Istanbul, Turkey, is one of fourteen destinations featured on Waddles' World Tour, RestMap's free daily 5-letter word puzzle. Each week's puzzles are themed around a different city, and every solve unlocks an authored travel fact about the place. The Hagia Sophia anchors the Istanbul week. Below are five sourced facts that turn up across the Istanbul puzzle set.
In the Ottoman Empire, Turkish women had the legal right to divorce their husbands if the husband failed to provide them with sufficient coffee. Coffee was considered so essential to daily life that its deprivation was legally recognized grounds for marital dissolution.
Source: thevintagenews.com, qahwaworld.comThe Ayasofya Hürrem Sultan Hamam, designed in 1556 by the legendary architect Mimar Sinan for Roxelana (wife of Süleyman the Magnificent), was the first hammam in history to have a women's section that exactly mirrored the men's side — a revolutionary statement of architectural equality.
Source: turkishbaths.org, hurremsultanhamami.comIstanbul served as the capital of three consecutive empires spanning nearly 1,600 years: the Eastern Roman Empire (330-395 CE), the Byzantine Empire (395-1453 CE), and the Ottoman Empire (1453-1922 CE). No other city has been the seat of power for so long across so many empires.
Source: turkeytravelcentre.com, funworldfacts.comWhen the Turkish Post Office wanted to force people to stop using 'Constantinople' after the city was officially renamed Istanbul in 1930, they simply stopped delivering any mail addressed to 'Constantinople.' The forced rebrand worked within a few years.
Source: turkeytravelcentre.com, euroviajar.comTulips are the national symbol of Holland, but they actually originated in the Ottoman Empire. They were sent from Istanbul to the Netherlands in the 16th century. The Ottoman 'Tulip Era' (1718-1730) was an entire cultural period named after the flower, during which Sultan Ahmed III filled palace gardens with thousands of varieties.
Source: turkeytravelcentre.com, theplanetd.com