Event: Turkey - Edirne

Kirkpinar Oil Wrestling Championship

When:	4 - 6 Jul 2008 (annual)
Where:	Edirne Stadium

The large stadium beside the town of Edirne on the Greek-Turkish border is the location for this annual summer wrestling festival, where over 1000 wrestlers come to participate in the week-long "sudden death"-style competition.

This event's somewhat kinky title belies the fact that it is a sport that is over five centuries old. Oil-coated wrestling or Yagli Gures was devised as a means of training troops, but it has since become a popular spectacle, with champions becoming national celebrities.

Wearing only a pair of leather trousers and a good slick of olive oil, competitors pair off and struggle to gain a grip on their opponent, before one is flipped over and pinned to the ground. The winner goes on to fight another winner, and so on, until there is only one wrestler left standing. The whole tournament can take days.

Combat aside, the festival also attracts gypsies from around the Middle East and Eastern Europe. A colourful fair springs up outside the arena, and visitors tired of cheering and booing fighters can come and lose themselves in the sights and sounds of the Bohemian way of life.

Edirne is also the location for the Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan's greatest building. Found in the heart of the 15th-century commercial centre, the Selimiye Mosque was built between 1569 and 1575 and boasts minarets spiralling to 230ft and a central cupola more than 100ft across. Iznik tiles placed in intricate geometric patterns and chiselled marble latticework decorate the walls to mesmerising effect, and Sinan called it his most harmonious architectural achievement.