TürkiyeCennetHistory & Ancient
History and ancient sites are the way to read Türkiye layer by layer. The acoustics of a Roman theatre, the council building of a Lycian city, or a coastal settlement gone underwater — this category brings out the story behind the stone. Most ancient cities today are interwoven with nature, so historic places are often a landscape as well.
Places in this category
19 places
Aphrodisias
Inland from Aydın, a city of sculptors dedicated to the goddess of love, where a stadium for 30,000 survives almost intact — the best-preserved ancient stadium in Anatolia.
Akdamar Island
An island in Lake Van that holds the 10th-century Church of the Holy Cross, known for its carved stone reliefs.
Ani
A walled, abandoned medieval capital on the Kars border, overlooking the Arpaçay valley.
Aspendos
An ancient city home to one of the best-preserved Roman theatres in the world.
Pergamon (Bergama)
North of İzmir, a Hellenistic capital built along the spine of a steep hill: the steepest ancient theatre known, the library that gave us the word parchment, and an ancient healing centre on the plain below.
Cumalıkızık
On the lower slopes of Uludağ, an Ottoman village lived in continuously for 700 years: cobbled lanes and painted timber houses standing since the empire's founding decades.
Ephesus
In Selçuk near İzmir, one of the ancient world's best-preserved harbour cities, with marble streets and the Library of Celsus.
Göbekli Tepe
One of humanity's oldest known monumental temple structures; giant T-shaped pillars.
Gordion
West of Ankara, the capital of the Phrygian kingdom: you can walk inside the burial mound attributed to King Midas, and the Gordian Knot was cut here.
Hattusa
In Çorum, on the Anatolian plateau, the walled ancient city that was the capital of the Hittite Empire.
Ishak Pasha Palace
Near Doğubayazıt in Ağrı, a monumental 18th-century palace rising on a hill above the plain.
İznik
Ancient Nicaea on a lakeshore, ringed by walls and known for its tiles and the First Council.
Cappadocia
A volcanic landscape of fairy chimneys, rock-cut churches and underground cities.
Mardin
Set on a hillside above the Mesopotamian plain, an old city of honey-coloured stone houses and narrow lanes with a layered history.
Mount Nemrut
In Adıyaman, a summit known for the giant stone statues and burial mound of the Commagene king Antiochos I — a UNESCO site.
Pamukkale and Hierapolis
In Denizli, a UNESCO site where the white travertine terraces built by thermal springs meet the ancient city of Hierapolis above them.
Patara
An ancient Lycian city merging with one of Türkiye's longest beaches.
Safranbolu
In the western Black Sea hills, a caravan-route town whose entire Ottoman fabric survives intact: timber mansions with projecting bays, a working bazaar, and the saffron it is named after.
Sümela Monastery
A monastery carved into a sheer cliff face in the Altındere Valley, rising out of the mist.