The Perception of Turkish Spaces in Orhon Inscriptions

Human activities take place on the premises. As societies leave permanent traces on places, they themselves have deeper traces from places. Orhun Monuments, which is one of the traces of the Turkish nation to the space, is important in terms of determining how the Turks perceive their places and how they interpret it. In the Orkhon Inscriptions, the universe as a whole consists of sky and earth-water. Sky is the most sacred space of this whole. Ground-water gains a holiness when it is integrated into the perception of celestial space. The earth was perceived and named according to the earth's shapes. The holy places of the ground-water are the Turkish dormitories arranged by the Turkish God. The most sacred is ？tüken. The most worthless place of ground-water is the ？ogay forest and the T？gültün plain, which pose a threat to the existence of the Turkish nation. The city of ？entung and its sea and the Iron Gate are given as the ideal of K？z？lelma. The main directional concepts which have universal validity are used in linking the spaces with each other. All this wide and deep sense of space is symbolized by a literary expression in the Orkhon Monuments. This study is an evaluation of how Turks perceive the space based on the first written texts of Turkish history