one another many times over. It seems that recycling was alive and well, and why find a new place when the present one is fine and having wrecked it there are already building materials available.
So much history has been "lost" by recycling. That I guess is the benefit of building in stone. So you should see some gateways and walls, and who knows who built them.
nzl04
