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
By civilisation
Greek ruins and sites to visit
Greek here spans the Aegean world from the Minoan palaces of Crete, begun around 1900 BC, and the Mycenaean citadels of the Bronze Age, through the Classical city-states, to the Hellenistic kingdoms after Alexander. Expect sanctuaries with temples and treasuries, theatres cut into hillsides, agoras, stadiums and royal tombs. Many cities, above all in Turkey, were rebuilt under Rome, so a Greek theatre and a Roman colonnaded street often share one site.
Roman Sites 105Egyptian Sites 15Near Eastern Sites 25Maya Sites 34Mesoamerican Sites 16Andean Sites 33Prehistoric Sites 35Asian Sites 13Other Ancient Sites 15
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
Acropolis of Athens
Athens, Greece
The Acropolis of Athens is the limestone hill above the city crowned by the Parthenon, the marble temple of Athena…
114 tickets & tours
Knossos
Heraklion, Greece
Knossos is the largest Minoan palace on Crete, 5 km south of Heraklion, built from about 1900 BC on a hill that had…
111 tickets & tours
Ancient Olympia
Olympia, Greece
Ancient Olympia is the sanctuary of Zeus in the western Peloponnese where the Olympic Games were held every four years…
89 tickets & tours
Mycenae
Mykines, Greece
Mycenae is the hilltop citadel of the Bronze Age kings who dominated Greece around 1350 BC and gave their name to…
57 tickets & tours
Theatre of Epidaurus
Epidavros, Greece
The Theatre of Epidaurus is the best-preserved theatre of ancient Greece, built in the late 4th century BC inside the…
40 tickets & tours
Ancient Corinth
Corinth, Greece
Ancient Corinth is the excavated centre of one of the richest cities of ancient Greece, sacked by Rome in 146 BC and…
39 tickets & tours
Delos
Delos, Greece
Delos is the small island off Mykonos that the Greeks held sacred as the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, and its…
35 tickets & tours
Butrint
Sarandë, Albania
Butrint is an ancient port city on a wooded peninsula in southern Albania, near the Greek border, where Greek, Roman,…
34 tickets & tours
Troy
Çanakkale, Turkey
Troy is the mound of Hisarlik near the Dardanelles, where nine cities were built one on top of another from about 3000…
24 tickets & tours
Myra
Demre, Turkey
Myra is the ancient Lycian city on the edge of modern Demre, where a cliff face is carved with dozens of rock-cut tombs…
23 tickets & tours
Akrotiri
Santorini, Greece
Akrotiri is the Bronze Age town on the south coast of Santorini that the great Theran eruption buried in volcanic ash…
18 tickets & tours
Perge
Aksu, Turkey
Perge is an ancient Greek and Roman city on the plain 15 km east of Antalya, once one of the great cities of Pamphylia.
12 tickets & tours
Salamis
Famagusta, Cyprus
Salamis, on the east coast of Cyprus 6 km north of Famagusta, was the island's leading city-kingdom for more than…
12 tickets & tours
Tlos
Fethiye, Turkey
Tlos is one of the oldest cities of ancient Lycia, set on a rocky spur above the Xanthos valley about 40 km east of…
12 tickets & tours
Aigai (Vergina) Royal Tombs
Vergina, Greece
Aigai, at the village of Vergina in northern Greece, was the first capital of the kings of Macedon and the place where…
10 tickets & tours
Side Ancient City
Side, Turkey
Side is a Greek and Roman port on a small peninsula of the Turkish Mediterranean coast, 78 km east of Antalya, where…
10 tickets & tours
Kourion
Episkopi, Cyprus
Kourion is an ancient Greek and Roman city on a cliff 100 metres above the sea near Limassol, on the south coast of…
9 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
Selge
Manavgat, Turkey
Selge is a ruined Pisidian city high in the Taurus Mountains above the Koprulu Canyon, about 60 km inland from Manavgat…
9 tickets & tours
Pella
Pella, Greece
Pella was the capital of ancient Macedon and the birthplace of Philip II and Alexander the Great, 40 km west of…
8 tickets & tours
Phaistos
Faistos, Greece
Phaistos is the second great Minoan palace of Crete, set on a ridge above the Messara plain 62 km south of Heraklion.
8 tickets & tours
Philippi
Kavala, Greece
Philippi is the ancient city founded by Philip II of Macedon in 356 BC on the Via Egnatia, 15 km north-west of Kavala…
8 tickets & tours
Of the catalogue’s 63 Greek sites, 31 are in Greece and 21 in Turkey, with four in Albania, three each in Cyprus and Sicily and one in North Macedonia. In Greece they cluster around Athens, in the Peloponnese (Mycenae, Epidaurus, Olympia and Corinth make a classic loop), in Macedonia, on Crete and in the Dodecanese; in Turkey along the Aegean around Selçuk and the coast from Fethiye to Antalya. Spring and autumn spare you the summer heat.
Begin with the Acropolis of Athens, early in the day, for the Parthenon and the Erechtheion. Ephesus has the finest ancient street, with the Library of Celsus and the painted Terrace Houses. Epidaurus is the best-preserved Greek theatre, Olympia the sanctuary of the Games, and Mycenae the Lion Gate of the Bronze Age kings. Delos, an island city reached by boat from Mykonos, and Aphrodisias, with its marble stadium, are far quieter.