Again, we arrived in the night at the Anemurium’s sprawling and eerily quiet ruins, the gate was closed, so we parked at the nearby wild pebble beach with crystal clear waters. Founded by the Phoenicians in the 4th century BC, Anemurium suffered several devastating setbacks...
During our visit, the main road leading to ancient Sagalassos was closed to place new tarmac. So, after some negotiations, we hired a local minibus to the site (60 TRY / one-way). The ancient city (🎫25 TRY) was founded on the south-facing slopes of the Taurus Mountain range and was the...
Antalya, a city, and the Mediterranean Sea port in southwestern Turkey, is situated on the Gulf of Antalya. Ancient Greek Attalia was founded as a seaport in the 2nd century BC by Attalus II Philadelphus, a king of Pergamum. It was bequeathed to the Romans by his successor, Attalus III...
Lycia, an ancient maritime district of southwestern Anatolia, lay along the Mediterranean coast between Caria and Pamphylia and extended inland to the ridge of the Taurus Mountains. In Egyptian, Hittite, and Ugaritic records of the 14th and 13th centuries BC, the Lycians are described as...
It was an ancient Phrygian city in southwestern Turkey, about 10 kilometers north of the ruins of Laodicea (🎫 200 TRY). Situated on the Coruh River, a tributary of the Buyuk Menderes River, it was probably established by Eumenes II of Pergamum in 190 BC. It became a sacred city, its chief...
We spent a few hours discovering the lost ruins of Aphrodisias (🎫 70 TRY). This remote site in the Anatolian hinterland trumps many of Turkey’s ancient sites for its sheer scale and lushness. It was an ancient city situated on a plateau south of the Maeander River. Sulla and Julius...
Once we arrived at Lake Bafa in southwestern Turkey, we realized that the lake faces ecological catastrophe due to untreated industrial wastewater coming from factories in Muğla’s Bafa. However, We did not come for beach holidays, but to explore the village and nearby ruins of Herakleia...
It was an ancient sanctuary and seat of an oracle of Apollo. Before being plundered and burned by the Persians (494 BC), the sanctuary was in the charge of the Branchids, a priestly caste named after Branchus, a favorite youth of Apollo. The astonishing temple (🎫 50 TRY) was once the...
Miletus was an ancient Greek city in western Anatolia near the mouth of the Büyükmenderes River. Its mixed Hellenistic-Roman ruins are impressive (🎫 50 TRY). Before 500 BC, Miletus was the greatest Greek city in the east. It was the natural outlet for products from the interior of...
Another stop we made at the ancient city of Priene located 10 kilometers north of the Menderes River and 16 kilometers inland from the Aegean Sea, in southwestern Turkey (🎫 20 TRY). Its well-preserved remains are a major source of information about ancient Greek town planning. Priene...