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Team SeeThis.Place
Complete travel guide to Turkey. Handpicked places including waterfalls, mountain roads, thermal springs, UNESCO sites, scenic drives and hidden gems. All with GPS coordinates.
Your feet sink into warm, soft water. Before you, steps of white travertine cascade down the hillside — like a frozen glacier of minerals. 36 degrees. The water has been sculpting these terraces for thousands of years. Above lies the ruined city of Hierapolis, where the Romans bathed.
GPS: 37.9244, 29.1213
1,560 metres of steel stretched between two continents. The lights from the Asian side flicker in the water below. You drive from Europe to Asia in under two minutes — and world history changes continent in the middle.
GPS: 41.0453, 29.0344
The road hugs the cliff, and suddenly the valley opens — 186 steps down to a turquoise bay wedged between vertical rock walls. Kaputaş Beach appears like a postcard around a bend. Ancient traders drove this route. Now you do.
GPS: 36.2256, 29.6436
Fog hangs in the fir trees. The road climbs, and the air thins. The Kaçkar Mountains rise to 3,937 metres above the Black Sea coast — alpine meadows, rivers crashing down cliff sides, and Georgian stone houses where time moves slowly.
GPS: 40.8383, 41.1631
Water plunges 40 metres straight off the cliff edge into the Mediterranean. No lake, no river — just rock, free fall and sea. The spray hits your face from the viewing platform, and boats sail right through the mist below.
GPS: 36.8510, 30.7833
The air changes temperature the second you step inside. 25,000 years of human habitation press into the rock walls — Stone Age hunters, Neanderthals and the earliest Homo sapiens have all slept here. The opening above draws a cone of sunlight on the cave floor.
GPS: 37.0778, 30.5706
The rock walls close in around you. The water is ice-cold — snowmelt from the mountains — and reaches your thighs. 18 km long, 300 metres deep, and in places only 2 metres wide. Sunlight reaches down as just a thin line above.
GPS: 36.4497, 29.4471
Hundreds of hot air balloons rise above a landscape that looks like nothing on Earth. Fairy chimneys shaped like mushrooms, cones and towers — volcanic tuff sculpted by wind and rain over millions of years. Hidden in the rocks are churches with frescoes and underground cities.
GPS: 38.6431, 34.8286
Four courtyards, each quieter than the last. Behind the thick walls the outside world disappeared — and inside the sultan ruled an empire stretching from the Danube to the Euphrates. The treasury holds the 86-carat Spoonmaker's Diamond and the Prophet's cloak.
GPS: 41.0115, 28.9833
The Celsus Library facade rises two storeys in marble — Corinthian columns, niches for wisdom statues and a drama of light and shadow lasting since 117 AD. Beneath the marble streets ran sewers. On the latrines, Romans sat side by side. The city lived.
GPS: 37.9390, 27.3410
The dome floats. 55 metres above the floor, 31 metres of pure geometry rests on 40 arched openings — and light pours in from every side as if the building breathes. For 1,000 years it was the world's largest cathedral. Then it became a mosque. Now it is both.
GPS: 41.0086, 28.9802
Nine cities on top of each other. The lowest is 5,000 years old. Homer sang of the top one. Schliemann's shovel struck gold in 1873. The brick layers poke up from the earth, and the wind from the Dardanelles blows across the plain where Achilles once ran.
GPS: 39.9573, 26.2388
61 covered streets. 4,000 shops. The scent of spices, leather and Turkish tea mingles beneath vaulted ceilings from 1461. You lose your bearings after five minutes — and that's the point. Each craft has its own quarter.
GPS: 41.0107, 28.9683
White half-timbered houses with dark beams climb the hillside. The scent of saffron in the streets. Safranbolu is like stepping into a 17th-century Ottoman postcard — intact, alive, and still with hammam and caravanserai.
GPS: 41.2547, 32.6911
Eight storeys down into the earth. The air grows cooler with every step. Here 20,000 people hid — with church, school, stables and ventilation shafts that still work. The rolling stone at the entrance weighs a tonne and could only be opened from the inside.
GPS: 38.3733, 34.7344
Giant stone heads stare out into the void from 2,134 metres. King Antiochus I had them carved in the 1st century BC — gods and kings side by side. The heads have toppled from earthquakes and lie scattered at the statues' feet. The sunrise behind them is mythical.
GPS: 37.9808, 38.7414
11,600 years old. 7,000 years older than Stonehenge. 6,000 years before the pyramids. T-shaped pillars up to 5.5 metres with reliefs of wild boar, snakes and vultures — erected by hunter-gatherers who hadn't yet invented agriculture. The site rewrote human history.
GPS: 37.2233, 38.9225
A marble city at the end of a valley — a stadium for 30,000, a Temple of Aphrodite and a sculpture workshop that supplied the entire Roman Empire. The Sebasteion street has relief panels telling the emperors' story three storeys high. The site has never been built over.
GPS: 37.7092, 28.7269
The theatre is carved into the mountainside — 80 rows down a 78-degree slope overlooking the Anatolian plain. Pergamon was the Roman Empire's cultural capital in Asia Minor. The library here held 200,000 scrolls — second only to Alexandria.
