Places to visit in

Turkey

Termessos is an ancient Pisidian city perched high on Güllük (Solymos) Mountain near Antalya. Its remote, elevated location helped preserve extensive Hellenistic and Roman ruins — theatre, agora, necropolis, city walls and public buildings — offering insights into inland Anatolian urban life and defensive architecture. The site lies within a protected natural area (Güllük Dağı National Park) and is notable for its mountain flora and fauna, making it important both archaeologically and ecologically.

Aspendos Theatre is one of the best-preserved Roman theatres in the world. Located near Serik in Antalya Province, Turkey, it dates to the 2nd century AD (commonly associated with the period of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius). The theatre was part of the ancient city of Aspendos, a major Pamphylian center famous for its wealth, trade, and skilled craftsmen. Its exceptional state of preservation offers rare direct insight into Roman engineering, theatrical culture, and urban life on the southern coast of Anatolia.

Perge (Perga) is an important ancient city in the historic region of Pamphylia (modern Antalya province, Turkey). Founded in the Bronze Age and flourishing in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Perge is celebrated for its well-preserved urban plan, monumental architecture, and role as a regional administrative and religious center. The site is also significant in early Christian history — St. Paul and his companions visited Perge according to the Acts of the Apostles — making it an important place for biblical and archaeological studies.

Kaleiçi (Kaleici) is the historic old quarter of Antalya, Turkey, enclosed by ancient city walls and centered around a picturesque Roman-era harbor. It preserves layers of Lycian, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman influences visible in its narrow cobbled streets, restored timber Ottoman houses, mosques, and stone gateways. Kaleiçi is significant as Antalya's cultural heart — a living museum of Mediterranean maritime trade, traditional Anatolian urban life, and architectural continuity from antiquity to the present.

Düden Waterfalls are a notable natural landmark near Antalya, Turkey, formed by karst springs from the Taurus Mountains. The falls illustrate regional hydrology and limestone landscape processes and are an important local recreational and scenic resource for residents and tourists. The site combines easy urban access with dramatic cliff and seaside scenery, making it one of Antalya's signature natural attractions.

Location & status: Kurşunlu Waterfall (Kurşunlu Şelalesi) is a small but scenic cascade and a designated nature park in the Aksu district of Antalya Province, Turkey, roughly 20–25 km northeast of Antalya city center and about 15–20 km from Antalya Airport. The site is valued for its Mediterranean riparian habitat, biodiversity (birds, amphibians, fish) and as an easily accessible natural escape for residents and visitors. It contributes to local eco-tourism and environmental education.

Manavgat Waterfall is a notable natural landmark on the Manavgat River near the town of Manavgat in Antalya Province, southern Turkey. While not tall, the falls are distinguished by their impressive width and strong, steady flow, making them a prominent local scenic and recreational site. The river and waterfall have historically supported local agriculture and settlements and remain an important freshwater source in the region.

Side is an ancient Pamphylian port city with extensive Greek and Roman ruins spanning from the Hellenistic through the Roman and Byzantine periods. Its archaeological remains — especially the well-preserved theatre, agora, necropolis and the waterfront Temple of Apollo — illustrate the city's historical importance as a regional commercial, cultural and religious center on the southern coast of Anatolia.

Alanya Castle (Alanya Kalesi) is a dramatic medieval fortress perched on a rocky peninsula on Turkey's southern Mediterranean coast. Its present fortifications date largely to the Seljuk period (13th century) under Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I, although the site has earlier Roman and Byzantine phases. The castle dominated maritime trade and military control of the eastern Mediterranean and later received Ottoman-era modifications. It is valued for its layered archaeological record, impressive defensive architecture, and commanding coastal vistas.

Cleopatra Beach (Kleopatra Plajı) in Alanya is famed both for its natural beauty — a long stretch of fine golden sand and clear turquoise Mediterranean waters — and for its cultural-legendary ties to the Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra. The beach sits beneath Alanya Castle and has been a popular seaside destination since the Ottoman period and through modern tourism development, contributing to the region's coastal identity and economy.

Bursa was the first major capital of the Ottoman Empire (14th century) and is a key site for early Ottoman architecture, urbanism and Islamic art. It is important historically for its role in the silk trade (the Koza Han), religious and funerary complexes, and as the birthplace of many Ottoman institutions. Naturally, Bursa sits beneath Uludağ, an ecologically rich mountain and national park that is a major ski and nature destination.

