Last Updated: 17 May 2026 Mardin is the city of honey-colored stone houses cascading down a hillside above the Mesopotamian plain. From its commanding position at 1,000 meters elevation, with views stretching south across northern Syria to the curve of the horizon, Mardin has watched empires rise and fall for over 4,000 years. The city…
Last Updated: 17 May 2026 Bursa is the city where the Ottoman Empire was born. From its capture by Sultan Orhan in 1326 until the relocation of the Ottoman capital to Edirne in the mid-14th century and finally to Istanbul in 1453, Bursa was the political, religious and cultural center of the rising Ottoman state….
Last Updated: 17 May 2026 Konya is the central Anatolian city where one of the most influential mystical poets in human history lived, taught and was buried. Jalaluddin Rumi, called Mevlana (“Our Master”) in Turkish, lived in Konya from 1228 until his death in 1273 and is the spiritual founder of the Mevlevi Sufi order,…
Last Updated: 17 May 2026 Sumela Monastery is one of those places where the location alone justifies the journey. Built into a near-vertical cliff face 1,200 meters above sea level in the Altindere National Park near Trabzon on Turkey’s Black Sea coast, the monastery clings to the side of a forested gorge with a 300-meter…
Last Updated: 17 May 2026 Hattusha was the capital of one of the most powerful empires of the ancient world, and almost no traveler has heard of it. The Hittite Empire, which dominated Anatolia and northern Syria from approximately 1650 to 1200 BC, rivaled Egypt and Babylon in political power, military strength and cultural sophistication….
Last Updated: 17 May 2026 Pergamon (modern Bergama in northwestern Turkey) was one of the three great Hellenistic capitals of the eastern Mediterranean, alongside Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Syria. From its founding around 281 BC until its absorption into the Roman Empire in 133 BC, Pergamon was the seat of the Attalid dynasty,…
Last Updated: 17 May 2026 Aspendos is the ancient Roman theater that makes other ancient theaters look incomplete. Built in the 2nd century AD by an architect named Zenon for the emperor Marcus Aurelius, the Aspendos theater has survived 1,800 years almost entirely intact, with its three-story stage building, its 41 rows of marble seating,…
Hierapolis ancient city guide above Pamukkale: Roman theater, Plutonium (Gate of Hell), necropolis, Cleopatra’s Pool and the Martyrium of Saint Philip.
Aphrodisias visitor guide: the Tetrapylon, the 30000-seat stadium (best-preserved ancient stadium in the world), the Temple of Aphrodite and the Sebasteion reliefs.
Troy ancient city visitor guide: the nine layered cities of Hisarlik, the Trojan Horse replica, the walls of Troy VI and the new Troy Museum.