GPS: 39.1322, 27.1839
Church towers rise above the Anatolian plateau. The ruined city of Ani was once capital of the Armenian kingdom with 100,000 inhabitants and 1,001 churches. Now the walls stand alone on the edge of a deep gorge — Armenia is on the other side.
GPS: 40.5072, 43.5728
The acoustics are perfect. From the top row — 15,000 seats up — you can hear a coin drop on stage. The stage building is intact at full height. The best-preserved Roman theatre in the world, built under Marcus Aurelius in the 2nd century.
GPS: 36.9389, 31.1722
Clinging to a vertical cliff face 1,200 metres above sea level. The buildings hang over the abyss, and fog wraps around the pine forest below. Founded in 386 AD — 1,500 years of prayer in the Pontic Mountains.
GPS: 40.6919, 39.6578
Turquoise water in a lagoon sealed by a sand spit. Mountains with pine forest on three sides. From Babadağ at 1,969 metres, paragliders leap into the blue air and land on the beach 20 minutes later. Ölüdeniz means 'Dead Sea' — because the water is so still.
GPS: 36.5501, 29.1156
A honey-coloured stone city clinging to a cliff slope with the Mesopotamian plain below. Arabs, Syriacs, Kurds and Turks have left their mark over 5,000 years. From Zinciriye Medresesi you can see all the way to Syria.
GPS: 37.3131, 40.7436
A palace on a mountain ledge at 2,200 metres. Mount Ararat looms behind the towers. 366 rooms, a mosque, a harem — and Turkey's first central heating system. Kurdish pashas built it over 99 years while the Silk Road passed right by.
GPS: 39.5205, 44.1290
Six minarets against the sky. 20,000 blue Iznik tiles. The dome soars 43 metres above the floor, and light through 260 windows paints the room blue. Sultan Ahmed's mosque from 1616 — the only one in Istanbul with six towers.
GPS: 41.0054, 28.9768
336 marble columns in rows beneath Istanbul's streets — atmospherically dark, lit by coloured light. Emperor Justinian built it in 532 AD to supply the palace with water. Two Medusa heads are turned upside down as column bases. Nobody knows why.
GPS: 41.0084, 28.9778
The dome is 31.5 metres in diameter — half a metre wider than Hagia Sophia's. Architect Sinan built it at age 80 and called it his masterpiece. Four minarets at 83 metres pierce the sky over Edirne, 230 km west of Istanbul.
GPS: 41.6787, 26.5589
Temple facades carved into a vertical cliff face — Ionic columns, triangular pediments and reliefs from the 4th century BC. Below: a Roman theatre for 11,000. Saint Nicholas was bishop here. The real Santa Claus.
GPS: 36.2590, 29.9853
Five royal tombs carved in the cliff 200 metres above the river. The kings of Pontus from the 3rd century BC rest here. Below: Ottoman wooden houses overhanging the water. Turkey's most underrated town.
GPS: 40.6536, 35.8303
The Knights Hospitaller's fortress built with stones from one of the Seven Wonders — the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. Four towers named after European nations. The world's finest museum of underwater archaeology.
GPS: 37.0317, 27.4294
Five Corinthian columns against the Mediterranean. At sunset the marble turns orange, and the silhouette against the sea is Turkey's most photographed ruin. The Temple of Apollo from the 2nd century AD on the tip of the Side peninsula.
GPS: 36.7633, 31.3903
5,137 metres of volcanic lonely majesty at the Armenian border. Permanently ice-capped summit. The Bible says Noah's Ark landed here. Greater and Lesser Ararat side by side like father and son.
GPS: 39.7017, 44.2986
Flames that never go out. Natural gas seeps through rock and burns — continuously for 2,500 years. The Greeks called it Chimera. At night, dozens of flames dance across the mountainside like fire from another world.
GPS: 36.4319, 30.4556
Thousand-year-old caves in volcanic tuff converted into a hotel overlooking Göreme's fairy chimneys. In the morning, hundreds of hot air balloons rise above the valley while you sip Turkish tea on the terrace.
GPS: 38.6418, 34.8257
Turquoise and green tiles cover the interior like a jewelled carpet. Yeşil Cami — the Green Mosque — from 1424 is the Ottoman Empire's finest early mosque. Bursa was the first Ottoman capital, and this building is the crown jewel.
GPS: 40.1839, 29.0623
Capital of the Hittite Empire. 3,300-year-old city walls, the Lion Gate and the 71-metre tunnel beneath the ramparts. The empire that rivalled Egypt and signed the world's first known peace treaty with Ramesses II.
GPS: 40.0189, 34.6142
Accessible only by boat or along a dizzying trail. 350-metre vertical cliff walls and a waterfall plunging into a lagoon. Home to the Jersey tiger moth and over 100 butterfly species. Hippie paradise since the 1980s.
GPS: 36.4967, 29.1272
Six monumental tomb facades carved into the cliff above the Dalyan river. Lycian temple fronts from the 4th century BC. You sail past them in a flat-bottomed boat through reed beds where sea turtles lay eggs.
