Month: January 2023

Explained: Tips to Improve the Rank of a Food Blog in 2023

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If you are the owner of a food blog and want to rank higher in Google search results, building quality backlinks is one of the key steps to success. In this blog post, we will discuss how to build backlinks for your food blog and some of the best practices for doing so.

What are backlinks?

Backlinks are links from other websites that link back to your website. Backlinks help search engines understand which sites have good content and should be ranked higher. They also help users find your website more easily by providing additional information about the content on your site.

Why are backlinks important for food blogs?

Backlinks are important for food blogs because they provide an indication of authority and trustworthiness. The more quality backlinks you have pointing toward your food blog, the better chance it has of ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). Additionally, having a variety of high-quality external sources linked to your content can help establish credibility with potential readers and demonstrate expertise in the field.

Best Practices for Building Quality Backlinks

There are several best practices that you should follow when building backlinks for a food blog:

• Guest posting: Reach out to other bloggers in the same niche as yours and offer them guest posts with relevant links pointing back to your site. This will not only help build relationships but also give you an opportunity to get quality links from them.

• Link reclamation: Look through old articles or forum posts that already link to similar topics on your website and ask them if they would like to update their link with a new one pointing towards yours instead. This can be done by sending an email or direct message with a polite request asking them if they would be willing to make this switch.

• Link directories: Submit your website’s URL into relevant online directories such as Yellow Pages or Yelp so that people searching in those directories can find it more easily. This will also provide additional external sources linking back to you, which can improve SERP rankings over time!

• External Tools: There are popular SEO tools available to build a huge amount of backlinks fast. Tools such as ser link list, gsa ser, will be very very useful to improve site authority easily.

Conclusion

Building quality backlinks is essential for any successful food blog, as it helps increase credibility, trustworthiness, and visibility among potential readers online. By following some simple best practices such as guest posting, link reclamation, and submitting URLs into relevant online directories, you can begin creating valuable connections that will benefit both you and other websites within the same niche!

Travel Tips & Diaries

Macedonian Heritage In Turkey: Blaundos Ancient City

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We are used to seeing ancient Roman and Greek cities in Turkey. However, did you know that there is vast city built by the ancient Macedonians on a plain, surrounded by deep valleys in Western Turkey?

Blaundos Ancient City

Blaundos Ancient city is located 40 km away from the Western Turkish city of Uşak, which is a part of the Aegean area of Turkey.

Blaudus was established by the Macedonians, who stayed in Anatolia after Alexander the Great’s military campaign in the area. The Macedonian folk of the city called themselves the “Macedonians of Blaundus”. After Alexander the Great’s reign, Blaundos became part of the Kingdom of Pergamon, and later, was occupied by the Romans. The city reached its golden age in the Roman times.

The city of Blaundus is built on a vast plain surrounded by deep valleys and canyons, so it resembles a peninsula.

A temple, theater, stadium, rock graves, a colonnaded street and the well-preserved city walls are the most notable sites in Blaundos Ancient City.

Blaundos Ancient City is free to visit. There is no security so there are no specified visiting hours. You can visit it anytime, which we confirmed by calling Uşak Municipality, although, a signboard in front of the city entrance says that you can not visit the site after 7 pm.

Blaundos has a free parking lot.

There is no public transportation to Blaundos Ancient City. You have to go there with your own vehicle.

Story Of The Discovery of Blaundos

In 1834, British traveller and antiquarian, Francis Vyvyan Jago Arundell, visited the area and made an elaborate drawing of the city. Here is that very accurate drawing.

Francis V. J. Arundell’s drawing of Blaundos. The document is named “Ruins at Suleiman – Clanudda (Klannudda), for he mistook this city to be another ancient settlement named Klannudda.

Upon examining the coins found around Blaundos, Francis V. J. Arundell assumed he had found the ancient city of Klannudda (or Alaudda), which actually stands in the northernwest direction of Blaundos.

This inaccurate assumption was changed, when the British geologist, William John Hamilton, found inscriptions on a slab which said “Blaundeon Makedonon” in 1845. And it was clear that what Arundell had thought to be Klannudda was the ancient Macedonian city of Blaundos.

German researcher, K. Buresch, who visited Blaundos in 1894, reported that the Ottoman officers had used a considerable amount of the ruins of Blaundos for the construction of military barracks in one of the surrounding villages.

Arriving at Blaundos

When heading towards the city, a couple of hundred meters before the parking lot and the city entrance, there are two notable sites that you must stop to see. It is not possible to miss them since there are big sign boards on the sides of the road.

