Overlooking Seraglio Point, at the mouth of the Golden Horn, the Sultanahmet quarter extends across the first hill of the city, the fiefdom of Ancient Byzantium and the political and cultural heart of the Byzantine and Ottoman cities. Few places in t..

This jewel of the 17C has retained its vocation as a place of worship, hence the requirement to remove one’s shoes before entering inside. The goal of the architect here was to surpass the elegance of the Aya Sofya basilica, an aim which was achieved..

The harem with its eunuchs was a place of great intrigue, luxury and exquisite pleasure, and here in the harem of Topkapi Palace visitors are plunged into a mythical Orient of a thousand and one treasures and as many fantasies. Lattice-work screens f..

This highly comprehensive museum is dedicated to Antiquity. Visitors are greeted by a Roman statue of Bes holding a headless lion. Don’t miss the sarcophagus of Alexander the Great (5C BC), decorated with bas-reliefs, descriptions of battles and hunt..

Chora means “outside the walls”, and refers to the fact that this 11C church was originally surrounded by countryside – the garden behind the church acts as modest reminder of this fact and is a pleasant place to rest after admiring the finest mosaic..

Selimiye Camii, the imperial mosque built by Selim II (1575), is considered to be the jewel of Ottoman religious art. Sinan, who was also the architect of the splendid Soliman Mosque in Istanbul, has achieved a true masterpiece here. The exterior is ..

The highlight of a visit to the acropolis of Pergamon, the theatre (amphitheatre) is incredibly steep and without doubt one of the most impressive in the whole of Turkey. Its cavea is relatively narrow yet very high, comprising 78 seemingly verticall..

Ephesus is one of the best preserved cities of the Ancient world. Excavation work, which first started here in 1869, has now uncovered most of its streets and buildings, including its city hall, houses, shops and public latrines. In this dazzling cit..

This grandiose building, which has been sympathetically restored by a team of Austrian archaeologists, appears from the depths of History like a mirage. On its elegant and breathtaking façade, niches house copies of the allegorical statues of the Vir..

This theatre was one of the largest in the Ancient world. Its stage wall, which was as richly decorated as the façade of the library of Celsus on the same site, measures no less than 18m in length; sadly, little remains of it, although the system of ..

Aphrodisias honoured Aphrodite, goddess of “sensual love and exquisite femininity”. The site is both magical and worthy of the worship that took place here. It was a centre of medicine and philosophy, as well as a capital of sculpture and art. The wh..

This necropolis is one of this ancient city’s most beautiful sights. Access to it is through the middle of a huge maze of rocks where the silence is striking, broken only, perhaps, by the sound of a nomadic shepherd calling out to his herd of goats. ..

The Ancient Greeks and Romans certainly chose some stunning locations for their cities. Some nestle at the end of a bay, while others, perched on mountainsides, offer breathtaking views. In Termessos, this idyllic mountain location, surrounded by gre..

Turning left out of the tekke , you pass in front of the Selimiye Camii, a mosque built in the 16C by Selim II. Its two slender minarets and huge domed prayer hall are typical of classical Ottoman architecture, with its large dimensions and a layout..

The Blue Medersa is without a doubt the jewel of Sivas. The building is immediately striking for its majestic and imposing appearance, which is reinforced by the two slender minarets rising above the portal. A turret stands at each corner of the buil..

Cappadocia, one of the most magical landscapes on the planet, was born from the effects of fire, water and the wind. The limestone tufa and lava from two large volcanoes, Mount Erciyes and Mount Hasan, have been sculpted by the seasonal rivers and wi..

Göreme Valley consists of a spectacular landscape of cones, ravines and white cliffs. The natural beauty of the scenery here has been further embellished by man, who has dug more than 30 cave churches in the rock and decorated them with stunning fres..

Now a popular sight crowded with tourists, this open-air museum was once a place of solitude and prayer. Two monasteries hollowed in the rock demonstrate the austere environment in which the monastic communities of the 11C developed and visiting the ..

The Dark Church is the most important sight in Göreme’s open-air museum and is the most richly decorated of the churches here. Lit by only one skylight, the darkness has preserved the frescoes, which have been carefully restored and can now be seen i..

The 10C Church with the Buckle which stands at the entrance to the open-air museum is well worth a visit. The building is divided into two churches which demonstrate the rapid evolution of religious pictorial art. The first is home to archaic mosaics..