Cities in Turkey

The 358-year-old Vaniköy Mosque in Istanbul's Üsküdar district, destroyed by the fire in 2020, has been restored.

The historical Vaniköy Mosque, one of the 11 mosques adorning the Bosphorus, was reduced to ash on Nov. 15, 2020.

The mosque was restored with the support of Mehmet Kalyoncu, chairman of the Kalyon Foundation, who lives in the Vaniköy region.

While temperatures above seasonal norms will increase further in the coming days, Istanbul may experience its warmest January, experts say.

Leaving half of January behind, there is still no snowfall in a large part of the country.

The province of Trabzon, on Türkiye's Black Sea coast, has welcomed this year's first cruise ship.

The 195-meters long "Astoria Grande" arrived at the city's port with 505 Russians on board.

A sarcophagus determined to belong to the Roman era has been unearthed during the excavation works of an apartment demolished within the scope of the urban transformation project in Istanbul.

The sarcophagus came to light during the foundation excavation of the demolished building in the Büyükçekmece district.

Some 113 immigrants pushed into Turkish territorial waters by Greek authorities have been rescued off the Aegean province of İzmir.

Turkish Coast Guard Command teams were dispatched to the regions upon the information that there were immigrants in life rafts off İzmir's Dikili, Seferihisar and Çeşme districts at different times on Jan. 1 and 2.

The building of a university in Istanbul has collapsed due to a deep foundation pit opened at a construction site nearby, Demirören News Agency has reported.

"The sustaining wall of the construction site fell late on Oct. 23, causing the building of Arel University to collapse in the metropolis' Sefaköy neighborhood," the agency wrote on Oct. 24.

Istanbul is currently enjoying one of the business periods in tourist season this year and first-time visitors to the city are on the rise, says Müberra Eresin, the chair of the Hotel Association of Türkiye (TÜROB).

Istanbul's contemporary art event, Mamut Art Project, which has been bringing together independent talents across Türkiye with art professionals for 10 years, will be taking place between Oct. 26 and 30 at Yapı Kredi bomontiada and online platform of mamutartproject.com. The works of 49 artists will be exhibited at the event.

An old Jewish neighborhood in the western province of İzmir, where some nine synagogues exist, will convert into an open museum, says the project's coordinator.

"The region inside the Historical Kemeraltı Bazaar will be a focus of interest of the city's faith and culture tourism," Nesim Bencoya, an expert from the İzmir Jewish Heritage Project, told Demirören News Agency on Oct. 18.

Organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV ) and curated by Ute Meta Bauer, Amar Kanwar and David Teh, the 17th Istanbul Biennial will open to the public on Sept. 17, bringing together people and processes in a gathering of more than 50 projects, each the fruit of long-term research and collaboration.