All language subtitles for East to West 7of7 The Ottomans and the West

(HAUNTING ORIENTAL MUSIC)

This is the untold story

of the making of the modern world.

(MUSIC BRIGHTENS)

A fresh perspective,

charting the spread of civilization

across the globe,

from the dawn of mankind
and the first cities and Empires

to the belief in One God.

(Calls to prayer)

We follow the flow of civilisation

from the Middle East,

an extraordinary place
that has been a vital link

between the continents of Asia,

Africa and Europe for millennia...

an economic, scientific

and cultural centre of the world.

This is an epic journey of discovery,

from the East to the West.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC SOARS)

Istanbul -

the only city in the world
that sits astride two continents,

Europe and Asia.

This was once the capital

of one of the greatest
imperial powers in history -

the vast Ottoman Empire.

(MELANCHOLY ORIENTAL MUSIC)

As the dream of a great dynasty
became a reality,

the Ottoman Sultanate developed
into a Renaissance Superpower.

The dynamism and sophistication
of their court at Topkapi Palace

inspired both fear and fascination
in the Empire and beyond.

In its golden age,
the Ottoman Empire

would become invincible
both on land and sea.

Revered as THE model -
for state, trade and culture.

But, a tide of change

threatened to bring the Age of Empire
crashing to a close.

There is a real quantum shift
in the 19th century.

You get the sense
that they realise

they cannot survive
unless they start to face outwards.

It was a time when relations
with the West would shape the East.

This is the story
of the Ottoman Empire and the West.

(TRAIN HOOTS)

(DARK MUSIC)

In the 16th century,

the Ottoman Empire expanded
across three continents.

The Ottomans controlled
much of Western Asia,

North Africa
and South-eastern Europe.

At the head
of the ruling Ottoman dynasty

was Sultan Suleiman ll -

known in the West
as Suleiman the Magnificent.

(RHYTHMIC MUSIC)

1529.

The 300,000-strong
Ottoman war machine

has pushed its way
to the gates of Vienna.

Suleiman has shaken Christian Europe
to its core.

It is a watershed moment in history.

But after months of siege,
Vienna's defenders prevail.

The prolonged siege
and upcoming winter

force the Sultan to change his mind.

But, although their advance
may have been checked at Vienna,

the Ottomans were still
a permanent fixture in Europe.

And within the Empire, their wealth
and potency seemed unaffected.

One priceless object
in Topkapi Palace

epitomises the extent
of Suleiman's power.

Made almost 500 years ago,

this sword could have been carried
in a court ceremony

by Suleiman himself,
as a display of royal splendour.

This sword shows that Suleiman
could obtain the finest resources

and attract
the most talented craftsmen

from both inside and outside
the Empire.

This parchment map was made
around 1560 for Sultan Suleiman

by cartographer
Al-Hajj Abul Hassan.

The Ottoman flags flying over places
like Belgrade, Buda and Rhodes

show that despite the setback
at Vienna,

much of Europe
was now under Ottoman control.

And it was not only on land

that the Ottomans had been
interfering in European concerns.

Now, Suleiman's navy became
the scourge of the Christian West.

(MYSTERIOUS MUSIC)

Behind the scenes
at lstanbul's Naval Museum

is a restoration warehouse.

Inside, it houses a unique bounty...

Ottoman vessels, kept under wraps.

These are imperial kayaks and galleys

that once sailed the Black Sea
and Mediterranean...

The task oi restoring them
to their original glory has begun.

They are relics of a time
when the Ottomans were known

by friend and foe alike

as the “lords of the sea”.

(SEA THEME)

This was the age of discovery -

a time when European states
had begun to colonise the New World

and trade spices as far afield
as the Indian Ocean.

Now, Ottoman fleets
attempted to monopolise

the lucrative trade from the east.

They captured strategic
island and coastal outposts,

turning the Mediterranean
into an Ottoman lake.

To grasp control
of the shipping lanes

the Ottomans employed
an ingenious tactic.

The countless pirates, privateers
and corsairs that roamed the seas

were usually lawless raiders
and traders.

But, by making shrewd
and tactical alliances,

Sultan Suleiman turned
the most sea-worthy corsairs

into Ottoman Admirals.

This 16th century miniature
shows the Sultan

receiving the most successful
privateer in Ottoman history.

His name was Hayreddin Barbarossa.

