Language · 11 published
Country guide
Türkiye is 783,562 km² across 81 provinces, most of it Anatolia in West Asia with East Thrace on the European side of the straits. It has three coasts to choose between — the Black Sea to the north, the Aegean to the west, the Mediterranean to the south — and an interior plateau that behaves like a different country in winter. Istanbul is the largest city and the economic centre, Ankara the capital and the second-largest, and the December 2025 population of 86,092,168 is weighted heavily to the west. A first trip is usually Istanbul and one coast; the plateau is the second trip.
Reviewed by Elena Voss · Roavina Travel Editor
Every city catalogued in this country so far, ranked by how much there is to see.
Photograph · Ben Morlok · CC BY-SA 2.0
Photograph · Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photograph · REHBER0770 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photograph · Anonymous · CC0
Photograph · Dan Taylor · CC BY 2.0
Photograph · Dogaaunlu · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photograph · Egemenakgul · CC BY-SA 4.0
Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.
514 places match
Category
Typical visit duration
Devlet Mezarlığı
Turkish State Cemetery is Ankara’s national memorial cemetery for presidents of the Republic and commanders of the Turkish War of Independence.
Güven Abidesi
Güvenlik Monument is a 1935 civic artwork inside Güvenpark, in Ankara’s Kızılay district. Its subject is not a private memorial or enclosed museum display: it places a statement about public trust within one of the capital’s busiest everyday spaces.
Gavur Kalesi
Gavurkale Hill is a rocky archaeological landmark near Dereköy in Haymana district, roughly 60 kilometres southwest of Ankara.
Atatürk Müzesi
İzmir Atatürk Museum is a house museum on Atatürk Caddesi, the First Kordon waterfront road in Alsancak.
TCG Ege
USS Ainsworth is preserved as TCG EGE at İzmir Naval Museum, where the former warship is displayed as a museum ship at İnciraltı pier.
Persian tomb
Persian Tomb Monument is a rock-cut funerary monument in Yenibağarası, in the countryside east of Foça. Public descriptions identify it with the additional names Taş Ev and Taş Kule and date it to the 4th century BC.
Araksa
Araxa, also recorded locally as Araksa, is a mapped point of interest in Antalya, Türkiye.
Aziz Yuhanna Katedrali
St. John's Cathedral is a Catholic church in Alsancak, within İzmir's Konak district, at Şehit Nevres Bulvarı No. 29. Construction began in 1862 and the church opened in 1874.
Mehmetçik Anıtı
Mehmetçik Monument is a hilltop memorial at Kartaltepe, about 6 kilometres west of Polatlı in Ankara Province, beside the E-90 Ankara–Eskişehir highway.
Beş Kapılar Kalesi
Foça Castle is the surviving Beşkapılar section of the historic fortifications on Eski Foça’s peninsula, between the Küçükdeniz and Büyükdeniz bays.
Suluhan is a historic commercial han in Ankara’s Ulus area, known locally as Hasan Paşa Hanı and Sulu Han.
ODTÜ Bilim ve Teknoloji Müzesi
METU Science and Technology Museum occupies a university setting on the Middle East Technical University campus in Ankara and brings together three distinct exhibition areas: the Science and Technology History Exhibition, the Classical Automobile Exhibition and the Open-Air Exhibition.
Hisar Camii
Hisar Mosque is an active Ottoman mosque in İzmir’s Kemeraltı bazaar, in the Hisarönü area beside Kızlarağası Hanı. İzmir Metropolitan Municipality dates its construction to 1592 and attributes it to Yakup Bey.
Ümran Baradan Oyun ve Oyuncak Müzesi
İzmir Toy Museum is a specialised Konak Municipality collection in Varyant, built around toys gathered by ceramic artist and painter Ümran Baradan.
Feza Gürsey Bilim Merkezi
Feza Gürsey Science Center is an interactive science venue inside Ankara’s Altınpark. Ankara Metropolitan Municipality founded the center on 23 April 1993 to make scientific ideas accessible through hands-on discovery.
İlk Kurşun Anıtı
First Bullet Monument is a memorial in Konak Atatürk Square, where İzmir’s civic history unfolds around the Clock Tower and Konak Government House.
Mazı yeraltı şehri
Mazı Underground City is a historic subterranean settlement in Mazı village, within Ürgüp district of Nevşehir. Mazı’s ancient name was Mataza. The site forms part of Cappadocia’s underground heritage, with living and working spaces carved below ground.
Muğla Müzesi
Muğla Museum occupies a former prison building on Müştak Bey Cad., behind the courthouse in Menteşe.