GPS: 36.8336, 28.6342
The old capital of Lycia. Pillar tombs rise above the amphitheatre — burial monuments on 8-metre pillars unique to Lycian culture. The city burned itself down twice rather than surrender to the enemy.
GPS: 36.3575, 29.3197
Three portals covered in stone carvings so detailed they look like embroidery cut in rock. UNESCO listed it as the first Turkish monument in 1985. The hospital next door healed with sound — flowing water and acoustics designed to calm.
GPS: 39.3742, 38.1178
The Genoese tower from 1348 rises 67 metres above the Beyoğlu quarter. From the top you look out over the Golden Horn, the Bosphorus and the Asian side in one panorama. The Byzantines called it Christea Turris — the Tower of Christ.
GPS: 41.0256, 28.9742
Mimar Sinan's masterpiece from 1557. Four minarets, a dome 26 metres in diameter and light from 138 windows. Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Hurrem Sultan are buried in the garden behind.
GPS: 41.0161, 28.9639
285 rooms, 46 halls and the world's largest Bohemian crystal chandelier at 4.5 tonnes. The Ottoman Empire's last palace — built in 1856 to compete with European royal palaces. Ataturk died here on 10 November 1938 at 9:05 AM.
GPS: 41.0390, 28.9997
Byzantine mosaics from 1320 that surpass everything else in Istanbul. Gold grounds, blue skies and faces with 700-year-old intensity. Christ, the Virgin Mary and the apostles look down from walls and domes. Now a mosque — Kariye Camii.
GPS: 41.0311, 28.9392
The largest of the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara. Victorian wooden villas, horse carriages and pine forests climbing to Aya Yorgi monastery at the top. 35 minutes by ferry from Kabatas — but a world away from Istanbul's chaos.
GPS: 40.8745, 29.1275
A monastery complex carved from soft tuff in the 10th–12th century. The Dark Church has wall paintings in colours so vivid they feel immediate. 15 churches and 11 refectories within one enclosure — UNESCO World Heritage in Cappadocia.
GPS: 38.6435, 34.8307
150-metre-deep cliff walls. A 16-kilometre canyon with a river at the bottom and over 50 rock churches with Byzantine frescoes carved into the sides. 3,500 steps lead down from the entrance at Ihlara.
GPS: 38.2575, 34.2954
Cappadocia's highest point — a 60-metre tuff rock riddled with tunnels and chambers like a giant termite mound. From the top you see all the way to the Erciyes volcano. The village clings to the base.
GPS: 38.6301, 34.8053
The fairy chimneys of Love Valley are Cappadocia's most iconic formations — pillars of soft tuff up to 40 metres tall with hard basalt caps on top. Best at sunrise from a hot air balloon or on foot along the trail from Goreme.
GPS: 38.6628, 34.8306
A colourful Lycian coastal town squeezed between mountains and the Mediterranean. Bougainvillea over narrow alleys, Lycian sarcophagi in the middle of town and a diving paradise with underwater caves near Kas. The Greek island Meis is just 2 km from the harbour.
GPS: 36.1994, 29.6413
A 2nd-century earthquake sank half of the ancient city of Simena beneath the waves. From the glass-bottom boat you see steps, walls and foundations on the seabed. Kalekoy above has a Crusader castle with views over it all.
GPS: 36.1824, 29.8775
The city Alexander the Great gave up conquering. At 1,000 metres in the Gulluk Dagi mountains the theatre overlooks forests and peaks. No restorations, no ticket sellers — just raw, overgrown ruins in wild nature.
GPS: 36.9824, 30.4634
A Lycian port city with three harbours, a Roman road and an aqueduct — all surrounded by pine forest and turquoise sea. You can swim among the ruins. Alexander the Great wintered here in 334 BC.
GPS: 36.5236, 30.5522
Turkey's longest unbroken sand beach — 18 kilometres. Behind the dunes lies the Lycian capital with a parliament building from 100 BC, the world's oldest known purpose-built democratic assembly hall. Loggerhead turtles nest here in summer.
GPS: 36.2662, 29.3172
Overgrown Lycian ruins along a riverbed that flows into a small beach. Ivy and wild vine cover the walls. Tree houses in orange groves are Olympos' trademark — bohemian culture meets antiquity. The eternal flames of Yanartas are a 15-minute walk away.
GPS: 36.3950, 30.4736
A narrow sand beach squeezed into a gorge between vertical cliff walls. The water is turquoise and so clear you see the bottom at 10 metres. 187 steps down from the road between Kas and Kalkan. No parasols, no bars — just rock and sea.
GPS: 36.2288, 29.4492
One of Pamphylia's wealthiest cities. The colonnaded street with its water channel down the centre is 20 metres wide. The stadium for 12,000 is Anatolia's best preserved. The finest statues are in Antalya's archaeological museum — Artemis, Hermes and dancing women.
GPS: 36.9614, 30.8539
A Seljuk fortress from 1226 on a 250-metre cliff promontory jutting into the Mediterranean. 6.5 km of walls with 140 towers. Kizil Kule — the Red Tower — at the harbour is Alanya's icon. From the top you see the coast in both directions.