The Monumental Tomb

This structure is dated back to the second half of the first century C.E. It is the tomb of one of the important figures of Blaundos. The ruins of the tomb are quite dilapidated and covered with vegetation. However, it is still possible to see ornaments and stylish rock carvings on the broken pieces.

Pieces of the monumental temple / The sign boards you should be seeing before reaching the city

The Arch & Aqueducts

A couple of meters after the monumental tomb, on the right side of the road, there is a big arch. Behind the arch you can see what remains of the long aqueducts that once provided water to Blaundos.

The Ancient Theater

The ancient theater of the city was built on the side of the cliff, however, it is not possible to go all the way down the cliff to actually see it. You might be able to see the remains of it from the edge of the cliff top.

Exploring Blaundos

The City Gate & City Walls

The first two things that welcome you upon parking your car are the huge city wall and the big gate that once served as the main city entrance. It surprised us greatly to see that such high walls survived through the centuries and the harsh winds of the high plateu where Blaundos stands.

The Colonnaded Street

The surviving remains of the colonnaded street indicate that the city center was well-planned and constructed in a grid pattern. Only a few columns of the doric portico on both sides of the street survived.

The Demeter (Roman Name: Ceres) Temple

A couple of steps before the colonnaded street, on the right side of the trail, you can see the ruins of a huge temple. This is the Demeter Temple of the city. The dilapidated blocks and parts of the temple are scattered around. It is possible to see many rock carvings, patterns and ornaments on the broken pieces of the temple building. The marble floor of the temple is quite well-preserved. In fact, the marble slabs are still very smooth and shiny. If you roam around the temple and look carefully, you can still see some rocks with name Ceres (Roman equavilent of the goddess Demeter) written on them.

The Stadium

It is built on the northern cliff of the city. Aside from a few seating rows, not much survived through the centuries.

The State Building

Often called the Stonehenge of Anatolia, this is the structure which Blaundos is known for. It is thought to be the remains of what was once a state building where official affairs were discussed. Upon looking at the photo of the remains, I guess you can understand why is it called the Stonehenge of Anatolia.

Rock Graves Down In The Valley

When you reach the remains of the state building, with the main gate behind you, walk leftwards towards the edge of the cliff. There, you will see the rock grave rooms at the bottom of the valley. During the excavations, archeologists found dozens of rock grave rooms with well-preserved paintings of animals and plants in different colors on the walls.

Unfortunetely, going down the rock graves is almost impossible. The cliff is very steep and the ground is not that firm. What you can do is to simply enjoy the view from the top of the plateu where the city is located. Or, you might as well zoom in with your phone camera which can serve as makeshift binoculars.

History Feed, Travel Tips & Diaries

Turkey’s $200 Million Disney-Inspired Ghost Town

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Burj Al Babas was a project aimed to create a thermal resort town to attract Arab investors. What’s left of it now is a ghost town of over 500 unfinished Disney castle-themed houses in central Turkey.

What you’ll find in this article

  • What is Burj Al Babas?
  • Why did the project fail?
  • A before and after comparison
  • Where is Burj Al Babas?
  • How to enter site?

I recently took a day trip to this place and had a very interesting day exploring the hundreds of abandoned chateau houses that stand on a vast plain, somewhere in the mountains between two of Turkey’s largest cities, Istanbul and Ankara.

Let’s explore Burj Al Babas Complex, one of the most bizarre architectural disasters in the world.

What is Burj Al Babas?

Burj Al Babas is a great example of how a massively funded architectural project can turn into a real estate nightmare. $200 Million were spent on this site to attract rich Arabs to buy properties in Turkey. However, the project failed in 2019 and this area was abandoned completely.

Me standing on the roof of a house / Burj Al Babas Villas

The construction of the Burj Al Babas villas started in the year 2014 in the historic town of Mudurnu, in Turkey’s Bolu province. Mudurnu is a small settlement with a population of 20,000 and is ranked in UNESCO’s Tentative List of World Heritage Sites. With a number of well-preserved Ottoman houses and ruins of a Byzantine castle, Mudurnu is a popular historical town. The residents of Mudurnu heavily opposed the project since they believed that it would damage the town’s reputation and historical fabric.

Drone photo of the area with hundreds of Disney-inspired chateau houses

Initially, the plan was to build 732 luxury villas and, in fact, the company managed to build 583 of them. Besides the Disney-houses, this vast residential complex was planned to have a large mall with pools, a mosque, a hotel and many other features in it.

Why did the project fail?

At first the project seemed to have taken off successfully, with a handful of investors purchasing properties. However, the severe drop of the Turkish lira and the country’s unstable economic conditions gave the investors cold feet. Soon after, the construction company, Sarot Group, went bankrupt. And time here has since stopped.

