Many of Istanbul's visitors are unaware that the city is home to half-a-millennium-old stone-carved bird houses that reflect the Ottomans' reverence for the animals. On a corner lot in Istanbul's old ...

In the Ottoman Empire, starting from the 16th century, birdhouses were built into the walls of some mosques, madrasas, and mausoleums to provide birds with a place to nest, and today, these birdhouses ...

Forget the simple birdhouse perched on a tree branch, avian houseguests in the Ottoman era were treated like kings thanks to the practice of affixing elaborate bird palaces onto local buildings.