Must-see attractions in Thrace & Marmara

  • View of Selimiye mosque in Edirne, Turkey. Unesco heritage site. Famous works of Ottoman architecture. Selimiye Mosque, designed by Mimar Sinan in 1575.

    Selimiye Mosque

    Edirne

    Designed by Ottoman architect Mimar Koca Sinan (1497–1588), whose best-known works adorn İstanbul's skyline, this exquisite World Heritage–listed mosque…

  • Museum of Troy

    Thrace & Marmara

    The Museum of Troy's rust-coloured cube, rising from sunbaked earth, is a spectacular multi-floor showcase of the archeological layers of the historic…

  • Kilitbahir Castle Museum

    Gallipoli Peninsula

    Reopened in 2019 as a museum focussing on Ottoman and maritime history, this sprawling castle was originally built by Mehmet the Conqueror in 1452 and…

  • Roman Theatre, Troy IX, Archaeological site of ancient Troy (UNESCO World Heritage List, 1998), Hisarlik, Turkey

    Ruins of Troy

    Thrace & Marmara

    If you come to Troy expecting a rebuilt ancient city along the lines of Ephesus, you'll be disappointed. The site resembles an overgrown archaeological…

  • Sarayiçi

    Edirne

    It was here, in the 15th century, that Sultan Murat II built the Eski Sarayı (Old Palace). Little remains of this grand structure, which was blown up just…

  • Sancaklar Camii

    Thrace & Marmara

    Cutting-edge architects are rarely given commissions to design religious buildings in modern-day Turkey, and as a result most contemporary mosques are…

  • Kaleiçi

    Edirne

    Roughly translated, kaleiçi means 'inside the castle'. In Edirne it is used to describe the old streets to the south of Talat Paşa Caddesi and west of…

  • Gallipoli Campaign Historic Site

    Gallipoli Peninsula

    Set within the 33,500 hectares of the Gallipoli Peninsula, this historic site protects the cemeteries and battlefields of the Anzac campaign. There are…

  • Sultan Beyazıt II Mosque Complex

    Edirne

    Standing in splendid isolation on the banks of the Tunca River, this complex was commissioned by Sultan Beyazıt II and built between 1484 and 1488. The…

  • Old Mosque

    Edirne

    Though not as prominent on Edirne's skyline as the Selimiye and Üç Şerefeli mosques, the Eski (Old) Mosque is an important landmark in the city and has a…

  • Grand Synagogue of Edirne

    Edirne

    Reopened in 2016 after a 36-year closure and a five-year US$2.5 million restoration project, Edirne's Grand Synagogue is the sole reminder of when a…

  • Çanakkale Epic Promotion Centre

    Gallipoli Peninsula

    If visiting Gallipoli independently, it's a good idea to start your tour at this high-tech museum roughly 1km east of the village of Kabatepe. It…

  • Lone Pine Cemetery

    Gallipoli Peninsula

    Lone Pine is perhaps the most moving of all the Anzac cemeteries. Australian forces captured the Turkish positions here on the afternoon of 6 August 1915…

  • Kaleköy

    Thrace & Marmara

    Perched on the hillside above the harbour at Kaleköy is 'High Kaleköy' (formerly Kastro), a pretty village built around a ruined Genoese fortress…

  • Üç Şerefeli Mosque

    Edirne

    Edirne's merkez (town centre) is visually dominated by this mosque, which was built by order of Sultan Murat II between 1437 and 1447 and has four…

  • Museum of Health

    Edirne

    The extremely beautiful darüşşifa (hospital) and tip medresesi (medical school) in the Sultan Beyazıt II mosque complex now house this museum tracing the…

  • Muradiye Mosque

    Edirne

    Built for Sultan Murat II between 1426 and 1436, this mosque interestingly once housed a Mevlevi (whirling dervish) lodge. The mosque's T-shaped plan has…

  • Dardanelles Straits Naval Command Museum

    Çanakkale

    At the southern end of the kordon (waterfront promenade), a park lies dotted with guns, cannons and military artefacts. Near the park entrance is this…