The houses are built only a couple of meters apart from each other

A before and after comparison

BEFORE

When I checked the company’s website, I saw a project catalogue with the planned outcome of the project. Here’s how this place was planned to look like:

AFTER

Today, this well-funded project has turned into a vast ghost town with hundreds of uninhabited Disney castle houses:

How to enter the site?

Make sure you read this section carefully if you are planning on visiting Burj Al Babas.

I see that the visitors who come to Burj Al Babas quite often leave the area without managing to enter the site. Here’s the simplest explanation on how to easily visit this residential complex. The main road that passes in front of the area leads to the town of Mudurnu, which is the closest settlement to Burj Al Babas. This section is bordered with barbed wires, so there is no way of entering from this very spot.

What you have to do is to take a right from this very spot and get on to the dirt road. The road is a little bumpy, but even if you have a standard passenger car, as long as you drive slowly, you will not hit the bottom of your car.

Follow the road for about 3 minutes and park your vehicle at this spot. Then walk down for about a 100 meters from the path near you and you will find yourself at Burj Al Babas. There are no barbed wires, no security, nothing.

There is no easier or better place to park your car. I spent an hour trying find a more convenient place, so you don’t need to. Just go with my suggestion 🙂

If you are looking for a new and unusual place to explore in Turkey, Burj Al Babas is one of the best spots to hit the off the beaten path in Turkey.

History Feed, Travel Tips & Diaries

The Shipwreck Started Iron Age On North Sentinel Island

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Many know about the infamous North Sentinel Island and the outsiders killed trying to contact its inhospitable inhabitants. As I was viewing the island on Google Maps, I came across a shipwreck and subsequently learned about its role in commencing the North Sentinel Island Iron Age.

Quick Review

North Sentinel Island is one of the most mysterious places in the world. The island is inhabited by the indigenous Sentinelese people who are among the most isolated people in the world. The Sentinelese have been rejecting exposure to the outside world and give blatantly aggressive responses to any outsiders who attempt to contact them.

The North Sentinel Island is located in the district of Andaman and Nicobar Islands which is a part of India. Scientists assume that the population of the island is between 50 and 400. The Indian Government passed The Andaman and Nicobar Islands Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Act of 1956, which forbids anyone to approach the island any closer than 10km.

The Mysterious Shipwreck: The Primrose

On the night of 2nd August, 1981, a Hong Kong freighter called The Primrose ran aground, hitting a coral reef a couple of meters away from the northeast beach of the North Sentinel Island. A day after, a crewmember started noticing over 50 indegenous people with spears and arrows building boats on the beach.

When the Sentinelese tribesmen noticed the ship, they approached it with suspicion. The crew members were terrorized by the small, bare-naked natives who waved spears, bows and arrows as warnings. Captain Liu Chunglong radioed for urgent help, requesting weapons for the crew to protect themselves from a possible attack. However, due to heavy storm, the ship that was sent for help could not approach the island. Wild waves caused by the storm also prevented the Sentinelese to come near The Primrose with their canoes. As the crewmembers of The Primrose stated, the Sentinelese attempted several attacks with their bows and arrows. However, on account of their primitive bows which had a firing range of around 40 meters, the arrows fell into the water, unable to reach the ship.

As soon as the storm abated, a rescue helicopter came to the island and rescued the sailors.

The Remains of The Primrose Started The Iron Age

In 1991, the only friendly contact between the Sentinelese and the outside world happened. Archeologists who went to the island observed that the Sentinelese had used metals in their weapons and other artefacts. It is assumed that the Sentinelese people finally reached The Primrose and acquired metal from the remains of the vessel. This began the Iron Age in North Sentinel Island sometime between 1981 and 1991.

Another incident documenting the Sentinelese’s discovery of metal came after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. The Indian goverment sent a helicopter to the island to ensure that the Sentinelese were unharmed but, to their surprise, the Sentinelese responded by firing arrows with metal spearheads up at the helicopter. Naturally, these arrows caused considerable damage and the helicopter retreated promptly.

One of the rare pictures of The Primrose / themorningbulletin.com.au

Encounters With The Outside World

North Sentinel Island first appears in history in 1771. John Ritchie, an East India Company officer, reported seeing lights on the island as he was passing by. He later identified them as lit fires.

The next encounter with the outside world happened in 1867. The Indian merchant ship Nineveh wrecked on the island due to a heavy storm. Its 106 crew members landed on the beach and the Sentinelese promptly attacked them. Luckily, they were rescued soon after.

