🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Xanthos — Nereid Monument Terrace
Archaic Lycian (550–500 BCE) to Byzantine · Lycian (Xanthian dynasts) → Persian
Kınık Lycia excavated by Demargne 1950–, Harpy Tomb reliefs (British Museum) and bilingual Lycian-Greek stele.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Megalith
Göbekli Tepe — Enclosure F Twin Pillars
Pre-Pottery Neolithic (9600–8200 BCE) · PPN hunter-gatherer (Göbeklian)
Germuş hill excavated by Schmidt 1995–, 20 enclosures with T-pillars and animal reliefs,intentionally backfilled 8200 BCE.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Stratonikeia Hekate Temple — Lagina Sanctuary of Hekate
Hellenistic to Roman (200 BCE – 250 CE) · Seleucid foundation to Rhodian to Roman Karian
Largest Hekate temple 8×11 with Gigantomachy frieze linked via 9 km Sacred Way to city.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Teos Theatre Terrace — Dionysus Sanctuary Overlook
Hellenistic to Roman (300 BCE – 300 CE) · Ionian Teian with Hellenistic king patronage
Upper terrace of Technitai Dionysus sanctuary above theatre and harbour.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Ephesus Arsinoeion-Octagon — Sanctuary Terrace of Arsinoe
Hellenistic to Roman (288 BCE – 262 CE) · Ptolemaic to Roman Ephesian
Curetes terrace with 36 m Arsinoeion rotunda and Octagon princess tomb.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Didyma Eastern Temenos — Apollo Temple Sacred Precinct
Archaic to Roman (600 BCE – 250 CE) · Milesian Greek to Hellenistic Seleucid to Roman
Eastern hypaethral adyton with sacred spring and stadium of Branchidae oracle.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Harran — First Islamic University Excavation Trench
Eblaite to Ottoman; University 8th–12th c. CE · Umayyad / Abbasid (Harran School)
Plain city excavated by Lloyd & Brice 1951–56 and recent Harran University, birthplace of al-Battani, Sabian moon temple underlying.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Pergamon Trajan Temple — Upper Acropolis Traianeum Sanctuary
Hellenistic Attalid to Roman Hadrianic (300 BCE – 130 CE) · Attalid Pergamene to Roman Asia provincial
Upper terrace Trajan–Hadrian Corinthian sanctuary behind Zeus altar.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Priene Bouleuterion Temple — Athena Precinct Council Sanctuary
Hellenistic (350–150 BCE) with Roman annex · Milesian-Ionian Prieneans under Alexander patron
Council sanctuary with 640-seat Bouleuterion and Augustus calendar stoa 40 m from Athena temple.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Knidos Apollo Temple — Datça Peninsula Karne Island Sanctuary
Archaic Dorian to Hellenistic (600 BCE – 100 BCE) · Dorian Knidians with Triopian league
Apollo Karneios doric 6×11 on double-harbour terrace of Triopian Dorian expansion city.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Ani
Bagratuni Armenian Kingdom · Armenian
Medieval Armenian capital (961–1045) at peak 100,000 inhabitants, Bagratuni palaces, Cathedral of Ani (1001), Tigran Honents church with frescoes, double city walls.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Aphrodisias
Late Bronze Age to Byzantine (c.3000 BCE–12th century CE; peak Julio-Claudian to Severan) · Carian → Hellenistic Greek → Roman → Byzantine
Aphrodite's marble city with 30,000-seat stadium, Tetrapylon and Sebasteion reliefs.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Arslantepe (Malatya)
Late Chalcolithic to Neo-Hittite (5000 BCE–700 BCE; palace phase 3400–3000 BCE; Neo-Hittite 1200–712 BCE) · Late Chalcolithic / Kura-Araxes / Hittite / Neo-Hittite
Tell city type site for emergence of state and palace economy (3400–3000 BCE): Late Chalcolithic palace (Room A 900) with wall paintings, storerooms with mass-produced bowls, sword hoard (earliest…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Underground city
Derinkuyu Underground City
Byzantine (with Hittite/Phrygian antecedents debated) · Byzantine Cappadocian / earlier Phrygian/Hittite use
Deepest excavated underground city in Cappadocia, connected to Kaymaklı and 200+ subterranean complexes via 8 km tunnel. Rolling stone doors 500 kg, ventilation shafts, chapels, wineries.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient village
Dervish Chatal
Chalcolithic · Chalcolithic Anatolia
Duplicate for completeness – see Çatalhöyük main entry; West Mound Chalcolithic extension (6000–5600 BCE).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Gordion
EB to Medieval (c.3000 BCE–1200 CE; peak Phrygia 900–600 BCE) · Hittite → Phrygian (Midas) → Persian → Galatian → Roman
Gordion is the Phrygian capital (Yassıhöyük) — Midas's city (Midas Mound tumulus 53 m), terraced citadel with Phrygian Gate (Ashlar), and 100-tumulus necropolis...
🇹🇷 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 · Temple complex
Hagia Sophia
Late Antiquity / Byzantine 532–537 CE, Ottoman additions 1453– · Byzantine Greek to Ottoman Islamic
Justinian's 537 CE dome on pendentives – seminal Byzantine basilica-monsoon turned mosque.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Hattusa
Hittite Empire (Middle Bronze Age to Late Bronze) · Hittite
Capital of Hittite Empire (1600–1180 BCE) with double walls 8 km, Lion Gate, Sphinx Gate, Great Temple and rock sanctuary Yazılıkaya with 90+ reliefs of gods. Archives of 30,000 cuneiform tablets.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Rock-cut
Kahta — Arsameia at Nymphaios Dexiosis Relief
Commagene (80–50 BCE Antiochus I) · Commagene Greek-Persian syncretism
Arsameia excavated by Dörner & Young 1935–64, inscription records founding by Arsames c.230 BCE and Antiochus reshaping.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Underground city
Kaymaklı Underground City
Hittite to Byzantine · Phrygian / Byzantine
Second major Cappadocian underground city, 8 levels open to tourists, rolling doors, stables, wine storage, connected to Derinkuyu via tunnel.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Magnesia Stadium-Gymnasium — Artemis Leukophryene Athletic Annex
Hellenistic to Roman (220 BCE – 300 CE) · Ionian Magnesians under Hermogenes
190 m stadium and palaestra 500 m east of Leukophryene Artemis temple.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Mount Nemrut (Nemrut Dağı)
Hellenistic Commagene (c.62 BCE under Antiochos I Theos) · Commagenian (Armenian/Greek/Persian syncretic) Hellenistic
Hierotheseion (tomb-sanctuary) of Antiochos I of Commagene (69–34 BCE), Nemrut Dağı tops 2,150 m peak with 50 m tumulus of crushed rock surrounded by three terraces bearing 8–10 m colossal seated…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Notion Necropolis-Agora — Apollo Claros Necropolis Grid
Archaic to Roman (700 BCE – 300 CE) · Aeolian to Ionian Notians
Necropolis-agora with painted tombs and Apollo sacred way 600 m from temple.