Turkey's for the birds. I mean it. Every year, millions of birds migrate from Europe to Africa by way of Turkey.

There are red hawks. There are Red Hawks, there are Imperial Eagles, there are

Storks and so many more. And some of these birds like Storks passing through the holies of Mecca and Medina and also the Jerusalem and people considering this birds a kind of like pilgrims.

So back during the days of the Ottoman Empire,

mainly from the 16th to 18th century,

the people of Istanbul who were good hosts to pilgrims generally.

They built sanctuaries where these weary winged bird travelers could rest.

But these sanctuaries, they weren't birdhouses like you commonly think of them.

They're not cute little wooden boxes you hang on a tree.

No, this is Istanbul during the Ottoman Empire,

home to soaring domed mosques, imposing stone fortresses

and towering minaret'sts so they did not build bird houses they

built bird palaces and they put them up right there on the side of the

buildings.

The architect tried to show their artistic expression through this birth molasses.

Like an example, I can say that some art historians even say that it, a celebration of the world's strange,

incredible and wondrous places, and today we go to Istanbul's old city to wander down narrow lanes and hear the

history of these luxurious homes built for our fine feathered friends.

More after this. built for our fine feathered friends.

More after this. When I was a little kid I was going to Slimania Mosque for some for a gathering and my father told me that if you just look at the upper place you see that there is a small cage for

built for the birds and I looked at it I saw this bird palace that's fatty tanser

He is a native of Istanbul. He's a bird lover, and he's a freelance journalist with a passion for Turkish

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