In 1880, Maurice Vidal Portman, a British officer, set foot on the island in hopes of learning about the culture and customs of the Sentinelese. His expedition crew discovered some primitive abandoned villages. They captured six Sentinelese and took them to Port Blair (the capital city of modern day Andaman and Nicobar Island District of India). Two of the captives died rapidly due to disease, so Maurice Vidal Portman ordered the rest of them to be returned back to the island.

In 1883, Maurice Vidal Portman came to the island again after the eruption of Krakatoa volcano was thought to be gunfire coming from a stranded ship asking for help.

In 1974, a National Geographic film crew approached the island with boats in order to shoot some footages. The adventure ended before it began, with the director taking an arrow in his leg.

In 1991, a group of Indian anthropologists made the first and last peaceful contact with the Sentinelese. This group of anthropologists brought some gifts to offer to the Sentinelese who amicably accepted them. In 1996, the Indian government banned any further researchers from visiting the island.

Researchers giving gifts to the Sentinelese / meteoweb.eu

In 2006, the Sentinelese killed two Indian fishermen who were fishing too close to the island beach. Later, the Sentinelese attacked the helicopter and the crew who came to recover the bodies of the fishermen. Indian authorities cancelled the operation and no one ever saw the bodies of the fishermen again.

Death Of The Young US Missionary

And finally, the event that brought global attention to the island was the murder of a young American missionary, John Allen Chau, who went to North Sentinel Island to convert the Sentinelese to Christianity. The Sentinelese killed him soon after he set foot on the island. However, given the special status of the island, nobody was prosecuted and any attempts to retrieve the body were disisted.

Travel Tips & Diaries

The 3 Ice Mummies of the Franklin Expedition on Beechey Island

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History enthusiasts will be familiar with the ill-fated 1845 Franklin Expedition. 129 British sailors, under the command of The Royal Navy, were sent for an expedition to explore the Northwest Passage which connects the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans in the Northern Canadian Archipelago.

The two ships, HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, with the crew onboard ended up getting stuck in the ice for 2 years. In 1847, the crew abandoned the ships in hopes of finding settlements nearby and reaching mainland Canada. No one ever heard from these sailors again and, except for 3, none of the other sailors’ bodies were ever found.

These 3 seamen mentioned above were John Torrington, William Braine and John Hartnell. They died at the start of the expedition and were buried in Beechey Island, Canada. Besides their historical significance, these 3 British sailors are considered to be among the most well-preserved mummies ever found.

John Torrington

John Torrington was born in Manchester, England in 1825. He was a Petty Officer in the Royal Navy who was assigned to the catastrophic Franklin Expedition as stoker at the age of 19. John Torrington died 7 months into the expedition and was buried on Beechey Island, Canada. His barely decomposed body shocked scientists who exhumed it in 1984, more than a century later. Torrington was perfectly preserved and his eyes were open, looking straight at excavation crew.

In 1984, with the consent of Torrington’s descendants in England, a crew, led by archeologist Owen Beattie, commenced their work on Torrington’s grave. They dug 1.5 meters deep into the frozen ground to reach the coffin. Upon opening the coffin, they were struck by how well the body was preserved. Scientists melted the ice covering Torrington slowly to avoid damaging the body.

Further scientific research suggested that John Torrington had been very sick and weighed only 38.5 kilograms at the time of his death. His cause of death was determined to be pneumonia.

John Torrington’s Original Tombstone

Sacred to the memory of John Torrington who departed this life on January 18 AD 1846, on board of HMS Ship Terror. Aged 20 years.

William Braine

William Braine was a British explorer who was born in Oakhill, Somerset, in England in 1814. He was enlisted in the Royal Marines during the 1830s. Subsequently, Braine was assigned to HMS Erebus during Franklin’s Lost Expedition.

His corpse was found to be in the worst condition among the Beechey Island bodies, having been gnawed at by rats before burial. Recent scientific research has suggested that Braine’s body showed symptoms of tuberculosis and lead poisoning prior to his death.

John Hartnell

John Hartnell was born in Gillingham, Kent, in England, to a family of shipbuilders. He was assigned to HMS Erebus with his brother, Thomas, as able seamen on the Franklin Northwest Passage expedition. He was one of the first casualties of the expedition, dying of suspected zinc deficiency and malnourishment during the expedition’s first year.

Hartnell’s incredibly well-preserved, mummified remains surprised the archeologists who exhumed his grave. When Hartnell’s cap was removed, they found his hair completely intact, which was later used to determine that his body contained large amounts of lead at the time of his death.

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