Saint Polycarpe Kilisesi
Saint Polycarp Church is a Roman Catholic church in Akdeniz Mahallesi, in İzmir’s Konak district.
Karyağdı Hatun Türbesi
The Tomb of Karyağdı Hatun is a small Ottoman funerary monument on Doğan Sokak in Ankara’s Ulus area, close to İtfaiye Meydanı.
Odeon (Konser Salonu)
The Bouleuterion at Ephesus is a compact civic auditorium associated with the city council and also known as the Odeon.
Konak Camii
Konak Mosque, also known as Yalı Mosque, is a small Ottoman-era mosque on Konak Square in central İzmir.
Maltepe Camii
Maltepe Mosque is a functioning place of worship in Maltepe Mahallesi, within Ankara’s Çankaya district. Construction began in 1954 and finished in 1959, while the design adopts the visual language of classical Ottoman mosques.
Çandarlı Kalesi
Çandarlı Castle is a compact fortified landmark in Çandarlı Mahallesi, within İzmir’s Dikili district.
Çakırağa Konağı
Çakırağa Mansion is a preserved historic residence in Birgi Mahallesi, near Ödemiş in İzmir Province, now experienced as a Ministry of Culture and Tourism museum.
Kalabantia is an ancient Lycian coastal settlement and harbour town whose archaeological remains lie around Korsan Koyu on the Teke Peninsula. Its identity comes from the meeting of a maritime settlement, rugged coastal terrain and a historic walking route.
TCDD Genel Müdürlüğü
TCDD General Headquarters Building is the Ankara headquarters of Türkiye's State Railways, at Hipodrom Caddesi beside Ankara railway station in Altındağ. Its identity is tied to railway administration rather than a museum collection or a station's passenger functions.
Milas Müzesi
Milas Museum is a local museum in Milas, Muğla, founded in 1987 and devoted to the archaeological and ethnographic heritage of the surrounding region.
Nevşehir Müzesi
Nevşehir Museum is a Ministry of Culture and Tourism museum whose story began in 1967, when it opened as the Damat İbrahim Paşa Archaeology and Ethnography Museum.
Melike Hatun Camii
Melike Hatun Mosque is a contemporary religious landmark in Ankara’s historic Ulus district, standing at İtfaiye Meydanı on Kosova Caddesi in Anafartalar Mahallesi, Altındağ.
Telandros
Telandrus refers to the ancient settlement associated with Tersane Island, now called Tersane Adası, in Fethiye district of Muğla Province.
Çeşme Müzesi
Çeşme Museum is an archaeological museum inside historic Çeşme Castle in Musalla Mahallesi. The castle is part of the visit, giving the collection a setting of defensive walls and historic rooms rather than a detached modern gallery.
Ankara Vakıf Eserleri Müzesi
Ankara Vakıf Museum is a specialised Ulus collection centred on objects preserved through the charitable foundation tradition known as vakıf. Its displays connect religious practice with the material skills that supported worship, learning and public benefit.
Kuva-yi Milliye ve Cumhuriyet Anıtı
The Kuva-yi Milliye ve Cumhuriyet Anıtı is a 63-metre monument on the southern approach to Manisa, and it is the tallest thing a visitor arriving by road will see.
Başdurak Camii
Başdurak Mosque is a functioning Ottoman-era mosque at the meeting of Anafartalar Caddesi and Kemeraltı 863 Sokak in Konak, İzmir.
THK Havacılık Müzesi ve Paraşüt Kulesi
Ankara Parachute Tower is a 41-metre aviation landmark in Ulus, beside Ankara Sports Hall and close to Gençlik Park. Opened on 28 October 1937, it was designed around parachute training rather than as a conventional monument or lookout.
Bet Israel Sinagogu
Bet Israel Synagogue is an active historic place of worship in Karataş, within Konak, İzmir. Construction began in 1905, and the synagogue opened for worship in 1907.
Nevşehir Kalesi
Nevşehir Castle is a historic defensive landmark in Camicedit, on one of the highest points in Nevşehir. Its compact, cylindrical plan is built from volcanic rock and tuff, materials that connect the structure directly to the region’s distinctive geology.
Hadrian Tapınağı
The Temple of Hadrian is a Roman Imperial monument on Curetes Street inside the Efes Archaeological Site at Selçuk in İzmir. Associated with Emperor Hadrian, it is recognised as one of Ephesus’s representative Roman Imperial buildings.
Atatürk ve Kurtuluş Savaşı Müzesi
The Atatürk and War of Independence Museum is a museum within Anıtkabir, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s memorial complex in Anıttepe, Ankara.
