Top Attractions in Turkey

• TOP ATTRACTIONS IN TURKEY

  
  
  

  HAGIA SOPHIA

  Hagia Sophia was, for approximately a thousand years, the largest church in Christendom. Built by the ruler Justinian in the 6th century, it's one of the few constructions of its age, size, and grandeur to last today. Its giant dome shelters many historical artworks, from Byzantine mosaics to Islamic calligraphy.

• TOPKAPI PALACE

  Topkapı Palace was the residence of the Ottoman sultans and the center of the empire. It's green yards once buzzed with the comings and goings of soldiers, eunuchs, diplomats, and pashas, though in the private chambers of the Harem, dribbling with lovely blue tiles, the sultan's women planned to bring a son to the throne. Once storerooms overflow with gigantic diamonds, gold thrones, and the holiest relics of Islam.

• BASILICA CISTERN

  Dark basements with severe damp problems aren't usually tourist attractions unless they happen to be reminiscent Byzantine cisterns, held up by ancient columns that were shown in water teeming with fish. Built 1,500 years ago as part of a system to protect the city's water supply by siege and drought, Yerebatan Sarnici is a quiet, surreal escape from the heat of an Istanbul summer
  
  

• THE BLUE MOSQUE

  Elegant, watering curves and a central place make the Blue Mosque (aka Sultan Ahmet Camii) the most popular mosque in Istanbul. Inside is a magnificent coating of blue İznik tiles, which gives it its nickname.

• EPHESUS

  Ephesus was the center of Asia Minor and archaeologists have unveiled a treasure trove of ancient streets once roamed by Alexander the Great and St. Paul. The houses, temples, theaters, toilets, even a brothel, and the columned facade of the Library of Celsus are in remarkably good condition.

• GÖREME OPEN-AIR MUSEUM

  The unusual lunar scenery of Cappadocia is riddled with Byzantine churches cut from the rock in the Middle Ages, many painted with beautiful frescoes. The most popular and easily available place to visit is the number of churches and homes known as the Göreme Open-Air Museum.

• MT. NEMRUT

  Atop a lonely mountain facing the Euphrates, this ancient church to the insanity of one man is an excellent archaeological site. The oversize tops of King Antiochus and a pantheon of gods dirty the ground beside an enormous burial mound.

• OLYMPOS

  These jungle-entangled remains in a valley by one of the Mediterranean's most stunning beaches are faced by the real eternal flame of the Chimaera. Few places connect so many of Turkey's many attractions as does Olympos.

• PAMUKKALE

  Stunning white travertine pools of water waterfall down a hillside in the hinterland of the Aegean coast: this unusual rock formation was created over eons by mineral-rich water and has brought tourists for millennia though the rock pools are smaller, and not as natural as they once were.