Explore Turkey
Archaeology
Ancient cities, Roman spa towns and cities dug underground: the archaeology you can walk through in Turkey.
Photo: Saffron Blaze / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Cities that ruled the Aegean and the Lycian coast, and what still stands of them.
Theaters, temples and libraries of the Greek and Roman world, along the Aegean and the Lycian coast.
Under the villages of Cappadocia, families carved whole towns into the soft rock. Two of them are open to visitors.
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Archaeology
Turkey has more ancient sites than anyone can see in a lifetime. Here, archaeology is not behind glass. You walk on Roman paving stones, sit in theaters and climb down into cities carved under villages.
Ephesus is the classic first visit. Its marble streets run past the Library of Celsus to a theater for 25,000 people. Inland, Hierapolis was a Roman spa city on top of the white terraces of Pamukkale. Its necropolis is longer than most towns. On the Lycian coast, Patara keeps the assembly hall where the Lycian League met.
Cappadocia adds a different kind of archaeology. Families carved whole refuges into the soft rock, and Derinkuyu goes down about 85 meters (279 feet). Its neighbor, Kaymaklı, is wider and shallower, so you can see both in a day.
Most sites are run by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, so we plan your visits on the current hours and ticket rules of the official museum portal. Our pages add the stories, the best routes through each site and the time of day with the softest light.
