Pavements

Restoration and excavation work has resumed at the Saint Simon Monastery in southern Turkey after a pause of 60 years, and the site will host tourists once it is completed.

The monastery, located in Hatay province, is believed to have been built in the 6th century by Saint Simon.

Retired Mehmet Keleş, who has been working voluntarily in the excavations of the Holy Apostles Church that he found in his garden in the eastern province of Hatay's Arsuz district, is happy to contribute his bit for bringing the cultural heritage to light.

A tanker truck transporting bitumen caught fire on the road near the village of Beden in the direction of Shiroka Laka, where asphalt is being laid. Firefighting teams, as well as the police, responded to the signal for the incident, which took place shortly after 5 pm.

The City of Athens is exploiting the drop in traffic resulting from lockdown measures amid the coronavirus epidemic to forge ahead with delayed maintenance and construction work across the capital.

Three independent construction engineers consulted by BIRN, however, advised caution when drawing any definitive conclusions on the reasons why particular buildings collapsed.

'Not construction grade'

Scenes from the Albanian coastal city of Durres after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake. Photo: BIRN/Geri Emiri

For over four decades, an award-winning craftsman working in western Turkey has been making the world a more beautiful place one tile at a time.

For the first time in two years, Turkey saw increasing dynamism in its construction sector for two months in a row, a report from the Turkish Ready Mixed Concrete Association (THBB) revealed on Nov. 8.  

Work is underway to uncover a colossal mosaic, which was found during an illegal excavation in the Lapseki district of the northwestern province of Çanakkale in May and evaluated as a 1,500-year-old artifact. The 120-square-meter mosaic dates back to the late Roman and early Byzantine periods.

Athens has been allowed to fall into such a state of disrepair that minor corrections longer suffice to disguise the lengthy neglect of the city and its infrastructure. The city has been suffering for a long time, partly due to the protracted economic crisis, and it is often hard to believe it is a European capital.

A street in Şanlıurfa, where historical stone houses have been restored and turned into workshops, has become a popular spot for local and foreign tourists visiting the historical southeastern city. The workshops on mosaic, wood carving and silver processing attract the attention of visitors in the street where colorful images emerge.