Culture and Tourism Ministry

Turkish authorities have said more than 16,000 libraries have been built for schools that did not have their own book-borrowing facilities across the country.

After a two-year work of the Culture and Tourism Ministry's Anti-Smuggling Department, 14 works of Anatolian origin, stolen by the U.S. art collector Michael Steinhardt, one of the world's greatest collectors of antique art, have been handed over to the New York Consulate General by the Manhattan Prosecutor's Office for their return to Turkey.

The excavations in the ancient city of Knidos, located in the Datça district of the southwestern province of Muğla, have unearthed five marble statue heads, one of which is female. The findings, approximately 2,000-years-old, date back to the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

Antalya, on Turkey's Mediterranean's coast and which is very popular with local and international holidaymakers, attracted a total of 8.9 million foreign tourists between January and November this year.

This marked a staggering 163 percent increase from the same period of 2020 when the city hosted around 3.4 million international visitors.

Turkey has lured more tourists than Spain for the first time ever, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy has said.

Turkey was the first nation in Europe and other nearby destinations to come up with the idea of a "safe tourism certificate" and implemented this certificate program very successfully, Ersoy told members of the parliament's budget and planning commission.

A 3,250-year-old seal belonging to a Hittite prince and an ancient cuneiform tablet dating back 3,400 years were discovered in Turkey's southern Hatay province.

The excavations in Accana Hoyuk of the Reyhanli district in Hatay on behalf of the Culture and Tourism Ministry with the support of the Turkish Historical Society, have been underway for six months.

The rock-carved churches, monasteries and chapels at the Göreme Open Air Museum, visited by hundreds of thousands of visitors every year in Turkey's Cappadocia region, attract tourists with their historical texture and frescoes that challenge centuries.

Organized by the World Mass Media Research Foundation with the support of the Culture and Tourism Ministry, the 32nd Ankara International Film Festival kicked off on the night of Nov. 4 at a ceremony held at CerModern Conference Hall.

The Honorary Awards of the festival were presented during the ceremony.

Turkey's first Turkish music primary school educates talented children from an early age to represent the country on an international scale. The schools offers music education in addition to the lessons in the curriculum of the National Education Ministry (MEB).

The London Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the world's most renowned orchestras, took stage at the newly reopened Atatürk Cultural Center (AKM) as part of the Beyoğlu Culture Festival organized by the Culture and Tourism Ministry for the first time this year. The orchestra performed a special repertoire at the concert with its giant staff of 96 people.