Ravishing Red Tulips at Emirgan Korusu in Istanbul

As I was editing the tulip photos from my recent trip to Istanbul, I couldn’t help but notice that all the red images seemed to stand out the most.

Red and white make up the colors of the Turkish flag, so not surprisingly, the Turks transferred that same color scheme into their gardens, especially at Emirgan Korusu.

Literally!

A Turkish "flag" made from red tulips was a new addition to the park this year. 

Since I took more than 100 photos of the tulips this year, I decided to devote a second blog post only to the red tulips in the park. I had so many photos that I found it difficult to narrow it down to simply 10 photos of the red tulips, which do look quite ravishing.

Interestingly, a Persian legend may be responsible for the red tulip’s symbolism of love and passion. One of the story’s variations goes that a prince named Farhad was love struck by a maiden named Shirin in Azerbaijan. The original story, "Khosrow and Shirin," was the title of a famous Persian tragic romance written by Nizami Ganjavi (1141–1209).

After meeting, the two lovers keep ending up in different places. Finally, after Farhad learned that Shirin had been killed, he killed himself by riding his horse over the edge of a cliff because he was overcome with grief. The legend says that scarlet tulips sprang up from each droplet of his blood, giving the red tulip the meaning of “perfect love.”

Well, even if you don’t believe in this tragic story, there’s no denying that red represents the color of love, and these red Turkish tulips are quite lovely!