Turkey's College Town — the Anatolian city midway between Istanbul and Ankara where two universities make up a third of the population, the Porsuk River is lined with gondolas and waterside cafes, and meerschaum (sea foam) carving has been practiced since ancient Phrygia
Eskişehir is Turkey's most liveable and progressive mid-sized city — a university town (Anadolu University and Osmangazi University together have about 100,000 students in a city of 900,000) with an unusually young population, a strong arts and music scene, and infrastructure that punches well above its size. The Porsuk River runs through the city centre, and the Odunpazarı quarter — the best-preserved 19th-century Ottoman commercial district in the region, with wooden-fronted shops and houses — has been converted into a gallery district and café neighbourhood. The Odunpazarı Modern Museum (O…
The Eskişehir region has been inhabited since the Chalcolithic period (c. 5000 BCE) and was part of Phrygia — the Indo-European kingdom famous for King Midas (the 'golden touch' legend) and for being a major cultural force in Anatolia before the Lydians and then Persians. The ancient Phrygian city of Dorylaeum (later Byzantine Dorylaeum) occupied the site of modern Eskişehir; it was the site of two battles of the Crusades — the First Crusade (1097) and the Second Crusade (1147), in both of which the Crusaders defeated the Seljuk Turks here. The Seljuks rebuilt and held the city through the 12…