Istanbul to Iznik-Nicaea

Driving out of Istanbul into the Turkish countryside was such a pleasure today. We drove about 150 km to the south east to visit the city of Iznik, where the famous blue tiles of the Blue Mosque were produced. It's built on the foundations of the ancient city of Nicaea, which has a significant Byzantine history. It was the site of Emperor Constantine's Council of Nicaea, where 270 church fathers wrote the Nicean Creed, still used in many Christian denominations today. It was temporarily the capital of the Byzantine Empire in the 1200s when the Crusaders got a little zealous and sacked their fellow-Christian city, Constantinople. It was also home to Orhan, the original patriarch of the Ottoman dynasty that conquered the Byzantine Empire in the late 1400s.

Iznik-Nicaea: Day 8
by Rachel

http://www.storehouse.co/stories/t7ovn-iznik-nicaea