🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient village
Aşağı Pınar
Early Neolithic to Chalcolithic (6200–4800 BCE) · Fikirtepe → Karanovo I–III / Starčevo
Thracian tell bridging Anatolian Neolithic to Balkans (Karanovo sequence).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Tilbeşar Lower Town
Early Bronze to Crusader (3000 BCE–1300 CE) · Syrian EBA → Hittite → Neo-Assyrian → Crusader County of Edessa
Tilbeşar Lower Town sprawls below the 15-m fortress mound of Turbessel — Crusader capital of the County of Edessa.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Sirkeli Höyük
Chalcolithic through Byzantine; Hittite–Syro-Hittite peak · Cilician EBA → Hittite Empire (Kizzuwatna/Que) → Syro-Hittite Que
Cilician bend tell with Hittite imperial rock relief of Muwatalli II opposite mound — Chalcolithic to Syro-Hittite harbour town on Ceyhan.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Çavuştepe
Urartian Kingdom late 8th century BCE · Urartian (Biainili)
Twin-ridge Urartian palatial city of Sarduri II with Haldi temple and 5 km Urartian canal.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Oymaağaç Höyük (ancient Nerik)
Early Bronze to Iron Age (3000–600 BCE; peak Hittite Empire 1400–1180 BCE) · Hattian → Hittite → Kaška → Phrygian
Holy city Nerik — storm-god temple over sacred spring tunnel, lost to Kaška then re-excavated.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Uşaklı Höyük
MBA → LBA Hittite → Iron → Byzantine (2000 BCE–1400 CE) · Hittite (Kizzuwatna?) → Phrygian → Byzantine
Hittite Zippalanda candidate (LB) — 10 ha lower town, monumental Temple B with tablet, Florentine project.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient village
Pınarbaşı Höyük
Epipalaeolithic to Early Ceramic Neolithic · Central Anatolian Epipalaeolithic → Neolithic
Spring-side rockshelter and village where Epipalaeolithic to PPN aDNA links to Boncuklu and Çatalhöyük.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Xanthos-Letoon
Bronze Age to Byzantine (peak Classical Lycian 6th–4th c. BCE and Roman) · Lycian (Anatolian Indo-European) → Persian satrapy → Hellenistic → Roman
Lycian capital Xanthos and marsh sanctuary Letoon — trilingual stele solved Lycian.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Perge
Late Bronze Age to Late Antiquity (peak Hellenistic–Severan) · Hittite Anatolian → Pamphylian Greek → Roman
Pamphylian canal-avenue Hellenistic city with twin gate-towers and huge stadium.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Zincirli
Iron Age (c.1000–676 BCE) plus Bronze substrate · Aramaean–Neo-Hittite Samʾal
Iron Age Samʾal 40 ha triple-walled (Kuttamuwa Stele, lion orthostats) in Islahiye valley.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Ayanis
Late Urartian Kingdom (early 7th century BCE) · Urartian (Biainili) late imperial
Rusa II's earthquake-collapsed Haldi temple-fortress with 4,000 bronze votives frozen mid-repair.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Alacahöyük
Chalcolithic to Phrygian (c.4500–700 BCE; peak EB III and Hittite Empire) · Hattian → Hittite (Nesite) → Phrygian
Hattian–Hittite fortified city with Sphinx Gate and Early Bronze royal tombs rich in solar-disk bronzes.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Çadır Höyük
Chalcolithic to Byzantine (5200 BCE–1200 CE; peak Hittite and Phrygian) · Central Anatolian Chalcolithic → Hattian → Hittite → Phrygian → Roman
Yozgat tell with 5200 BCE-to-Byzantine sequence bridging central plateau and Hittite north.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Patara
Bronze Age to Byzantine (peak Lycian League 168 BCE–43 CE and Hadrianic) · Lycian → Hellenistic → Roman → Byzantine
Lycian federal port with 1st-century parliament hall, buried Nero lighthouse and harbour silted 1 km inland.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Aspendos
Bronze Age to Byzantine (peak Antonine 2nd century CE) · Pamphylian Greek → Hellenistic → Roman → Byzantine → Seljuk
Pamphylian city with the world's most intact 15,000-seat Roman theatre (155 CE) and inverted-siphon aqueduct.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Van Fortress and Tushpa — Capital of Urartu
Urartian Kingdom (9th–6th century BCE; later Urartian–Median–Achaemenid–Ottoman) · Urartian (Biainili) → Median → Achaemenid → Ottoman
Urartu's 100 m limestone citadel over Lake Van with royal rock-tombs and Xerxes trilingual.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Aşıklı Höyük
Aceramic Neolithic (PPNB equivalent) · Central Anatolian Neolithic
Pre-Pottery Neolithic tell (c.8200–7400 BCE) on the Melendiz in Cappadocia, earliest village with brain surgery (trepanation) and animal pen dung layers showing caprine management toward…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Archaeological wonder
Gordion – Phrygian Capital
Early Phrygian Iron Age (~1200–700 BCE; Midas tumulus ~740 BCE) · Phrygian (Balkan–Anatolian)
Phrygian capital at the Sangarius bend where Rodney Young's Penn excavations revealed a burnt 800 BCE citadel with polished pebble mosaics – the oldest known – and the great Tumulus MM: 53-m high and…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient village
Tepecik-Çiftlik Höyük
Aceramic Neolithic to Late Neolithic–Early Chalcolithic · Central Anatolian (Aşıklı → Çatalhöyük related)
Major Aceramic to Chalcolithic tell (c.7500–5500 BCE) on Çiftlik Plain at Göllü Dağ obsidian source — Cappadocian Neolith obsidian factory.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Carchemish Outer Town
Neo-Hittite Iron I–II (1200–717 BCE) over Late Bronze · Neo-Hittite / Aramaean
Carchemish Outer Town in Gaziantep Province, Euphrates ford, Turkey is a Neo-Hittite Iron I–II (1200–717 BCE) over Late Bronze ancient city attributed to Neo-Hittite / Aramaean.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Tilmen Höyük (Tilmen Hoyuk)
EBA through Iron Age; MBA peak · Yamhad (Aleppo) vassal; Syro-Hittite → Assyrian
MBA palace city (Zalwar?) with basalt lion gate, cuneiform archive and planned lower town — Yamhad-period vassal capital in Islahiye corridor.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Kovuklukaya Höyük
Chalcolithic–Late Bronze (4500–1200 BCE) · North-Central Anatolian
Chalcolithic–Late Bronze (4500–1200 BCE) North-Central Anatolian tell at Sinop Province, Black Sea – fortified citadel controlling black sea–central anatolia route (dims Mound 20 m high, fortified plateau 1 ha).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Oracle of Claros
Hellenistic to Late Roman ~300 BCE–395 CE · Greek (Colophonian) then Roman Ionian
Underground water-oracle of Apollo where prophet drank sacred pool to versify prophecies.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Kazane Höyük
Early Bronze–Iron (2600–600 BCE) · Hurrian – Aramaean (Harran)
Early Bronze–Iron (2600–600 BCE) Hurrian – Aramaean (Harran) tell at Şanlıurfa Province, Harran Plain – 22-m tell controlling harran plain, cargo from carchemish (dims 22 m high, 1 km² lower town, EB palace).