This week’s dream: wonder and melancholy in eastern Turkey ...

In the south-east of Türkiye, Mardin, Şanlıurfa and Gaziantep offer a gateway to an ancient region whose wonders are still being discovered. The winner of Wanderlust ’s Visions photography competition turns his lens on its historic sites

THE PROVINCE OF RIZE, IN NORTHEASTERN TÜRKIYE, HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN AS THE COUNTRY’S TEA CAPITAL. PLANTATIONS CLING TO STEEP MOUNTAIN SLOPES OVERLOOKING THE BLACK SEA AND ARE TENDED TO BY REMOTE COMMUNITIES

→ When the Tudor poet Thomas Tusser wrote of “Turkey wel drest” as part of a Christmas feast in 1573, he was in fact taking part in a trend new to these shores. Turkeys, those red-necked birds who gob

Jolly frock-coated robins, majestic geese and arboreal partridges make for both literal and symbolic centrepieces at Christmas, says Matthew Dennison, as he revels in the cultural history of the season’s feathered fowl and game