Reading list | Bursa

Tumbling down the side of Uludağ (ancient Mt Olympus of Bithynia), Bursa was the Ottoman Empire's first serious capital, and retains its imperial character. It is a city of beautiful early Ottoman mosques, myriad green parks, excellent kebabs celebrated in The Big Bursa issue, (Cornucopia 38). in the last few years urban sprawl has spread, but buried away behind a wall of concrete, hans and bazaar still bear testament to its historic role as one of the last staging-posts on the silk route, where the Mediterranean went shopping for Asian goods. In 2014 the city was awarded Unesco World Hertiage status for a clutch of buildings, along with the nearby vilage of Cumalıkızık, which 'illustrate the creation of an urban and rural system establishing the Ottoman empire in the early 14th century".