Ahmet Hamdi Akseki Camii
Ahmet Hamdi Akseki Mosque is a contemporary Ankara landmark beside the Presidency of Religious Affairs at the Bilkent junction. Set on Dumlupınar Bulvarı in Üniversiteler Mahallesi, it opened for worship on Friday, 19 April 2013.
Cebeci Asri Mezarlığı
Cebeci Asri Cemetery is a municipal burial ground in Gültepe Mahallesi, within Ankara’s Altındağ district, and it has served the city since 1935.
Tiyatro
Ancient Greek theatre of Pergamon is a Hellenistic hillside auditorium within the Bergama Acropolis archaeological site. Its seating descends directly along the Acropolis slope, making the terrain part of the theatre’s design rather than a backdrop.
Aydınoğlu Mehmet Bey Camii
Birgi Grand Mosque, also known as Aydınoğlu Mehmet Bey Mosque, stands in Birgi in Ödemiş district of İzmir, beside the stream and within the town’s historic settlement.
Karanlık kilise
Dark Church is a Byzantine rock-cut church inside Göreme Open Air Museum on Müze Caddesi in Göreme, Cappadocia. It is a focused interior stop within the larger museum route, not a separate monument in central Nevşehir.
Dombaycıoğlu Hanı
Dombaycıoğlu Han is a former Ottoman caravanserai in the middle of Akhisar's market district, built in 1823 by a local merchant, Dombaycıoğlu Mehmet Ağa, as trade through the town grew.
Hastane Höyüğü
Hastane Höyüğü, the Hospital Mound, is an archaeological tell within the same site area as ancient Thyatira, in Akhisar, Manisa province.
Tiyatro
The Great Theater of Ephesus is a vast ancient performance and civic building positioned where the city’s principal harbour route begins.
Açıksaray is an open-air archaeological site near Gülşehir in Cappadocia, on the Nevşehir–Gülşehir road about 3 km from Gülşehir. Its name, meaning “Open Palace”, describes rooms, halls and other spaces carved into soft volcanic tuff.
Karşıyaka Mezarlığı
Karşıyaka Cemetery is a large municipal burial ground in Ankara, maintained as an active cemetery by Ankara Metropolitan Municipality. Its purpose is grave visitation, remembrance and cemetery administration, so the experience differs fundamentally from a sightseeing attraction.
Estergon Kalesi Türk Kültür Merkezi
Estergon Turkish Cultural Centre is a castle-inspired municipal complex in Güçlükaya, Keçiören, rather than a surviving medieval fortress.
Trayan Tapınağı
The Temple of Trajan occupies the highest terrace of the Pergamon Acropolis on Kale Hill above Bergama, İzmir.
İzmir Tarih ve Sanat Müzesi
Inside İzmir’s Kültürpark at the Montrö Gate in Alsancak, the İzmir Museum of History and Art presents the archaeological and artistic record of İzmir, ancient Smyrna and the wider Aegean setting.
Şaban Ağa Camii
Şaban Ağa Mosque stands in the former Eskihisar village, within Stratonikeia Ancient City in Yatağan district of Muğla Province. Older records identify the building as Tabakhane Mosque.
Hoca Seyfettin Köprüsü
Hoca Seyfettin Bridge is a historic stone crossing in the Gediz River valley, about 13 kilometres north of Kula in Manisa Province.
Ayasolouk
Ayasuluk Citadel occupies the summit of Ayasuluk Hill in Selçuk, where the town’s central heritage landscape rises into a defended archaeological enclosure. Its surviving walls belong to a layered setting associated with Byzantine, Aydınoğlu and Ottoman periods.
Sarıhan Kervansaray
Sarıhan Caravanserai is a Seljuk roadside inn built in 1249 during the reign of Seljuk Sultan Izzeddin Keykavus II.
State Agora
The State Agora of Ephesus is the ancient city’s civic square: an open archaeological space where the surviving footprint and stonework help explain how public life was organised in Ephesus.
Aziz Klemens Kilisesi
St. Clemens Church is an archaeological ruin in Ankara’s Altındağ district, in the Ulus area between Anafartalar Caddesi and Çıkrıkçılar Yokuşu.
Midas'ın Tümülüsü
Tumulus MM is a monumental Phrygian burial mound at ancient Gordion near Yassıhöyük in Ankara Province.
Marmaris Müzesi
Marmaris Museum occupies rooms inside Marmaris Castle in Kaleiçi, the historic quarter behind Marmaris Harbour. The visit combines archaeology with a fortress setting: exhibition spaces, castle masonry, courtyard areas and the old waterfront surroundings form one connected experience.