GPS: 36.5331, 31.9906
A 14-kilometre canyon with walls up to 400 metres high. Turkey's most popular rafting spot — the Kopru river foams through the gorge. The Roman Oluk Bridge from the 2nd century still spans the river 27 metres up.
GPS: 37.1877, 31.1804
The masterpiece of Hellenistic urban planning. Hippodamos' grid plan from the 4th century BC is still visible in the street layout. The Temple of Athena on the terrace above was dedicated by Alexander the Great in person in 334 BC.
GPS: 37.6597, 27.2978
Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes — three of philosophy's founders — all came from Miletus. The theatre for 15,000 is Ionia's largest. The city had four harbours — now all kilometres from the coast, silted up by the Meander river.
GPS: 37.5303, 27.2783
The third-largest temple in antiquity — only the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the Heraion on Samos were larger. 122 Ionic columns, each 20 metres tall. The oracle at Didyma was almost as famous as Delphi. Never completed despite 600 years of work.
GPS: 37.3850, 27.2564
Right at the tip of the Datca peninsula, where the Aegean meets the Mediterranean. Two harbours — one on each side. Praxiteles' famous Aphrodite statue stood here and drew pilgrims from across the ancient world. The sunset over the two seas is spectacular.
GPS: 36.6864, 27.3739
Aristotle founded his first school of philosophy here in 347 BC. The Temple of Athena on top of the volcanic cliff looks straight across to the Greek island of Lesbos. The small stone harbour below is one of the most peaceful spots in the Aegean.
GPS: 39.4878, 26.3369
Capital of the Lydian kingdom. King Croesus — the richest man in the world — minted the first coins here in the 7th century BC. The Temple of Artemis is the fourth-largest Ionic temple ever built. The gymnasium with its marble facade is sensationally well preserved.
GPS: 38.4883, 28.0403
Anatolia's best-preserved Temple of Zeus — from Emperor Hadrian's era around 117 AD. Unique because it has a Cybele shrine in the basement beneath Zeus' temple. The stadium and theatre next door share a common wall. UNESCO World Heritage since 2023.
GPS: 39.2011, 29.6097
1,500 metres up in the Taurus mountains. The monumental Antonine fountain has been restored with original marble blocks. Belgian archaeologists have been excavating since 1990 — the most active dig in Turkey. A 5-metre emperor statue was found in 2007.
GPS: 37.6781, 30.5194
A Greek village in the Anatolian mountains, abandoned in 1923 during the population exchange and resettled by Turks from Thessaloniki. Fruit wine from blackberry, cherry and peach. Stone houses, vines and a life in slow motion 8 km from Ephesus.
GPS: 37.9424, 27.4328
Turkey's most fashionable resort town. Stone houses with blue shutters, windsurfing (world championships), and boutique hotels in old stone buildings. The windmills on the hill above are Alacati's trademark. Saturday means farmers' market.
GPS: 38.2814, 26.3742
An emerald mountain lake 1,090 metres up in the Pontic mountains behind Trabzon. Fog and rain give the landscape an almost Irish feel. Yayla — green mountain meadows — surround the lake on all sides. Tea plantations and hazelnut groves along the road up.
GPS: 40.6192, 40.2950
A mountain meadow at 1,350 metres at the foot of the Kackar mountains. Hot springs (65°C), Hemsin honey and alpine farming traditions. The sea of fog in the morning makes the valley below invisible. Starting point for hikes to the Kackar summit (3,932 m).
GPS: 40.9525, 41.1021
Storm Valley — Firtina Deresi — thunders down from the Kackar mountains through dense forest and Ottoman stone bridges. Camlihemsin is the valley's centre. Zilkale — a medieval castle on a rock knoll — hangs over the valley like an eagle's nest. Turkey's most dramatic river valley.
GPS: 41.0680, 41.0097
Turkey's northernmost point — a peninsula jutting into the Black Sea. Diogenes, the philosopher who lived in a barrel, was born here. The old prison on the harbour is now a museum. The Black Sea coast has a different feel from the Mediterranean — rawer, more real.
GPS: 42.0267, 35.1511
The Black Sea's prettiest small town. Two islands connected to the mainland by bridges, a Genoese castle and a harbour that looks like a miniature Dubrovnik. The fisheries museum has one of the world's oldest known mosaics — featuring a fish, naturally.
GPS: 41.7494, 32.3864
A white Art Nouveau villa from 1890 surrounded by a botanical garden with 50 tree species. Ataturk bequeathed it to the Turkish people. The furniture, books and original interior are preserved exactly as he left them. The view over the Black Sea coast is magnificent.
GPS: 40.9798, 39.6975
Rumi — the world's most-read poet — lies buried beneath the turquoise conical roof. His sarcophagus is covered in a gold-embroidered cloth. The whirling dervishes still dance here every Saturday. 2 million visitors a year — Turkey's most visited museum after Topkapi.
GPS: 37.8710, 32.5057
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's final resting place — a monumental mausoleum in neoclassical style on a hilltop in Ankara. The ceremonial road with 33 lions on each side leads to the hall with the 40-tonne sarcophagus. The museum below tells the story of the modern Turkish republic.
