‘The Land of the Anka Bird: A journey through the Turkic heartland’ is a reflective visual essay introducing the powerful images of the pioneering Turkish journalist-turned-photographer Ergun Çağatay. The book explores the cultural landscape and geography of the vast Turkic-speaking lands, from the mercantile cities of Uzbekistan to little-explored pockets of the Baltic and European Russia and the steppelands of Kazakhstan and Mongolia. It is clear that while divided by distance, the diverse Turkic peoples share far more than a linguistic heritage. Deep cultural connections highlight great mobility across many landscapes and centuries. Spanning both the nomadic and settled worlds, this book challenges assumptions about an intriguing swathe of our planet while celebrating its wildly varied traditions and environment.

Photographs by: Ergun Çağatay