Ziraat Bankası Müzesi
Ziraat Bank Museum is a compact institutional museum about the history of Turkey’s state banking tradition. It opened in 1981 in the Honor Hall of Ziraat Bank’s Ankara headquarters, presenting the story within the institution’s own historic home.
İstanbul Arkeoloji Müzesi
This is the main building of the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, the oldest purpose-built museum in Turkey and the one the whole complex is named after.
Mehmet Akif Ersoy Evi ve Müzesi
Mehmet Akif Ersoy Museum House is a two-storey wooden Ankara house beside Taceddin Dergâhı in Hamamönü.
Meryem Ana Kilisesi is a former Greek Orthodox church in Zaferiye Mahallesi, central Kula, on Mustafa Sapcı Sokak. Its history is tied to Kula’s Rum community, including the Turkish-speaking Karamanlı population.
Yıldıztepe Şehitliği
Yıldıztepe Military Cemetery is a small memorial site in İskele Mahallesi, within İzmir’s Urla district.
Ulu Camii
The Ulu Camii is the oldest important mosque in Manisa and the one that predates the Ottomans here.
Akkale is the highest bastion of Ankara Castle, at the summit of the fortress above Ankara’s historic Ulus centre. Its identity is architectural and defensive: this is a prominent part of the castle complex, not a separate public museum.
Atatürk Anıtı
Atatürk and the Youth Monument is an open-air work by the sculptor Remzi Savaş, located within Hacettepe University’s Beytepe Campus in Ankara’s Çankaya district. Its approximate position is 39°52′05.1″N, 32°44′10.4″E.
Atatürk Anıtı
Atatürk Monument is a commemorative landmark inside the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (TBMM) campus in Ankara.
Hacıtuğrul Höyüğü is a large archaeological mound in Polatlı district of Ankara Province, also known as Karahöyük and Yenidoğan Höyük.
Hasan Fehmi Ataç Apartmanı
Hasan Fehmi Ataç Apartment is a historic building in Ankara’s Ulus district, at the intersection of Anafartalar Caddesi and Denizciler Caddesi. It belongs to Altındağ district and is associated with the First National Architecture Movement.
İnciraltı Kent Ormanı
İnciraltı City Forest is a broad public green space in Bahçelerarası, Balçova, on İzmir’s coastal side. Visit İzmir describes approximately 620,000 square metres of open area, giving the site a scale closer to a landscape destination than a compact attraction.
Karaoğlan Höyüğü
Karaoğlan Mound is an open-air archaeological settlement in Karaoğlan Mahallesi, within Ankara’s Gölbaşı district, about 25 kilometres south of Ankara.
Yediler Manastırı
Kellibaron Monastery is the site identified in official material as Yediler Monastery, set near Gölyaka village in Bafa Mahallesi, Milas, Muğla. Its character comes from the combination of monastic remains, painted decoration and the Beşparmak, or Latmos, mountain setting.
Kızlarağası Hanı
Kızlarağası Han is an eighteenth-century Ottoman commercial inn in İzmir’s Konak district, embedded in the working lanes of Kemeraltı rather than set apart as a museum.
Gate of Magnesia
Magnesian Gate is the surviving city gate identified within the ancient city of Ephesus at Selçuk.
Myndos Kapısı
Myndos Gate is a surviving western entrance to ancient Halicarnassus, at the western exit of modern Bodrum on the road toward Gümbet. Bodrum Municipality places its construction broadly in the 360s BC, during the rule of Mausolus.
Sığacık Kalesi
Sığacık Castle is a living historic settlement in Sığacık Mahallesi, Seferihisar, İzmir.
Sobesos is an open archaeological site in Şahinefendi village, within Ürgüp district of Nevşehir. Discovered in 2002, it preserves the remains of a small rural town that began in the 4th century CE.
Kemerarası
Termessos Minor is a small archaeological place in Ceylan, within Seydikemer district of Muğla, where surviving remains are encountered in an open landscape rather than inside a museum.
Uçhisar Kalesi
Uçhisar Castle is a massive volcanic tuff formation rising from the centre of Uçhisar village in Cappadocia. It is not a separate masonry building: rooms, tunnels, stairways and lookout spaces were carved directly into the soft rock.
Yumurtatepe Tümülüsü
Yumurtatepe Tumulus is a protected archaeological mound in Ankara’s Yenimahalle district, at the Çiftlik–Demetevler junction. Its identity is tied to an urban landform that survives beside a busy road, rather than to a museum building or reconstructed monument.