GPS: 39.9256, 32.8378
Turkey's second-largest lake — 80 km long but only 1–2 metres deep. In summer it dries to a dazzling white salt crust you can walk on. In spring an algae turns the water pink. 70% of Turkey's salt comes from here.
GPS: 38.7333, 33.3833
King Midas' capital. The Gordian Knot — which Alexander the Great cut with his sword — was tied here. The burial mound from 740 BC is 53 metres high and held the world's oldest known furniture. UNESCO World Heritage since 2023.
GPS: 39.6504, 31.9782
Anatolia's largest caravanserai — built in 1229 on the Silk Road between Konya and Aksaray. Monumental portal decoration in Seljuk style. The courtyard is 44×58 metres with a kiosk-mosque in the centre. Caravans with camels and silk stayed for free — the sultan's hospitality.
GPS: 38.2474, 33.5490
The world's largest mosaic museum. The Gypsy Girl — half face, intense eyes — is Turkey's Mona Lisa. The mosaics were rescued from the ancient city of Zeugma before it was flooded by a dam. Gaziantep is also Turkey's food capital — baklava, kebab and pistachios.
GPS: 37.0756, 37.3856
Legend says Abraham landed here when Nimrod threw him into the fire — and the flames turned to water, the coals to carp. The sacred fish in the pool must never be eaten. Sanliurfa calls itself the city of prophets — and Gobekli Tepe, the world's oldest temple, is 15 km away.
GPS: 37.1477, 38.7846
The world's second-longest ancient city wall after the Great Wall of China — 5.8 km of black basalt with 82 towers. The walls enclose the old town of Sur. From the towers you look over the Tigris valley — the same river that gave Mesopotamia its name. UNESCO World Heritage.
GPS: 37.9111, 40.2366
A 12,000-year-old city on the Tigris — one of the oldest continuously inhabited places on earth. In 2020 it was partially flooded by the Ilisu Dam. Cave dwellings, a medieval castle and Artukid bridge foundations are still visible above the waterline.
GPS: 37.7147, 41.4131
A town half-sunk beneath the Euphrates after the Birecik Dam in 2000. Minarets and house facades protrude from the still water. The boat sails between flooded streets. Halfeti is famous for its black roses — they grow only here.
GPS: 37.2289, 37.9457
The beehive houses of mud and clay are Harran's trademark — conical roofs without timber, built exactly as 3,000 years ago. Abraham lived here according to the Bible. The world's first university was founded in Harran in the 8th century. 44 km from Sanliurfa.
GPS: 36.8708, 39.0250
An Armenian church from 921 AD on a small island in Lake Van — Turkey's largest lake. The outer walls are covered in reliefs: Adam and Eve, David and Goliath, Jonah and the whale. The turquoise water around the island is alkaline — no outlet, no fish.
GPS: 38.3417, 43.0353
Turkey's wildest and most inaccessible national park. The Munzur mountains reach 3,462 metres. The springs at Munzur Gozeleri burst from the cliff face like a miracle. The Dersim people's sacred valley — untouched, unprotected, unforgettable.
GPS: 39.3053, 39.3610
Not the Nemrut with the statues — this one is a volcano. The crater is 7 km wide with two lakes: one hot, one cold. The hot lake has natural thermal baths. No facilities, no tourists — just you, the volcano and the view over Lake Van. 2,247 metres up.
GPS: 38.6118, 42.2630
Turkey's coldest city — Russian buildings from the 1800s, Armenian churches from the 900s and a fortress that has watched every empire come and go. Ani — the Armenian capital — is 45 km away. Kars is the gateway to eastern Turkey's wild, unexplored landscape.
GPS: 40.6078, 43.0958
Here 500,000 Allied soldiers fought the Ottoman defence in 1915. The peninsula is covered in war cemeteries and memorials. Ataturk's famous words to the fallen enemies' mothers are carved in stone at Anzac Cove. Turkey's most moving place.
GPS: 40.2375, 26.2775
Turkey's wine island. Bozcaada produces wine from grapes grown here since antiquity. A Genoese castle at the harbour, Greek houses with colourful facades and turquoise beaches. The island of Tenedos from Trojan War legend. 30 minutes by ferry.
GPS: 39.8347, 26.0702
Turkey's largest island — and one of the least visited. Greek villages with stone houses, organic farming and surf beaches. Imbros, as the Greeks call it. No mass tourism, no chain hotels. Just wind, sea and a calm that has disappeared from most of the Aegean.
GPS: 40.2004, 25.9085
An Ottoman village from the 1300s with 270 original timber-framed houses in pastel colours. Cobblestone streets, yellow mulberry jam and homemade gozleme. UNESCO World Heritage with Bursa. 10 km from Bursa centre — 700 years back in time.
GPS: 40.1750, 29.1731
Turkey's Maldives — a crater lake with chalk-white beaches and turquoise water in the middle of Anatolia. NASA has studied the lake's minerals because they resemble those on Mars. Crystal-clear water down to 45 metres. Burdur province, 150 km north of Antalya.
