Top 10 Turkey facts

Turkey. These warrior-like surnames are at positions 2-7. The most common surname in Turkey is Öztürk, meaning "pure Turk".

Battle of Gallipoli. The first large scale amphibious operations, ones that were to heavily influence theorists in the decades to come, were conducted as part of the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915 against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. the purpose of the battle was to capture the capital of the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Istanbul). Although the naval attack was repelled and the land campaign failed, the campaign was the first modern amphibious landing, and featured air support, specialized landing craft and a naval bombardment.

Foot whipping. This criminal is being prepared to falaka, a type of punishment used in the Ottoman Empire and Middle East. Foot whipping is effective due to the clustering of nerve endings in the feet and the structure of the foot, with its numerous small bones and tendons. The wounds inflicted are particularly painful and take a long time to heal. Falaka was used for centuries as a way of torture and punishment.

Christian children. When a Christian boy was recruited, first he would be sent to selected Turkish families to learn to speak Turkish and culture of Ottoman society. Later they were trained in tough Enderun school, eventually converting to Islam. The more talented ones received a higher standard of education to become engineers, architects, physicians and scientists. Janissaries belonged to the Sultan, carrying the title kapıkulu "slaves of the Porte".

Various Greek and Iranian gods. Mount Nemrut is a 2,134 m (7,001 ft) high mountain in southeastern Turkey. Near the summit, a number of large statues of Greek and Iranian gods are erected around the royal tomb, which King Antiochus I Theos of Commagene built for himself in 62 BC. The heads of the statues have at some stage been removed from their bodies, and they are now scattered throughout the site.

The Ottoman Empire. Hayreddin Barbarossa was an Ottoman admiral of the fleet, whose naval victories secured Ottoman dominance over the Mediterranean during the mid 16th century. He became known as "Barbarossa" ("Redbeard" in Italian) in Europe, a name he inherited from his elder brother (also a capitain) Oruç Reis, who indeed had a red beard (unlike Hayreddin himself).

Turkey as a country. The name Turquoise was established in the seventeenth century and came from the name of Turkey (turquoise is French for "Turkish"), because the mineral was first brought to Europe from Turkey. Ancient Romans called this rock Kalalit.

Byzantium. In 660 BC, the city was founded as the colony of Megara and named to honour its king Byzas. In 324 AD, Constantine the Great made it an eastern capital of Roman Empire. The city was then renamed Nea Roma; however, most simply called it Constantinople.

Morocco. The name of fez comes from the city of Fes, Morocco, where it became fashionable among Andalusian Arabs in the 17th century. The fez got widely popular in the Ottoman Empire after 1829, when Sultan Mahmud II ordered his civil officials to wear the plain fez, and also banned the wearing of turbans.

Ephesus. The Library of Celsus is an ancient Roman building in Ephesus Turkey. It was built in honour of the Roman Senator Tiberius Julius Celsus. The library was "one of the most impressive buildings in the Roman Empire" and built to store 12,000 scrolls and to serve as a mausoleum for Celsus, who is buried in a crypt beneath the library in a decorated marble sarcophagus. The Library of Celsus was the "third-largest library in the ancient world" behind both Alexandria and Pergamum.