Turkey has hosted many ancient civilizations and empires for ages. Its heritage can be seen in its many preserved sites that feature on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Some of these locations are well known, yet some remain largely undiscovered.
Here you will find the 18 UNESCO World Heritage sites in Turkey with a brief history.
Aphrodisias
This beautiful city is one of the finest archaeological sites of Anatolia, Turkey. It is located in Aydin near to Geyre village. It’s a site that has been partly excavated with many parts still undiscovered. The name of the city is derived from the goddess of love, Aphrodite and her famous sanctuary can be found here.
Archaeological site of Ani
This is a ruined medieval Armenian city now situated in Turkey’s province of Kars, next to the closed border with Armenia.
All the structures that remain were constructed using local volcanic basalt. The ruins here include a cathedral, six churches, Mosque of Manuchihr, the citadel, the cities walls, a cave village and many other monuments. The name Ani is one of the most popular female names given in Armenia with many songs and poems written about it.
Ani is now a ghost city, uninhabited for over three centuries and marooned inside a Turkish military zone on Turkey’s closed border with the modern Republic of Armenia.
Archaeological Site of Troy
Here you will discover 4000 years of history. This is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world and is located in the Canakkale Province. Here are extensive remains and the most significant demonstration of the first contact between the civilizations of Anatolia and the Mediterranean world. Twenty four excavation campaigns that spread over the last 140 years have revealed many features from all periods of occupation in the citadel and the lower town. Troy is known to have nine archaeological layers where house foundations, theatres, bath houses, a sewage system and various artifacts on different layers. According to the excavations in Troy, the city was founded and devastated several times in its history giving the reasons for many layers.
Bursa and Cumalikizik (birth of the Ottoman Empire)
Cumalikizik is a village in the yildirim district of Bursa Province. Its history goes back to the Ottoman Empire’s foundation period. This location was the first capital of the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century. The famous Cumalikizik houses are made out of wood, adobe and rubble stones. The cobblestone streets are very narrow with no sidewalks. Cumalikizik has become a popular but still unspoilt center for tourists.
City of Safranbolu
Safranbolu is a typical Ottoman city located in the Karabuk and consists of three distinct historic districts, the market place area of the inner city, known as Cukur, the area of Kirankoy, and Baglar, the vineyards. Cukur is located in the lower part of town and has two rivers. In the center is the marketplace, surrounded by houses. The segregation of the city is very typical for Anatolian cities. Kirankoy was a non- muslim district. The houses is here are built of stone which is in contrast to the wooden houses in Cukur which illustrates how the separation of muslim and non- muslim quarters during the Ottoman Period enabled each community to establish settlements according to their own traditions.
Diyarbakir Fortress and Hevsel Gardens
Diyarbakir has many ancient architectural marvels and the city is a treasure trove of history. This cultural landscape was declared a world heritage site in 2015. This site consists of an inner fortress and an outer fortress. The main gates of the fortress are Dag Gate, Urfa Gate, Mardin Gate and Yeni Gate. The walls are from the old Roman city of Amida and were constructed in the mid- fourth century by Constantius. These walls are the widest and longest defensive walls in the world except for the Great Wall of China.
Ephesus
Ephesus is one of the most iconic symbols of Turkey and is also one of the most amazing ancient cities in the world. It is located in Selcuk town in Izmir.
As one of the most important centres of the ancient era, Ephesus has been inhabited approximately for 9000 years throughout the periods of Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Principalities and Ottoman.
This is one of Turkey’s top tourist attractions and is the most important and well preserved ancient cities. The ancient city of Ephesus consists of temples, theatres, libraries, houses and many statues. The magnificent temple of Artemis is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. You can also see a parliament building, baths, city gates, monuments, fountains, public toilets and a brothel. Ephesus is one of the seven Holly Churches mentioned in the bible which is particularly important for faith tourism.
Gobekli Tepe
Located in Sanliufa, this site is said to predate Stonehenge by 6000 years.
Here you will see amazing massive carved stones that are about 11000 years old and crafted and arranged by prehistoric people who did not have any kind of metal tools or even pottery. It is said also that this site holds the world’s oldest temple.
In the 1960’s this site was dismissed as nothing more than an abandoned medieval cemetery. Years later, archaeologists discovered pillars arranged in circles and many stone tools that date back to 9000 B.C.
Goreme National Park and Rock Sites
This national park and rock sites are located in Cappadocia and are an amazing landscape and completely sculpted by erosion. The Goreme valley and its surroundings contain rock sanctuaries that have evidence of Byzantine art in the post- Iconoclastic period.
You can explore dwellings, troglodyte villages and hidden underground towns which remain from traditional human habitat dating back to the 4th century.