GPS: 37.5476, 29.6816
3,500 Greeks lived here until the 1923 population exchange. Now 500 stone houses stand empty on the hillside — an entire community frozen in time. Two churches, a chapel and a baker with the oven intact. UNESCO peace village. The Lycian Way starts here.
GPS: 36.5750, 29.0911
A 70 km peninsula dividing the Aegean from the Mediterranean. Almond trees, olive groves and the old village of Eski Datca with stone houses and bougainvillea. Strabo called it the place with the best climate in all of Anatolia. Knidos sits at the tip.
GPS: 36.7283, 27.6869
Seven lakes connected by waterfalls in a beech forest that explodes in colour in autumn. Red, orange, yellow — like New England, but in Turkey. The park is just 200 km from Istanbul and completely unknown to foreign tourists. Best in October–November.
GPS: 40.9435, 31.7455
According to Homer, the gods sat on Mount Ida watching the Trojan War below. Today it's an oxygen factory of forest — beech, oak and Trojan fir. Sahinderesi gorge with its waterfalls is untouched. Gold mining threatens the area — a hot political issue in Turkey.
GPS: 39.5560, 26.5732
Heaven and Hell — two giant sinkholes side by side in the limestone. Cennet (Heaven) is 250 metres long and 110 metres deep with a Byzantine church at the bottom. Cehennem (Hell) is inaccessible — vertical walls, no way down. An underground river connects them.
GPS: 36.4538, 34.1059
A tower on a tiny island in the middle of the Bosphorus. Legend says a sultan locked his daughter here to avoid a prophecy of her death by snakebite — but the snake came in a fruit basket. Restored in 2023. From the tower you see both Europe and Asia.
GPS: 41.0212, 29.0042
Mehmed the Conqueror built this fortress in 4 months in 1452 — the year before he took Constantinople. At the Bosphorus' narrowest point (660 m). Three towers and massive walls controlled all shipping. Now a summer venue for concerts with the Bosphorus as backdrop.
GPS: 41.0849, 29.0567
Antalya's historic heart. Ottoman wooden houses with bay windows hang over narrow streets. Hadrian's Gate from 130 AD is the entrance. The old harbour below has boat trips to Duden Waterfall. Yivli Minare — the fluted minaret from 1230 — is the city's landmark.
GPS: 36.8841, 30.7079
The world's oldest known city — 9,000 years old. Up to 8,000 people lived here in houses without doors — you entered through the roof. Wall paintings of hunts and volcanic eruptions. UNESCO World Heritage. The excavations are covered and can be visited with a guide. 50 km southeast of Konya.
GPS: 37.6667, 32.8281
A Lycian rock tomb from the 4th century BC carved as an Ionic temple facade into the cliff above Fethiye town. Amintas — probably a local ruler — got a monument that dominates the entire town skyline. Best lit in the evening. Free views over the bay.
GPS: 36.6183, 29.1178
One of Lycia's six most important cities. The acropolis with rock tombs and an Ottoman fortress on top. Stadium and theatre with views over the Xanthos valley. Bellerophon — the hero who rode Pegasus — was mythically buried here. The baths with marble floors are intact.
GPS: 36.5525, 29.4208
A lake surrounded by beech forest 1,328 metres up in the Bolu mountains — 260 km from Istanbul. Autumn explodes in colour. The trail around the lake is 7 km. The Abant trout (Salmo abanticus) lives only here and nowhere else on earth. Weekend escape from Istanbul.
GPS: 40.6052, 31.2799
Izmir's historic bazaar stretches across a labyrinthine area from Konak Square to the Agora ruins. Ottoman inns, synagogues, churches and mosques side by side. Less touristy than Istanbul's Grand Bazaar — real Izmirians shop here. The kumru sandwich is the city's signature dish.
GPS: 38.4192, 27.1327
A railway viaduct from 1912 spanning 172 metres across a gorge in the Taurus mountains. Built by German engineers for the Baghdad Railway. 98 metres high. The James Bond film Skyfall (2012) used the bridge in the opening scene. Adana-Karaisali road, 70 km north of Adana.
GPS: 37.2443, 34.9766
At sunset the rocks glow red, orange and pink — hence the name Red Valley. The trail from Goreme to Cavusin is 6 km through tunnels, vineyards and rock churches with frescoes. Cappadocia's most beautiful hike. The sunset point is legendary.
GPS: 38.6510, 34.8536
Cappadocia's backdrop — the 3,917-metre volcano that created the tuff the fairy chimneys are carved from. Ski resort in winter, hiking and mountain biking in summer. The Romans called it Argaeus and put it on their coins. Turkey's most underrated ski area.
GPS: 38.5310, 35.4470
1,000 metres up in the Taurus mountains, above Koprulu Canyon. So remote that Alexander the Great sent a diplomat instead of an army. The 10,000-seat theatre overlooks mountains. Stadium, agora and an Artemis temple are overgrown but intact. The road up is an adventure in itself.
GPS: 37.2294, 31.1272
A Roman bridge from Septimius Severus' era (200 AD) with the world's longest single-arch stone span — 34 metres. Two Corinthian columns at each end marked the imperial family. Still in use! On the road to Nemrut Dag from the Adiyaman side.
