Historic sites
Ephesus
Selçuk, İzmir
One of the best-preserved ancient cities in the Mediterranean, once the capital of Roman Asia Minor with up to 250,000 people.
Historic sites in Turkey
Historic sites
Göbekli Tepe
Haliliye, Şanlıurfa
The world's oldest known monumental temple, built around 9600 BC by hunter-gatherers, thousands of years before Stonehenge, with huge T-shaped stone …
Historic sites
Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
Fatih, İstanbul
Built as a cathedral by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in 537, later a mosque, then a museum, and again a mosque since 2020, with a vast dome that s…
Historic sites
Mount Nemrut
Kâhta, Adıyaman
A mountain top at 2,134 m where King Antiochus of Commagene built a tomb mound in the 1st century BC, with huge stone heads of gods and kings now sca…
Historic sites
Topkapı Palace, Istanbul
Fatih, İstanbul
The palace of the Ottoman sultans for nearly 400 years, on a point above the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn, with courtyards, pavilions tiled in Iznik…
Historic sites
Ani ruins
Digor, Kars
The ruined medieval Armenian capital on the closed border with Armenia, once a city of 100,000 people, with the remains of churches, a cathedral and …
Historic sites
Antalya Old Town (Kaleiçi)
Muratpaşa, Antalya
The walled old town of Antalya, with Ottoman houses, Hadrian's Gate, a Roman harbour and the Yivli Minaret, above the turquoise Mediterranean.
Historic sites
Aphrodisias
Karacasu, Aydın
A Roman city famous for its school of marble sculpture, with a superbly preserved stadium for 30,000 spectators, a monumental gateway (the Tetrapylon…
Historic sites
Basilica Cistern, Istanbul
Fatih, İstanbul
A vast underground Byzantine water reservoir built in the 6th century, with 336 marble columns rising from the water, dimly lit, and two Medusa heads…
Historic sites
Derinkuyu Underground City
Derinkuyu, Nevşehir
An underground city carved into the soft rock up to 85 m deep, with stables, wineries, chapels and ventilation shafts, which could shelter thousands …
Historic sites
Gallipoli Peninsula
Çanakkale
The battlefields of the 1915 Gallipoli campaign, where Allied forces, including Australians and New Zealanders, fought the Ottomans.
Historic sites
Rumi's Mausoleum and the Whirling Dervishes, Konya
Meram, Konya
The tomb of the Sufi poet Rumi (Mevlana), under a green-tiled dome, now a museum and a pilgrimage site.
Historic sites
Safranbolu
Safranbolu, Karabük
A town of well-preserved Ottoman timber-framed houses, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, once a stop on the caravan route.
Historic sites
Sumela Monastery
Maçka, Trabzon
A Greek Orthodox monastery clinging to a cliff face 1,200 m up in a forested valley near Trabzon, founded in the 4th century, with frescoes in the ro…
Historic sites
Bodrum Castle
Bodrum, Muğla
A castle built by the Knights of St John in the 15th century, partly from stones of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders.
Historic sites
Troy
Çanakkale
The ruins of the legendary city of the Trojan War, with nine layers of settlement over 4,000 years, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.