Under Barbarossa's command,

the Ottomans interrupted
vital European sea-borne trade.

Cities all over Europe saw
their livelihoods hang by a thread.

(SAD SINGING)

16th century Europe may have been
divided by internal rivalries,

but they had a common enemy.

The Ottomans were such a threat,

that Western Europe formed
a “Holy League” to defend themselves.

Two of the largest navies
ever assembled,

clashed off the coast of Greece

at Lepanto.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

In the course of the battle,

the Ottomans lost four times
as many ships as the Europeans,

and double the troops.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC, SCREAMS,
GUNFIRE)

Lepanto was celebrated
by the Holy League

as a major victory.

Now, they hoped to reclaim control
of the Mediterranean.

But, most importantly,

the idea that the Ottomans could be
decisively beaten was born.

In the West, this naval battle
has traditionally been seen

as a major turning point
in the struggle against the Ottomans.

But in the East,
this was just a setback.

(OTTOMAN THEME)

Within a year, the Ottomans
had rebuilt their fleet.

Lepanto was far from the end
of Ottoman power.

In their relations with the Ottomans,

Europe's mercantile powers
walked a tightrope -

between alliance and defence.

Ambassadors from Francis I's France
and Elizabeth I's England

were sent on diplomatic missions
to the Ottoman court

as treaties
of “friendship and commerce”

became essential to their survival.

In this Ottoman miniature,
King John Sigismund of Hungary

is depicted paying homage
to Suleiman.

It reveals the continuing influence
of the Ottomans

upon the Western world.

At Topkapi Palace western visitors
discovered an imperial playground

that could equal any European
Renaissance court -

in riches, taste
and in the language of kingship.

Their reports of the splendour
of Suleiman's court

earned him the title,
Suleiman the Magnificent.

But perhaps Suleiman's
greatest legacy

was his creation
of a system of government

that the world still uses today.

Topkapi didn't just become
a centre of modern government,

it became a model of artistic design.

Here, the Ottomans drew together

the different artistic styles
of East and West,

and founded their own
Ottoman means of expression.

Even after Suleiman's time,

later sultans
built upon this tradition,

and endowed the Palace grounds with
ever more elaborate Ottoman designs.

Today, a restoration team
are replicating the work

of Ottoman master craftsmen
of the classical age.

(GENTLE REVERBERATING MUSIC)

The Revan Pavilion was built in 1635,

to celebrate the conquest of Yerevan,

today the capital of Armenia.

It represents a pinnacle
of the Ottoman artistic legacy -

fuelled by continuing conquests.

In the maturity of his reign,

at the age of 54,

Suleiman had reached
the zenith of his powers.

Now, he wanted to leave a lasting and
majestic impression upon Istanbul,

a symbol of his reign
for all the world to see.

And he relied
on a well-established genius.

His name was Sinan.

The chief architect of the Empire
for 5O years,

Sinan had designed and supervised
hundreds of Ottoman landmarks

from Damascus to the capital.

Now Suleiman commissioned Sinan

to build the tallest,
most extensive complex

in the history of the capital.

The Suleimaniye Mosque.

(THEME MUSIC)

It is the ultimate expression
of the power of the Ottoman state.

Even today, its command of the city
is breathtaking.

As well as a mosque,
Sinan designed four colleges here,

a soup kitchen, a hamam,

a kervansaray and a hospital

as well as the tomb
that would be Sultan Suleiman's

final resting place.

The Suleimaniye complex quickly
became the focal point of the city.

RHYTHMIC CHANTING)

The conformity
of intricate geometric shapes

was the culmination
of Sinan's lifelong effort

to achieve a unified space,

capturing in stone the ordered
Ottoman view of the world.

Traditionally,
the late 17th and 18th centuries

are considered the beginning
of the end for the Ottoman Empire.

But, in reality,
the Empire was thriving.

(LIVELY ORIENTAL MUSIC)

The Empire stretched across Africa,
Asia and Europe -

from Algiers to Mosul

and from Medina
to the gates of Vienna.

The Ottomans controlled
the crossroads of trade routes

coming from every continent
and sub-continent

between East and West.

Ottoman merchants were prospering
in the capital

and the coastal provinces.

The small town of Birgi
in western Anatolia

retains its Ottoman character today,

and amidst the traditional houses,
is an echo of this time of plenty.