GPS: 37.9329, 38.6085
Imagination Valley — because the rock formations look like animals, people and figures. A camel, a seal, Napoleon with a hat. No rock churches, no paintings — just pure geological sculpture shaped by wind and water. Cappadocia's most photogenic valley for those who see figures in clouds.
GPS: 38.6751, 34.8843
Swim in an ancient Roman pool — over Cleopatra's columns and marble fragments in 36°C geothermal water. The columns fell during an earthquake and still lie on the bottom.
GPS: 37.9266, 29.1240
A 1,380-metre tunnel cut THROUGH a mountain to divert a river — a 2,000-year-old Roman engineering project that still impresses.
GPS: 36.1223, 35.9286
A cave with rare 'sea anemone' formations in aragonite — found in no other cave in the world. Five floors with crystals and underground lakes.
GPS: 40.2273, 36.3015
Turkey's best hidden swimming coves are in a national park 30 km from Ephesus. Dilek Yarimadasi has four turquoise beaches along the south coast, dense forest with wild horses and jackals, and a forbidden military zone keeping half the peninsula untouched.
GPS: 37.6689, 27.1618
A beach you have to hike down to — 450 steps down a steep trail through pine trees. Kabak Koyu sits on the Lycian Coast between Oludeniz and Faralya, hidden beneath 350-metre cliffs. No road, no hotels — just treetop platforms and stars.
GPS: 36.4612, 29.1252
Sea turtles nest on the 3 km beach between April and September. Cirali is the anti-commercial alternative to Kemer — no high-rises, just wooden guesthouses under orange trees. Yanartas (the eternal flames) burn on the mountain right behind the beach.
GPS: 36.3967, 30.4731
An island where Greece and Turkey still mix. Cunda (Alibey Adasi) at Ayvalik has abandoned Greek Orthodox churches, Ottoman stone houses, olive trees and fish restaurants along the quay. Connected to the mainland by a bridge — but the feeling is island.
GPS: 39.3300, 26.6850
Once a sea bay, now a freshwater lake. Bafa Golu has the ruins of Herakleia ad Latmos on its eastern shore — a temple complex literally sinking into the lake. Rocky islands with Byzantine monasteries poke above the water. Flamingo flocks in winter.
GPS: 37.4981, 27.5268
Ancient Olympos Mysius — Bursa's sacred mountain. Uludag (2,543 m) is Turkey's most popular ski resort in winter and a national park with beech forest and wildflower meadows in summer. The cable car from Bursa centre takes 22 minutes to the top.
GPS: 40.0706, 29.2215
48 metres of freefall in a desolate valley in eastern Turkey. Tortum Selalesi was once Europe's largest waterfall by volume — until a power plant stole some of the water. Tortum Lake below is a natural dam lake created by a landslide 10,000 years ago.
GPS: 40.6609, 41.6684
A castle ruin hanging over Storm Valley's deepest point like a bird of prey nest. Zilkale is built on a rock needle 1,100 metres above sea level, surrounded by tea plantations and deciduous forest that explodes in orange and red in autumn. Nobody knows exactly who built it.
GPS: 40.9593, 40.9637
A floodplain forest (longoz) on the Black Sea coast — one of only two places in Europe with this forest type. Igneada Longoz has swamp oaks with lianas, water lilies and wildlife resembling a subtropical jungle. Turkey's most exotic national park.
GPS: 41.8775, 27.9875
Eight floors underground — wine presses, stables, churches and ventilation shafts carved from volcanic tuff. Kaymakli is Cappadocia's widest underground city (Derinkuyu is deepest) and could hide 3,500 people during Arab and Ottoman attacks.
GPS: 38.4602, 34.7520
A colossal red-brick temple from the 2nd century AD — the largest in ancient Pergamon. Kizil Avlu was built as an Egyptian temple for Serapis and Isis, converted to a Christian basilica in Byzantine times. The Book of Revelation mentions it as one of the Seven Churches of Asia.
GPS: 39.1219, 27.1833
The world's largest soda lake — 3,755 km², 1,648 metres above sea level, surrounded by volcanoes. Lake Van is so alkaline that only one fish species survives (inci kefal). The water shifts from turquoise to deep blue by season. Akdamar Island with its Armenian church sits in the middle.
GPS: 38.6333, 42.8167
A 482 km² freshwater lake surrounded by rose fields and the Taurus mountains. Egirdir is Turkey's second-largest freshwater lake with a peninsula town jutting into turquoise water. The Isparta region's rose harvest in May–June turns the entire landscape pink.
GPS: 38.0442, 30.8942
Ottoman stone bridges over rushing mountain rivers in Turkey's greenest valley. Camlihemsin in Storm Valley has three historic arched bridges — Kemer Kopru from the 1700s is the most photogenic. The Hemsin people make the world's best muhlama (Black Sea cheese fondue).
GPS: 41.0303, 41.0094
A Greek village in the middle of Cappadocia. Mustafapasa (Sinasos) has stone houses with neoclassical facades, abandoned Greek Orthodox churches and vineyards — all without Goreme's tourist crowds. The 1923 population exchange emptied the town of Greeks, but the architecture stands.
