Ephesus
Selçuk, Turkey
Ephesus is the best-preserved Graeco-Roman city on the Aegean coast of Turkey, 3 km from the town of Selcuk.
263 tickets & tours
Country
Best ancient sites in Turkey
10 ancient sites in Turkey, ranked by why it makes the list from the catalogue data. Each page tells you what to see, which ticket or tour to book and when to go.
| # | Site | Country | Why it makes the list |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ephesus | Turkey | The best-preserved Graeco-Roman city of the Aegean, with a marble street running down to the Library of Celsus and the painted terrace houses. |
| 2 | Aphrodisias | Turkey | The city of the marble sculptors, with one of the best-preserved stadiums of the ancient world, the Tetrapylon gate and a museum of reliefs. |
| 3 | Aspendos | Turkey | The best-preserved Roman theatre in the world, its stage building standing to full height and its seating complete for about seven thousand people. |
| 4 | Hierapolis and Pamukkale | Turkey | A Roman spa city above the white travertine terraces of Pamukkale, with a great theatre, a vast necropolis and a warm pool full of fallen columns. |
| 5 | Gobekli Tepe | Turkey | Rings of T-shaped limestone pillars carved with foxes, boars and vultures around 9500 BC, thousands of years before Stonehenge or the pyramids. |
| 6 | Mount Nemrut | Turkey | Colossal stone heads of gods and King Antiochus I of Commagene on a 2,150-metre summit, best reached for sunrise or sunset. |
| 7 | Pergamon Acropolis | Turkey | The hilltop capital of the Attalid kings above Bergama, with one of the steepest theatres in the Greek world and the marble Trajaneum. |
| 8 | Termessos | Turkey | A Pisidian mountain city in pine forest north-west of Antalya, whose theatre at about a thousand metres looks across the Taurus ranges. |
| 9 | Sagalassos | Turkey | A Greek and Roman city on mountain terraces above 1,400 metres, with a restored monumental fountain still running and very few visitors. |
| 10 | Ani | Turkey | The ruined capital of medieval Armenia on a windswept plateau by the border gorge, with its cathedral and churches standing amid empty grassland. |
Aphrodisias
Karacasu, Turkey
Aphrodisias is the ancient city of Aphrodite in the hills of Caria, western Turkey, famous across the Roman world for…
1 ticket or tour
Aspendos
Serik, Turkey
Aspendos, 45 km east of Antalya, has the best-preserved Roman theatre in the world, built around AD 155 by the local…
21 tickets & tours
Hierapolis and Pamukkale
Pamukkale, Turkey
Hierapolis is a Roman spa city built on top of the white travertine terraces of Pamukkale in south-western Turkey,…
194 tickets & tours
Gobekli Tepe
Şanlıurfa, Turkey
Gobekli Tepe is a Stone Age hilltop site near Sanliurfa in south-eastern Turkey, where people raised rings of carved…
8 tickets & tours
Mount Nemrut
Kahta, Turkey
Mount Nemrut is a 2,150-metre summit in south-eastern Turkey crowned by the tomb sanctuary of King Antiochus I of…
15 tickets & tours
Pergamon Acropolis
Bergama, Turkey
The Pergamon Acropolis is the hilltop capital of the Attalid kings, rising 335 metres above modern Bergama in western…
9 tickets & tours
Termessos
Antalya, Turkey
Termessos is a Pisidian mountain city at about 1,000 metres on the slopes of Gulluk Dagi, north-west of Antalya, so…
3 tickets & tours
Sagalassos
Ağlasun, Turkey
Sagalassos is a Greek and Roman city spread over mountain terraces between 1,400 and 1,700 metres in the Taurus range,…
No online ticket
Ani
Kars, Turkey
Ani is the ruined capital of medieval Armenia, spread across 250 hectares of a windswept plateau on the Turkish side of…
1 ticket or tour