(BRIGHT MUSIC)

Built in 1761,

largely preserved
in its original state,

Cakir Aga Mansion seems,
at first sight,

to be a typical wooden mansion
of western Anatolia.

This magnificent three-storey
building

belonged to Serif Aliaga,
the owner of the local tannery.

Yet the small details
in the mansion's decor

reveal that Serif Aliaga's world

extended far beyond Anatolia.

Western motifs reflect the ideas
carried into Ottoman harbours

by the French, English, Dutch
and Venetian traders

that flowed in and out of Birgi.

And there's a story hidden
in the friezes of Cakir Aga mansion.

Serif Aliaga's two wives,
one from the vibrant capital Istanbul

and the other from the Aegean
trading port of Izmir,

were pining for their hometowns.

A solution was found...

as a comfort to them,
Serif Aliaga had their cities

painted on their bedroom walls.

Izmir in this room

Istanbul in this,

capturing in miniature,

what was the economic powerhouse
of the Empire

over 500 km to the north.

(ORIENTAL STRUMMING)

But the arrival of the modern age

would present the Ottomans
with new challenges,

with pressure and influence
from Europe

penetrating all the way to Istanbul.

The Ottoman elite
began to change their outlook...

It you travel along the Bosphorus
in Istanbul today,

you can still find clues
as to how the Ottoman world

was in transition.

The Bosphorus is a good example
of how things are changing.

By the 18th century you have
an explosion of the old centre.

The Palace is no longer contained
within the limits of the city.

The Sultanas, the Palace,
the Sultan himself

will start to use the Bosphorus

as a place where you can flaunt
and display your splendour

by implanting these new kinds
of mansions, seaside mansions.

The Ottomans began to build elaborate
western-style architecture

along the shore of the Bosphorus

If you look
at some of these mansions,

they're generally built
so as to enjoy

the scenery of the Bosphorus.

The rest, that is the backside,

is used as a, as a huge garden where
you'd have your Harem and whatever,

but the stately mansion
would be right on the sea.

And that's a way of enjoying the
city that did not exist previously.

This new pleasure culture was not
only promoted by the Ottoman elite.

More and more European diplomats

retired to grand new
waterfront embassies.

The Bosphorus has become
a grand canal

ii you take Venice as an example -
this is a huge canal

where people are basically
expressing their power

by their residences
and by their sheer presence

on this stretch of water.

This grand waterway
is the age-old dividing line

between the continents
of Europe and Asia.

It has been an important trade route
since ancient times.

Now, as European trade
with the Americas

began to eclipse
the old Mediterranean markets,

a new world order was emerging.

If you look at the 18th century

you already have a sense of society
that is changing.

The Mediterranean
is being marginalised.

That is true of the Ottomans,
it's true of Venice,

it's also true of the Spaniards.

What is rising
is the Atlantic economies,

it's the Dutch, the English,
to a certain extent the French -

so the world is changing
the balance of the world is changing

and in that new world
the Ottomans feel

they no longer have a hold
on modernity,

on what is happening.

(CROWD HOWLS, APPREHENSIVE
MUSIC)

Ever since the French revolution
in 1789,

the spark of nationalism within
the Empire had been fanned to flame...

(GUNFIRE)

In a newly industrialised world,

a great wave of radical
social and political unrest

was building momentum.

With the backing of European powers,
the Empire's non-Muslim minorities

demanded independence
from the Ottoman state.

And in 1827, disaster struck -

in support of the Greek
Battle for Independence,

Britain, France and Russia

completely annihilated
the Ottoman fleet

in the Battle of Navarino.

Nationalism had begun
to rip the Ottoman world apart.

In 1830 they were forced
to grant Greece their independence

and their control of Egypt was
in little more than name alone.

In 1875 Serbia, Montenegro,
Wallachia and Moldavia

also declared their independence.

And in 1878 the Ottomans lost control
of Bulgaria,

Bosnia Herzegovina and Romania.

Ravaged by war - the map
of the Empire was being redrawn.

(DARK MUSIC)

There was a pressing need

to prevent the total disintegration
of the Empire.

This Royal Edict of Reform
is part of a movement

that would change
the Ottoman state forever -

and it was called the Tanzimat,
meaning “reorganisation”.

The Ottoman elite began to reorder
its administration -

but this time
along Western European lines.