GPS: 38.5834, 34.8969
The red Kizilirmak river supplies the clay, and Avanos has been turning pots for 4,000 years. Cappadocia's pottery capital has workshops where you can throw your own bowl, underground potter caves and a hair museum with 16,000 locks from visitors worldwide.
GPS: 38.7150, 34.8467
A Hittite fortress from the 8th century BC with lion reliefs and the bilingual inscription that cracked Hittite hieroglyphics. Karatepe-Aslantas is Turkey's first open-air museum — the reliefs stand exactly where they were carved, under cedar trees in the Ceyhan valley.
GPS: 37.2914, 36.2569
Flamingo flocks in April over a blue salt lake surrounded by barren mountains. Burdur Golu is Ramsar-listed and home to thousands of white storks and flamingos. The lake is slowly shrinking — water level has dropped 10 metres in 50 years — but the surreal light-blue water is unchanged.
GPS: 37.7500, 30.1800
A coastal lagoon connected to the Mediterranean via the Dalyan canal. Koycegiz has mud thermal baths (Sultaniye) where you cover yourself in sulphurous mud, hot spring pools and Caretta caretta turtles. Kaunos rock tombs mirror in the water.
GPS: 36.8833, 28.6333
Turkey's most photogenic winter landscape. Ilgaz Dagi (2,587 m) is a national park in the Black Sea region's southern range with snow-covered spruces, wolves and bears. Ataturk inaugurated it as Turkey's first national park in 1956.
GPS: 41.0218, 33.7949
A heart-shaped forest lake 1,630 metres up in Karagol-Sahara National Park. Savsat Karagol is surrounded by spruce and beech forest that explodes in colour in autumn — Artvin province's best-hidden gem in Turkey's northeastern corner.
GPS: 41.3000, 42.4833
Turkey's wildest skiing — 43 km of runs from 3,176 to 2,200 metres. Palandoken (now Ejder 3200) has Turkey's longest run and hosted the 2011 Winter Universiade. Season runs November to April, and lift passes cost a fraction of the Alps.
GPS: 39.8500, 41.2200
Built by Emperor Justinian I in the 6th century over the Apostle John's tomb. The basilica on Ayasuluk Hill in Selcuk had six domes and rivalled Hagia Sophia in size. Today the columns stand as silhouettes against the sunset — 3.5 km from Ephesus.
GPS: 37.9525, 27.3678
Hundreds of hot air balloons rise above the fairy chimneys at dawn. Pigeon Valley Viewpoint near Uchisar is the best place to watch the spectacle from the ground — with Erciyes volcano (3,917 m) as backdrop and a view reaching the horizon.
GPS: 38.6321, 34.8190
An entire town drowned under a dam in 2023. Yusufeli on the Coruh river was Turkey's rafting capital — now the old town lies 270 metres underwater. 7,000 inhabitants were moved to a purpose-built new town higher up. Georgian church ruins in the valleys above are still accessible.
GPS: 40.8210, 41.5440
Miniature Cappadocia 65 km southeast of Goreme — but without the tourists. Soganli Valley has about 100 Byzantine rock churches from the 800s–1200s carved into tuff spires. Karabas Kilisesi has frescoes on black backgrounds unique in Cappadocia.
GPS: 38.3580, 34.9620
The Black Sea's only island — 4 hectares, 1.2 km from the coast. Giresun Adasi was sacred to the war god Ares in antiquity, and legends say the Amazons built a temple here. Today the island is uninhabited with ruins and an annual folk festival in May.
GPS: 40.9293, 38.4367
Turkey's second-largest volcano — 4,058 metres, north of Lake Van. Suphan Dagi has twin peaks separated by a basin with small crater lakes and is snow-covered most of the year. The view from Adilcevaz over Lake Van with Suphan behind is eastern Turkey's most beautiful panorama.
GPS: 38.9287, 42.8212
18,000 m² underground salt city — five thousand years of Hittite mining history. Cankiri Tuz Magarasi is Turkey's largest rock salt reserve at a constant 15°C. The salt air is used for asthma treatment, and the mine still produces 500–1,000 tonnes daily.
GPS: 40.5800, 33.7500
300 restored Ottoman wooden houses in caramel and burgundy tones. Odunpazari in Eskisehir is UNESCO World Heritage and home to Kengo Kuma's Odunpazari Modern Museum — a contemporary art museum that looks like a stack of timber. Eskisehir is also Turkey's university capital.
GPS: 39.7708, 30.5180
A medieval castle built on a small island 200 metres offshore. Kizkalesi (Maiden's Castle) near Mersin dates from the 12th-century Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia and has a twin — the land castle Korykos — on the beach directly opposite. You can swim out to the island.
GPS: 36.4542, 34.1540
Greater Ararat (5,137 m) and Lesser Ararat (3,896 m) side by side above the Anatolian steppe. The Dogubayazit plain is the place on earth where you see Ararat most powerfully — two snow-capped volcanoes rising directly from the 1,600-metre plateau with nothing in the way.
GPS: 39.6500, 44.0800