Zank Höyük is a substantial archaeological mound near Sarılar in Avanos district, Nevşehir. Rising approximately 29–30 metres and measuring about 300 metres across, it reads as a broad settlement landscape rather than a standing monument.
Muradiye Külliyesi
The Muradiye Külliyesi is the walled compound Sultan Murad III endowed in Manisa, and it is the reason three of the city's sights sit within a few steps of each other.
İvaz Paşa Camii
The İvaz Paşa Camii was built in October 1484 for İvaz Paşa, eight years before the end of the fifteenth century and nearly forty years before the Sultan Mosque.
Afkule Monastery
The Monastery of Afkule is a remote religious ruin above Kayaköy in Fethiye district, reached through woodland rather than by a formal museum entrance.
Alagöz Karargah Müzesi
Alagöz Karargâh Museum is a preserved village headquarters associated with the Battle of Sakarya in 1921.
Bodrum Sualtı Arkeoloji Müzesi
Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology occupies rooms and courtyards inside Bodrum Castle, the historic fortress between the town’s two harbours. Operating since 1964, it is Türkiye’s only museum devoted to underwater archaeology.
Haritacılık Müzesi
Cartography Museum is a second-class military museum housed within the General Directorate of Mapping’s central barracks in Ankara’s Cebeci district. It presents cartography as a practical record of territory, combining surveying instruments, historical maps, relief maps and paintings.
Cin Ali Müzesi
Cin Ali Museum is a specialised children’s literature and literacy museum in Ankara’s Kavaklıdere, at Bülten Sokak No. 32. Its subject is Cin Ali, the reading character created by teacher Rasim Kaygusuz in 1968 and drawn by Selçuk Seğmen.
Fethiye Müzesi
Fethiye Museum is a town-centre museum in Kesikkapı presenting archaeology and ethnography from Fethiye and its surrounding area. Its collection connects local life with the ancient landscapes of Lycia.
Güray Yeraltı Seramik Müzesi
Güray Museum is an underground museum in Avanos, Nevşehir, devoted to ceramic and pottery heritage, archaeological history and modern artistic production. Carved into rock 20 metres below ground, it occupies a 1,600-square-metre underground setting with three principal areas.
Key Museum is a dedicated motoring museum near Torbalı in İzmir, built around historic automobiles, motorcycles, and an extensive collection of scale models.
Etnoğrafya Müzesi
Ortahisar Ethnography Museum presents traditional Cappadocian life through arranged ethnographic scenes and mannequins. Established in 2004 as the area’s first ethnography museum, it gives Ortahisar’s social history a domestic, human scale.
Türk Hamam Müzesi
Turkish Bath Museum occupies the restored Rüstem Paşa Bath in Beypazarı, a sixteenth-century town bath whose original purpose remains visible in its architecture.
Zeki Müren Sanat Müzesi
Zeki Müren Museum occupies the Bodrum house where the celebrated Turkish singer and stage performer lived from 1980 until his death in 1996.
Akhisar Musevi Mezarlığı
This is the burial ground of Akhisar's Jewish community, a Sephardic congregation that at its peak numbered around 400 people and no longer exists in the town.
Çeşnigir Cami
The Çeşnigir Camii of 1474 is one of the oldest mosques in Manisa, built by Çeşnigir Sinan Bey — a man who had been enslaved and was freed by Mehmed II, the sultan who took Constantinople.
Hatuniye Cami
The Hatuniye Camii was built in 1490–91 by Şehzade Şehinşah, a son of Bayezid II, in honour of his mother Hüsnüşah Hatun.
Source: OpenStreetMap contributors, Wikidata ·
Ten to fourteen days allows about four days in İstanbul and at least three around Antalya when coastal archaeology is included. Cappadocia needs its own regional stay, and a one-way coastal route is more workable than returning to the same city each night.
Türkiye's visa position varies by passport and purpose. Verify the rule through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, when eligible, use only the official e-Visa service rather than an intermediary.
İstanbul's two airports and Antalya are the principal gateways for this itinerary. Domestic flights cover long cross-country legs, coaches serve many city pairs, and high-speed rail is most useful on the İstanbul-Ankara axis rather than as a universal substitute.
April to May and September to October are broad choices for combining İstanbul with the Mediterranean coast. Cappadocia nights, inland heat, and Antalya's coastal conditions differ, so confirm weather for each overnight base.
Türkiye uses the Turkish lira (TRY). Keep lira available for smaller transport and market transactions even when cards are accepted, and review the displayed amount in TRY before agreeing to any card conversion.
Dial 112 for emergencies in Türkiye. Electricity is 230 V through Type C and F sockets; tap-water safety is not recorded here, so obtain current local advice at each stop.
