High in the Western Taurus Mountains of southwestern Turkey, ancient Sagalassos clings dramatically to a series of terraces overlooking the valleys and distant peaks of Pisidia. At around 1,450 to 1,700 metres above sea level, it is one of the most spectacularly situated ancient cities in the Mediterranean world. Mountains rise behind its ruined streets,…
Few ancient cities possess the scale, beauty, and extraordinary depth of history found at Ephesus. Once standing beside a magnificent natural harbour on the Aegean coast of western Anatolia, the city grew from ancient Anatolian settlements and an Ionian Greek colony into one of the great cultural, religious, and commercial centres of the Mediterranean world….
Set within a fertile valley of southwestern Turkey, the ancient city of Aphrodisias is one of the most rewarding and atmospheric Greco-Roman archaeological sites in Anatolia. Situated near the modern village of Geyre in Aydın Province, Aphrodisias was neither a great imperial capital nor an important military stronghold. Yet through its devotion to a goddess…
Built across a succession of terraces on a steep mountainside, Arykanda occupies one of the most splendid settings of any ancient city in Lycia. The ruins rise above a deep valley in the mountains of present-day Antalya Province in southern Turkey, around 25 kilometres inland from the Mediterranean coast. Forested slopes surround the site, while…
Cappadocia is one of those rare places where the landscape seems to belong partly to nature and partly to imagination. Set high on the plateau of Central Anatolia in Turkey, its valleys are filled with extraordinary pillars, cones, and strangely sculpted formations known as fairy chimneys. Cliffs rise above twisting ravines, settlements disappear into the…
A City Beneath the Mountain Some ancient cities announce themselves long before you reach them. Pinara does almost the opposite. Hidden among the pine-covered foothills of Mount Cragus, today associated with Babadag in south-western Turkey, its ruins appear gradually through the landscape. Stone walls emerge between trees, paths disappear into vegetation, and fragments of buildings…