Cumalıkızık is one of the best-preserved early Ottoman rural settlements in Turkey. Located on the outskirts of Bursa, it illustrates Ottoman village planning and domestic architecture dating from the 14th–17th centuries. The village's layout, stone foundations, timber-framed upper floors and narrow cobbled streets provide a rare, authentic example of daily life in the formative centuries of the Ottoman Empire and contributed to the site's inscription as part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing "Bursa and Cumalıkızık: the Birth of the Ottoman Empire".

Uludağ National Park (Uludağ Milli Parkı) is one of Turkey's most important mountain parks, famous both as a major winter-sports center and for its alpine ecosystems. The mountain (Uludağ, meaning "Great Mountain") dominates the Bursa region and has long been a recreational and spiritual landscape — used historically for summer retreats, monastic isolation in the Byzantine period, and as a focal point of local folklore. The park protects diverse high-mountain habitats, important forest stands, and species characteristic of the northwestern Anatolian ranges.

Yeşil Cami (Green Mosque) and Yeşil Türbe (Green Tomb) form the centerpiece of the early 15th-century Yeşil Külliye (Green Complex) in Bursa, one of the first Ottoman capitals. Commissioned by Sultan Mehmed I Çelebi and completed in the 1420s, the complex is a key example of early Ottoman architecture blending Anatolian, Seljuk and Timurid influences. The mosque and tomb are celebrated for their rich polychrome tilework — especially the distinctive green-blue tiles that give the ensemble its name — and for reflecting the political and cultural consolidation of the Ottoman state after the Interregnum (1402–1413).

Edirne (ancient Adrianople) is a city of major historical importance: it served as the Ottoman Empire's capital from 1365 until the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, and was a strategic stronghold on the empire's European frontier. The city has layers of Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman heritage — famous for its monumental Ottoman mosques, imperial complexes (külliyes), bazaars and bridges. Edirne's location in the Thracian plains near the Meriç (Maritsa) and Tunca rivers has shaped its agricultural and trade economy and created rich wetlands that support birdlife and seasonal flooding landscapes.

Selimiye Mosque (Edirne, Turkey) is widely regarded as the crowning achievement of Mimar Sinan, the chief Ottoman architect. Commissioned by Sultan Selim II and completed in 1575, the mosque stands as a high point of classical Ottoman architecture—an architectural and engineering masterpiece notable for its bold central-dome design, harmonious proportions, and integrated social complex (külliye). The site is recognized internationally as part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing "Selimiye Mosque and its Social Complex" (2011), reflecting its outstanding universal value in art, religion, and urban design.

Çanakkale sits on the Dardanelles strait and links Asia and Europe. It is globally important for two main reasons: (1) the ancient city of Troy (Troia), a UNESCO World Heritage site tied to Homeric epics and Bronze Age archaeology; (2) the Gallipoli (Gelibolu) Peninsula, a major World War I battlefield where the Dardanelles Campaign and ANZAC landings took place, central to modern Turkish and Commonwealth history. The region also has rich maritime, archaeological and cultural traditions and commanding natural scenery along the strait.

Troy (Truva) is one of the world's most famous archaeological sites, central to the Homeric epics and the legendary Trojan War. The site (Hisarlik) preserves multiple occupation layers from the Bronze Age through the Roman and Byzantine periods, offering unique insight into ancient Anatolian, Aegean and Mediterranean civilizations. Troy's location near the Dardanelles made it strategically and culturally important for trade and military routes. The site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its outstanding universal value in human history.

The Gallipoli Peninsula Historical National Park (Gelibolu Yarımadası Tarihi Milli Parkı) preserves the battlefields, cemeteries and memorials of the 1915 Gallipoli (Çanakkale) Campaign in World War I — one of the defining events in modern Turkish and ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) history. The site is of enormous national and international importance: for Turkey it is central to the legacy of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the founding narrative of the Republic; for Australia and New Zealand it is the birthplace of the ANZAC legend and a major place of remembrance. The park also protects coastal landscapes, dunes, scrubland and migratory-bird habitats along the Dardanelles strait.

Bozcaada (ancient Tenedos) is an Aegean island off the northwest coast of Turkey, part of Çanakkale Province. It has strategic and cultural importance dating back to antiquity — referenced in Homeric myths and classical sources — and has been influenced by Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Genoese, Venetian and Ottoman rule. The island's layered history is visible in its fortified castle, churches, mosques, and traditional stone houses. Bozcaada is also known for its long viticulture tradition and distinct island biodiversity — sandy coves, pine-clad hills, and marine life — making it an important local natural site.