Eastern Mediterranean
This incomparable museum contains one of the world's finest collections of Roman and Byzantine mosaics, covering a period from the 1st century AD to the…
Must-see attractions in Eastern Mediterranean
Eastern Mediterranean
Near Narlıkuyu, a road winds north for 2km to several caves – sinkholes carved out by a subterranean river and places of great mythological significance…
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Karatepe-Aslantaş Open-Air Museum
Eastern Mediterranean
Archaeology buffs should make a beeline for the Karatepe-Aslantaş Open-Air Museum, within the national park of the same name. The ruins date from the 8th…
Alanya
Surmounting Alanya's rocky peninsula is its awesome, Seljuk-era castle, girdled by 6km of walls and awaiting Unesco World Heritage listing. Climb to it…
Eastern Mediterranean
Rising from an island 250m offshore, impossibly romantic Kızkalesi Castle (also called the Sea Castle) is like a suspended dream. Check out the mosaics of…
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Eastern Mediterranean
Anemurium's sprawling and eerily quiet ruins stretch for 500m down to a pebble beach, with mammoth city walls scaling the mountainside above. From the…
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Eastern Mediterranean
Tentatively listed for World Heritage status, this remarkable monastery perches on a terraced slope high above the Göksu Valley, northwest of Silifke…
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Eastern Mediterranean
Amid the scant ruins of Seleuceia in Pieria at Çevlik, 5km northwest of Samandağ, is this this astonishing feat of Roman engineering. From the ticket…
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Eastern Mediterranean
Yılankale, an impressive castle rising boldly from a rocky ridge in the middle of modern-day corn fields, is a fantastic example of medieval Armenian…
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Eastern Mediterranean
About 8.5km northeast of Kızkalesi at Kumkuyu is the 33-54, the road leading 3km to the ruins of Kanlıdivane, the ancient city of Kanytelis.
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Eastern Mediterranean
Don't miss the opportunity to visit this often overlooked ancient port city in Rough Cilicia, which was settled in the 7th century BC but abandoned in the…
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Eastern Mediterranean
The most imposing mosque in Adana is the six-minaret Sabancı Merkez Camii, rising gracefully from the left bank of the Seyhan River. The largest mosque…
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Eastern Mediterranean
Ancient Silifke's necropolis, alongside busy İnönü Bulvarı, has been fenced off so all you can do is peek between the railings at the rather sad ruins of…
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Eastern Mediterranean
This tremendous castle, with its crenellated walls, 36 towers and part of its moat still intact, is the biggest and best-preserved fortification on the…
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Eastern Mediterranean
The remnants of Roman Diocaesarea sit within the village of Uzuncaburç, 30km northeast of Silifke. Originally this was the Hellenistic city of Olba, home…
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Eastern Mediterranean
The remains of the 6th-century Monastery of St Simeon sit atop a 480m-high mountain 20km southwest of Antakya on the road to Samandağ. The cross-shaped…
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Eastern Mediterranean
The compact Old City lies between Adana Bulvarı and Hal Caddesi. It includes a wonderful 60m-long stretch of Roman road and a labyrinth of alleyways…
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Eastern Mediterranean
Now housed in an enormous purpose-built complex on the site of a former textile factory about 4km west of the centre, Turkey's largest museum might also…
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Eastern Mediterranean
This early Christian church cut into the slopes of Mt Haç (or Staurin, the 'Mountain of the Cross') is thought to be the earliest place where the newly…
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Eastern Mediterranean
Tricky to get to, but well worth the effort, is Adamkayalar (Men Rock Cliff), 17 Roman-era reliefs carved on a cliff face about 8km north of Kızkalesi…
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Eastern Mediterranean
This Christian site is dedicated to St Thecla, one of St Paul's early devotees. Thecla is said to have spent her later years here trying to convert the…
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Eastern Mediterranean
This purpose-built museum, which opened in 2017, is one of the best in provincial Turkey and will help you to put much of what you've seen along the coast…
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Alanya
As you walk up to Alanya Castle, the road passes a turn-off for the village of Ehmedek, which was the Turkish quarter during Ottoman and Seljuk times…
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Eastern Mediterranean
Towering above the surrounding plains, stunning Kozan Castle stretches some 900m along a narrow ridge. It was built by Armenian King Leo I in the late…
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Eastern Mediterranean
At the northern end of Kızkalesi beach, Corycus Castle (sometimes called the 'Land Castle') was rebuilt with Roman material by the Byzantines, briefly…
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Eastern Mediterranean
Some 4km northeast of Kızkalesi and just off the D400 are the extensive remains of ancient Elaiussa Sebaste, a city dating back to the early Roman period…
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Alanya
Refurbished in 2012, Alanya's small but excellently curated museum is worth a visit to see artefacts, including tools, jugs, jewellery, letters and coins,…
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Alanya
A wooden walkway runs south along the old harbour's east wall from the Red Tower to the Tersane, the only Seljuk-built shipyard remaining in Turkey…
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Eastern Mediterranean
The squiggle of lanes between Kurtuluş Caddesi and Hürriyet Caddesi is an atmospheric huddle of Antakya's remaining old houses, with carved lintels,…
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Eastern Mediterranean
This excellent museum fills a restored colonial mansion with an interesting showcase of Turkish naval history, along with a room dedicated to covering the…
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Eastern Mediterranean
This Byzantine hilltop fortress, with its moat, two dozen towers and vaulted underground chambers, was once Silifke's command centre. It was originally…
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Eastern Mediterranean
This partially restored han (caravanserai) on the Aalara River was built by Seljuk Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I (who also built Alanya Castle) in 1231 to…
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Eastern Mediterranean
The beautiful early 16th-century Ulu Cami is reminiscent of the Mamluk mosques of Cairo, with black-and-white banded marble and elaborate window surrounds…
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Alanya
This striking five-storey octagonal defence tower, measuring nearly 30m in diameter, more than 30m in height and with a central cistern within for water…
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Eastern Mediterranean
While it may not sound like much of a crowd-pleaser, this museum near the landmark Muğdat Mosque has some fine exhibits (both display case and multimedia…
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Eastern Mediterranean
Around 500m west of the main entrance to the Caves of Heaven and Hell is Asthma Cave (Astim Mağarası), which supposedly relieves sufferers of the…
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Eastern Mediterranean
Tekir Ambarı (literally `Striped Granary') is actually an ancient water cistern (su sarnıcı) carved from rock, which can be entered via a spiral staircase…
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Eastern Mediterranean
This picturesque gorge, with its lovely waterfall and smooth stone walls, 45km southeast of Alanya, makes for a great day trip. Access through the canyon…
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Eastern Mediterranean
To the east of Silifke's centre, on the main road heading to Taşucu, this local museum showcases Roman figurines – one in impressive full uniform – and…
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Eastern Mediterranean
South of the Old City, what is also called the St Paul Memorial Museum (St Paul Anıt Müzesi) was originally built in 1850 as a Greek Orthodox church to…