Nowhere was this need for
reorganisation felt more strongly

than in the military.

Uniforms and artillery were bought
from Britain and France.

Gradually a modern Ottoman army
emerged.

The Ottoman Sultanate needed
to deter attack from outside forces

in the East and the West -

and develop highly visible symbols
of central control -

even in the furthest
reaches of the Empire.

Over 1200 km from Istanbul,

on the eastern flanks of Anatolia,

standing on the Silk Road,

near the Iranian border and facing
Mount Ararat -

the effect of the emerging
new world order is evident.

Ishak Pasa Palace.

(REVERBERATING MUSIC)

This extraordinary fortified palace

was vital to Ottoman control
of these tough borderlands.

It was a strategic hub in
the two-year long territorial dispute

between the Ottoman and Persian
Empires in the early 19th century.

This palace sits
at a crossroads of civilization.

Its flamboyant architectural fabric

reflects a fusion of Persian,
Georgian, Armenian,

Seljuk, Ottoman and Western styles.

Inside,
it bears many of the hallmarks

of a miniature Topkapi Palace.

Complete with law courts, harem,

and a magnificent private mosque
of imperial dimensions.

Here, carved inscriptions
of Qur'anic verses line the walls.

Built at central government's
command,

lshak Pasa Palace was closely
controlled from Istanbul

for almost two centuries.

It is the ultimate symbol
of Ottoman power in Eastern Anatolia.

Proof of Ottoman efforts
to maintain

even the most remote
reaches of its Empire.

(MUTED PRAYER)

In a similar way,
Ottoman central government

developed close control
of the sacred Hajj route - in Syria.

(CALL FOR PRAYER)

Damascus,
a jewel in the Ottoman crown

reflecting the wealth
of the Empire.

Benefiting from far eastern trade
along the Hajj route,

and European trade through
the Eastern Mediterranean ports

Damascus became a home for a local
version of Ottoman modernism.

Tucked away in the maze-like
alleyways of the old city

is a hidden 19th century treasure.

Built in 1830,

Beit Nizam once
housed affluent merchant families.

At face value it's a traditional
Damascus house.

Damascene houses
are famous for this design.

Er, it all revolves
around the courtyard.

The courtyard is the heart.

It's always big
with trees and fountains,

and on the southern side
you always have this eyvan

which is where you'd receive
your guests.

But look closely and there are clues
to the close connection

between Istanbul and Damascus
in the 19th century.

Within this Ottoman-Arabic setting

the effects of the new and old
are there on the walls.

If you look at the ornamentation
over here,

this is very typical - it goes
back to maybe the 13th century.

But then around the 1830s
we start to see something new.

This is what we call
Ottoman Baroque,

and you see a much more sort of
voluptuous design, if you want,

a much more high relief,

a three-dimensional carving,
very, very busy.

Ottoman Baroque is a very special
part of interior design history

because it's directly linked

with the Ottoman Empire's
attempts to modernise.

Nizam House reveals
that Sultan Mahmud ll's reforms

had successfully improved
the relationship

between the palace and the provinces.

This is called Ka'at el-Enab
meaning the Hall of Grapes

because of this extensive carving,
and gilded stucco,

it's just very crazily,
ridiculously, heavily ornamented -

inspired straight out of Versailles
if you like,

but actually,
it's coming from Istanbul.

Walls that would have been blank
in a typical Damascene house

were for the first time adorned
with Italian-style frescoes.

Istanbul had become
a symbol of modernity

for the whole Ottoman world.

Here we have carvings
of Istanbul landscapes,

a dome, a minaret.

So, fusing an Islamic
Ottoman identity

with the wealth and power
of the baroque style

which was prominent in Europe.

And the Ottoman identity...
if you look up at the ceiling

you immediately see the symbols
of the Ottoman Sultan.

It's really expressing
this Ottoman desire to modernise

and to step up to what's happening
in European culture

and to be on equal footing,

while also retaining its integrity
and its identity

at a time of a lot of crisis
and pressure happening.

(NERVOUS MUSIC)

But, in spite of these efforts
to maintain control of the Empire,

the economic and political axis
of the world tilted west.

Now, as newly industrialised
European factories

churned out manufactured goods -

household wares,

even cotton fabrics woven in Europe

started to take over the stalls
in Ottoman bazaars.

Gold poured out
from the coffers of the Empire.