  • Rákóczi Museum

    Thrace & Marmara

    This house museum is a shrine to Prince Ferenc (Francis) II Rákóczi (1676–1735), who led the first Hungarian uprising against the Habsburgs between 1703…

  • Tepeköy

    Thrace & Marmara

    Great for an island stay, this Greek village surrounded by scree-covered hills offers spectacular views over the countryside. Its stone houses once…

  • Rüstempaşa Cami

    Thrace & Marmara

    Though designed by famous Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan, this mosque is not one of his best works; its visually dominant low roof lacks grace and…

  • Zeytinli

    Thrace & Marmara

    Zeytinli is surrounded by green-grey scree-covered hills, with spectacular views over the countryside. It's an idyllic base for an island stay. Once in…

  • Edirne Turkish & Islamic Art Museum

    Edirne

    The small rooms of the elegant darül Hadis (Hadith school) in the northeastern corner of the Selimiye Mosque's courtyard house an eclectic collection of…

  • Edirne Archaeology & Ethnography Museum

    Edirne

    This museum has two sections: one archaeological and the other ethnographic. Archaeological highlights include Thracian funerary steles featuring horsemen…

  • W Beach

    Gallipoli Peninsula

    Little-visited W Beach, 1.5km west of Seddülbahir, was one of the main British landing beaches. It's famous for the 'six VCs before breakfast', referring…

  • French War Memorial & Cemetery

    Gallipoli Peninsula

    The rarely visited French cemetery is extremely moving, with rows of metal crosses and five white-concrete ossuaries each containing the bones of 3000…

  • Namık Kemal House

    Thrace & Marmara

    A house museum celebrating Tekirdağ's most famous son, Namık Kemal (1840–88). A nationalist poet, journalist and social reformer, Kemal had a strong…

  • Çanakkale'nin Evlatları

    Çanakkale

    Located right on Çanakkale's waterfront, this compact installation combines black and white battle footage and contemporary interviews to tell the story…

  • Trojan Horse

    Çanakkale

    Wolfgang Petersen's 2004 movie Troy had a big impact on the Çanakkale region, including boosting visitor numbers to the archaeological site and endowing…

  • Chunuk Bair New Zealand Cemetery & Memorial

    Gallipoli Peninsula

    Chunuk Bair (Conk Bayiri in Turkish) was the first objective of the Allied landing in April 1915, and is now the site of of this cemetery and memorial,…

  • Nek

    Gallipoli Peninsula

    On the morning of 7 August 1915, the 8th (Victorian) and 10th (Western Australian) Regiments of the third Light Horse Brigade vaulted out of their…

  • Kent Müzesi

    Çanakkale

    The lives of Çanakkale's residents since Ottoman times are the focus of this small museum, which has drawn on oral histories for the content of many of…

  • Kırkpınar Evi

    Edirne

    A dusty shrine to the sport of oil wrestling, the museum in this 19th-century timber house features press clippings, photographs and a few naff mannequins…

  • Selimiye Foundation Museum

    Edirne

    This museum is housed in a handsome building in the Selimye Mosque's külliye (mosque complex; in a medrese in the southeastern corner of the courtyard)…

  • Korfmann Library

    Çanakkale

    Housed in a 19th-century former school in the old town, this library opposite the Tıflı Camii was the bequest of the late Manfred Osman Korfmann (1945…

  • Arcadia Vineyards

    Edirne

    The highly regarded Arcadia Vineyards, an hour's drive southeast of Edirne, is most definitely worth a detour en route to/from İstanbul or the Gallipoli…

  • Eski Bademli

    Thrace & Marmara

    Hilltop Greek village Eski Bademli (Old Bademli) looks down on rather ugly Yeni Bademli (New Bademli) and over the valley to the Aegean. The village has…

  • Suyataği Anıtı

    Gallipoli Peninsula

    Mustafa Kemal, leader of the Ottoman 57th Regiment, spent the night of 9 August here, directing part of the counterattack to the Allied offensive…

  • Çimenlik Kalesi

    Çanakkale

    This compact castle was built by order of Mehmet the Conqueror in 1452, and is now a small military museum containing exhibits on the Gallipoli battles…