Great Mosque and Hospital of Divrigi
This complex was built 1228-1229 by the local dynasty of the Mengujekids and is located in Divrigi in the province of Sivas. The building comprises of a mosque which is adjoined to a hospital. It features spectacular stone carving designs. A very interesting feature is that the entrances to the mosque have dimensional ornaments that create a giant shadow of a praying man that changes pose as the sun moves.
The exquisite carvings and architecture of both buildings place them amongst the most important works of architecture in Anatolia, which is why they were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985.
Hattusha- the Hittite Capital
Hattusha was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age and was added to the World Heritage list in 1986. It is located near modern Bogazkale, within the great loop of the Kizil River in Corum.
The site was discovered in 1834 but not comprehensively excavated until 1906. It consists of two sites, the lower City and the Upper City. The great temple is the main cult building of the city and due to its two cult rooms this temple is believed to have been devoted to the Storm God and Arinna’s Sun Goddess which were the greatest gods of the Empire. Today, Hattusha is an open-air archaeological museum and offers visitors a chance to see the history of the Hittitie civilization.
Hierapolis
Hierapolis is an exceptional example of a Greco- roman thermal installation made on a completely natural site. It’s located in Pamukkale in the province of Denizli. Here you can see not only the amazing Cotton Castle of calcite- laden waters in terraced basins but also remains of the Greco- Roman period baths, temple ruins, a monumental arch, a nymphaeum, a necropolis and a theatre. Hierapolis has several churches that became important religious centers for the Eastern Roman Empire.
Historic areas of Istanbul
Located on the Bosphorus peninsula between the Balkans and Anatolia, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, Istanbul was the capital of the Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire. The historic areas of Istanbul include monuments recognized as unique architectural masterpieces of Byzantine and Ottoman periods such as Hagia Sophia and the Suleymaniye Mosque complex. Istanbul bears unique testimony to the Byzantine and Ottoman civilizations through its large number of high quality examples of a great range of building types. They include fortifications, churches, palaces, monumental cisterns, tombs, mosques and bath buildings.
Nemrut Dag
Nemrut Dag is one of the highest peaks of the Taurus Mountain range in Adiyaman. It is the Hierotheseion temple- tomb and house of the gods.
You can see five huge limestone statues facing outwards on the higher level, quardian statues of a lion and eagle and alters. There are also sculptures of Antiochos’ paternal Persian ancestors and and to the other side Macedonian ancestors. On the north side the terrace is long, narrow and rectangular in shape and has a series of pedestals.
Neolithic Site of Catalhoyuk
This site is located near to the modern city of Konya in south central Turkey. It was inhabited 9000 years ago by about 8000 people who lived together in a large town. It is not the oldest or the largest site of the Neolithic era but it is extremely important to the beginning of art.
Catalkoyuk had no streets or paths because the houses were built directly next to each other and the people who lived in them would travel over the rooftops.
Art is everywhere among the remains of Catalhoyuk, geometric designs as well as representations of animals and people. The volume and variety of art is immense and has to be understood as a vital and functional part of the everyday lives of its ancient inhabitants.
Pergamon and its Multi layered landscape
This site is diverse and large and has multi layered belonging to the Hellenisitc, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods.
It is located near Izmir. It became the capital of the new kingdom of Pergamon in 281 BC. The ancient Pergamon settlement is at the top of Kale Hill and represents the outstanding example of urban planning of the Hellenistic period with its monumental architecture. The areas, inscribed on the World Heritage List as a cultural landscape consist of nine components, Pergamon City, Kybele Sanctuary, Ilyas Tepe, Yigma Tepe, Ikili Tumuli, Tavsan Tepe, X Tepe, A Tepe and Maltepe Tumulus. It was added to the World Heritage List in 2014.
Selimiye Mosque
This mosque is located in the Edirne Province and was built by Ottoman architect Sinan in the 16th century. It is also considered his finest work.
The square mosque has a single great dome and four slender minarets. It dominates the skyline of the former Ottoman capital of Edirne. The complex includes Islamic schools, a market, a clock house, an outer courtyard and a library.
Xanthos- Letoon
Xanthos, which was the capital of Lycia, dates back to 3000 BC and was one of the most prominent religious centers at ancient times. Letoon and Xanthos were placed on the World Heritage List in 1988.
The archaeological value of Xanthos and Letoon make them very important parts of global heritage. The sires are about 4km apart and they include the stone inscriptions on which the longest and the most important scripts in Lycian language are written.
The sanctuary of Letoon was discovered in 1840 with a 36 row theatre, a basilica, inscription tablets, three temples, a round portico attached to the cult building of the empire and an L shaped stoa. Letoon’s twins, Apollo and Artemis, were deities, and were honored, like their mother, with a temple each. The largest temple is devoted to the mother of Artemis and Apollo and is called the Leto Temple.