And countries like Britain and France

began to use their economic advantage

to demand more favourable
trade treaties with the Ottomans.

As these two worlds interacted,

Ottoman culture would leave a lasting
impression on the European West.

The fascination
with the Ottoman world,

was part of a rising Western
academic movement -

Orientalism.

For the first time, translations
of great Middle Eastern works

such as the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
and the Arabian Nights

were reaching markets in the West -

and their translators
were European travellers...

In Mortlake Cemetery in London

there is the tomb of one of the most
famous Orientalist adventurers:

Richard Burton - translator
of the 1001 Arabian Nights.

The impact of
the Arabian Nights

on 18th, 19th and 20th
literature is massive.

I think there's no book in
the world except the Bible

that had a bigger influence
on British literature.

Inside the tomb are objects gathered
on Burton's travels

in the Ottoman-controlled
Middle East.

The things we see hanging here

were accumulated while
he and Isabelle were in Damascus,

when Burton was serving
as Consul there.

He collected all sorts of stuff.

These camel bells you see here,
were important for Burton -

they had kind of
symbolic significance.

Burton made clandestine journeys
to Mecca and Medina -

one of the first Europeans to explore

the distant and relatively unknown
lands of the Hajj.

The Royal Geographical Society
somewhat hesitantly sponsored

Burton's extremely dangerous
pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina.

It was dangerous because
he was doing it in disguise;

if that disguise was uncovered
and he was revealed to be an infidel

he'd almost certainly
have been killed on the spot.

I think Burton's love of the Orient

is a product of his revulsion
against British society -

it's stuffiness, it's conformity,
it's Victorianism,

it's lack of adventure, he much
preferred Islam to Christianity.

Burton's tales are celebrated

as masterpieces
of 19th century literature.

But they also established an image
of the Middle East

as a place of intrigue
and uncertainty.

Artists, inspired
by the likes of Burton,

travelled and painted romanticised
versions of the Orient.

Frequently there was a sensual,
dangerous side

to Orientalist paintings.

I think what's fascinating
about this time,

is that the East
is either portrayed

as being very, very good
or very, very bad.

So you have these two versions,

you have the bloodthirsty Moor,
the bloodthirsty Turk.

And then this very romantic idea
of this sensuous, mystical place

where everything is wonderful,
where the air smells sweet.

This is a time of colonialism.

So it's almost as if
the West is saying

“We are now in charge
of portions of the East.

“We're almost unveiling it."

Also, it is a very difficult place
to get hold of -

it does have its own mystery -

and I think that's what's
being realised in the painting

that even though the West is
physically in many Eastern lands -

it still can't quite grab
the essence of what the East is.

In the real world
of the Ottoman Empire,

successive Sultans were battling

to keep their increasingly
disparate peoples together.

The Tanzimat reforms
made a break with tradition,

leaving behind
the old Millet system,

granting the Empire's minority
communities or “nations"

equal status
with its Muslim citizens.

In this Imperial Reform Edict
Sultan Abdulmecid I pledged

that any distinction that made any
of his subjects inferior to another -

on account of their religion,
language, or race -

would be forever effaced
from the Administrative Protocol.

As their efforts to keep up
with the West increased,

the Ottoman Sultanate moved
to a new seat of power.

(CHANT)

Today the Turkish Palace Guards
still protect Dolmabahce Palace.

The ultimate Rococo monument,

it wouldn't look out of place
amongst the chateaux of France.

This lavish palace represents
the pinnacle of the Tanzimat era.

(EERIE MUSIC)

But, despite having all the trappings
of a great European nation,

Ottoman westernisation
had only touched the surface.

Beneath the palace's rich facade,

the limits of the Tanzimat reforms
were beginning to show.

The Ottoman administration's efforts
had not been enough

to convince each different “nation"

that their future lay
within the Empire.

The Tanzimat was obviously something
that started very well

in the 1840s, '50s -

but it's true that the Tanzimat
was doomed in a sense

because it was very difficult
for an Empire

to really er, transform itself
to the point of suiting

all the necessities
and the desires, the expectations

of nations, of nation states.

So it was doomed from the start in
the sense that it was too complex,

it was too modern in a sense for
the structure of the Ottoman Empire.

Dolmabahce Palace is adorned
with exquisitely crafted

furnishing and ornaments -
mostly from Europe.

