Çanakkale

A 3,900-year-old cylinder seal and a 3,400-year-old lead sling stone have come to light during the archaeological excavation carried out in the Maydos Church Hill Mound in the northwestern province of Çanakkale's Eceabat district.

Around 20 million students and 1.2 million teachers across Türkiye returned to their classrooms after a three-month summer break, eager to start the new academic year with fresh aspirations and renewed energy.

This year, education will take place in roughly 750,000 classrooms across 74,000 schools nationwide.

With roughly 130 vessels traversing the Dardanelles Strait in the northwestern province of Çanakkale and Istanbul's Bosphorus Strait daily, emissions from these ships are a major contributor to air pollution in the region.

Heavy ship traffic is polluting the air in the Marmara region, raising concerns about public health and prompting calls for stricter regulations.

The 10th destination of the Türkiye Cultural Road Festivals, one of the most comprehensive culture and arts projects organized by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, is the Ephesus Cultural Road Festival.

Türkiye on Tuesday briefly suspended shipping traffic along the Dardanelle Strait because of a windswept forest fire near the tourist town of Çanakkale.

The emergency response service said it had evacuated seven villages and was preparing to help people leave three more on Türkiye's northwestern coast.

The Cultural Road Festivals, which started with the Beyoğlu Cultural Road Festival two years ago to contribute to Türkiye's international brand value, will be organized this year in 11 cities, namely Nevşehir, Trabzon, Erzurum, Çanakkale, Gaziantep, Ankara, Konya, Diyarbakır, Istanbul, İzmir and Antalya.

Raging wildfires in several provinces, notably in the southern cities of Hatay and Mersin, have been taken under control after two days of strenuous efforts, while at least 500 hectares of land have been reduced to ashes in the fire in the northwestern city of Çanakkale.

Decisions in recent days to restrict water use in major cities show that the threat of drought is becoming more widespread. With water losses in cities reaching 60 percent and the drought set to become a more prominent topic of conversation after May, experts say the focus should be on what needs to be done as soon as possible, rather than how full reservoirs are.

Turkey continues to rank third in the list of "countries with the most blue-flagged beaches" this year, with the number of blue-flagged beaches increasing from 519 to 531 currently.

Like in 2021, Spain topped the ranking, while Greece was runner-up this year. Italy and France followed Turkey in the fourth and fifth spots, respectively.

Industrial-scale fishing at the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles and the Marmara Sea should be banned, a scientist has said, calling on authorities.

Mustafa Sarı, dean of the Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University's Maritime Faculty, said that the annual fishing prohibition season, which started on April 15, should be implemented all year round.