The centrepiece
of the ceremonial hall

is the world's largest
Bohemian crystal chandelier-

a gift from Queen Victoria
of Great Britain.

It dominates the room -

a symbol of the influence
of European powers

at the very heart
of the Ottoman administration.

Westernization had been
a very expensive process.

Until 1850, the Ottoman Empire
was the only Empire of the age,

never to have contracted
foreign debt.

But now, the Ottoman state
began to rely on European capital.

Dolmabahce Palace is a palace that
speaks of power, of flaunting power.

It's really the embodiment
of a modern Empire

or an Empire
that's trying to modernise.

And there's a cost to that,
there's a price to pay

and that price is the debt,
the Ottoman debt

which starts in the 1850's
more or less with the Palace.

And the Palace is just one drop
in that enormous debt

that will eventually um,
force the er, the Empire

into um, a formal er, bankruptcy
in 1875.

Political reform
was desperately needed

if the Empire was to have
any hope of a future.

In this room in 1876,

the first Ottoman Parliament
was announced with great fanfare.

But, even this was not enough
to keep the Empire together.

Although the Ottomans
continued to modernise,

once the economic and political axis
of the world tilted west,

it heralded the beginning of the end
of Ottoman supremacy.

But there was one final attempt

to bring together
the Islamic majority of the Empire.

(TRAIN HOOTS)

A forgotten rail yard
just south of Damascus -

once this was one of the major
stopping points

on the pilgrimage route to Mecca.

These decommissioned old locomotives

bear silent witness to an important
piece of Middle Eastern history.

Once cutting edge technology,

these are the original carriages
and engines

that transported the first
Hajj pilgrims by rail in 1908.

They travelled on the Hejaz Railway -

a railway developed and constructed

under the last Ottoman Sultan,
Adbulhamid ll.

Sultans and Caliphs throughout
the history of Muslim civilisation,

had to protect the pilgrimage
um, yearly trip.

It was the legitimising feature
of their rule.

It they protected the pilgrims,
they protected the holy cities,

then they were good Muslim rulers.

And so what Sultan Abdul Hamid did

was link this sacred right
with modern industry.

The railway followed
the ancient trail of camel caravans.

And it slashed
the arduous journey time

from 4O days to four days.

The route passed via Damascus,
and eventually terminated in Medina.

It brought much-needed innovation
to the region

and strengthened
the Ottoman connection

with key Islamic territories
at a time of unrest.

The railway was the embodiment
of the Sultan's plan for “Islamic union" -

bringing together Muslims not just
within the Empire but beyond.

1600 km of track
was laid across pitiless desert

deep into the heart of Arabia
and across the mountains of Hejaz.

It brought together
conscripts from Turkey,

steel from Belgium,
engineers and technology from Germany.

Sultan Abdul Hamid brought in
European industrial expertise.

German industry was extremely active
in the construction of this railway.

Over here we have here indicator -

the German plaque
and an Arabic plaque.

So a collaboration of Ottoman
and German enterprises.

But the Ottoman Empire
was in debt -

and the Hejaz project
seemed an impossible dream.

Yet remarkably, nearly a third of
the cost of this vast public project

was met by charitable donations.

Muslims from all over the world

participated in this great
pan-Islamic enterprise

aimed at helping fellow pilgrims
reach Mecca.

When the railway line
had opened for business,

it transported thousands of pilgrims.

But the railway also became a target.

During World War One,
the Hejaz route

was irrevocably damaged
by Allied attacks.

This great Ottoman connection
to the Holy Land was over-

it would never go
as far as Medina again.

The Hejaz project had been
an important achievement

for the Islamic world -

but it couldn't stem
the tide of change.

(SAD MUSIC)

Crippled by civil strife
and saddled with debt,

the reign of the Ottoman dynasty
was nearly over.

In the aftermath of World War One,

the story of one of largest
and longest-lasting Empires in world

came to an end.

At its peak, the Ottoman Empire had
stretched from Algiers to Mosul,

from Medina to the gates of Vienna.

They had commanded and preserved
the most dynamic region in the world.

This land that from ancient times
has shaped the modern world

giving it agriculture,

cities.

And the belief in One Universal God.

The land that had nurtured
the brilliant minds

that laid the basis
of the European Renaissance.

This crossroads of East and West has
inspired the story of civilisation

for 12,000 years.

It is a story that has no end.

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