There are 19 cultural heritage sites and 2 mixed heritage sites. Mixed heritage sites contain elements of both natural and cultural significance.

If you enjoy visiting cultural and historic sites, here’s part one of two articles that may help you to choose the ones for your next trip to Türkiye.

Sites on the World Heritage List (Cultural)

Afrodisias (Aphrodisias)

Located in Southwestern Türkiye, some two and a half hours’ drive inland from Kuşadaşı, the archaeological site at Afrodisias is one of Türkiye’s finest. Because of its isolated position, so much of the site still survives and you can get a very real sense of the grandeur and extent of the ancient city.

The temple of Aphrodite dates from the 3rd century BC and the city was built one century later. The wealth of Aphrodisias came from the marble quarries and the art produced by its sculptors. The city streets are arranged around several large civic structures, which include temples, a theatre, an agora and two bath complexes. Afrodisias was added to the World Heritage List on Sunday 9th July 2017.

Archaeological Site of Ani

Registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the Ani archaeological site, also known as the “city of a thousand and one churches”, attracts tourists all year round. The ancient city, which houses Islamic architectural works of the 11th and 12th centuries, was added to the World Heritage List on July 15, 2016. 

Click on the link below to read our previous article about Ani.

Archaeological Site of Troy

One of the most important ancient settlements in the world, located at the top of Hisarlık hill about 30 kilometres south of Çanakkale, the history of Troy city dates back to five thousand years ago.

Homer’s work regarded as the origin of European literature was based on the city, which was included in UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List in 1998.

Arslantepe Mound

Arslantepe, an archaeological site in Malatya, Türkiye dating back to the 6th millennium BCE, boasts an adobe palace and the earliest swords in the world.

The archaeological mound in southeastern Türkiye was chosen for UNESCO’s World Heritage List on July 26, 2021. 

Arslantepe Mound (meaning “Lion Hill” in Turkish), is a 30-metre-tall archaeological tell located in the Malatya plain, 12 km southwest of the Euphrates River. Archaeological evidence from the site testifies to its occupation from at least the 6th millennium BCE up until the late Roman period. 

Arslantepe Mound had been on UNESCO’s World Heritage Tentative List since 2014, and it is one of Türkiye’s earliest religious and civil sites. The mound is thought to date back 8,000 years. Archaeological evidence from the site testifies to its occupation from at least the 6th millennium BCE up until the late Roman period.

The mound has been home to many civilisations over centuries. UNESCO details them as “The earliest layers of the Early Uruk period are characterized by adobe houses from the first half of the 4th millennium BCE. The most prominent and flourishing period of the site was in the Late Chalcolithic period, during which the so-called palace complex was constructed. 

Bursa and Cumalıkızık: the Birth of the Ottoman Empire

Perched on the wooded northern slopes of Uludağ, Bursa was the first capital city of the Ottoman Empire and, in a real sense, the birthplace of modern Turkish culture.

The site illustrates the creation of an urban and rural system establishing the Ottoman Empire in the early 14th century. Cumalıkızık is a village in the Yıldırım district of Bursa Province, located 10 kilometres east of the city of Bursa, at the foot of Mount Uludağ. Its history goes back to the Ottoman Empire’s foundation period. Bursa and Cumalıkızk were added to the World Heritage List in 2014.

City of Safranbolu

Safranbolu is a town in the Black Sea region of northern Türkiye, once a stop on the trade route between Europe and the Orient.

Its Ottoman architecture includes the old Çarşı district, with hundreds of preserved, red-roofed Ottoman houses on cobblestone streets. Cinci Han is a 17th-century caravansary with rooftop views over the town. Nearby, Tarihi Cinci Hamam is a restored 17th-century bathhouse, still in operation. Safranbolu was added to the World Heritage List in 1994.

Diyarbakır Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape

Located on an escarpment of the Upper Tigris River Basin that is part of the so-called Fertile Crescent, the fortified city of Diyarbakır and the landscape around has been an important centre since the Hellenistic period, through the Roman, Sassanid, Byzantine, Islamic and Ottoman times to the present.

The site encompasses the Inner castle, known as İçkale and including the Amida Mound, and the 5.8 km-long city walls of Diyarbakır with their numerous towers, gates, buttresses, and 63 inscriptions. The site also includes the Hevsel Gardens, a green link between the city and the Tigris that supplied the city with food and water, the Anzele water source and the Ten-Eyed Bridge. Diyarbakır Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape were added to the World Heritage List in 2015.

Ephesus

Famous throughout history for its Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, this great and sacred city lay in ruins until the early 20th century.

Now it is one of the most extensive archaeological sites in the world. Ephesus was added to the World Heritage List in 2015.

Click on the link below to read our previous article about Ephesus.

Göbekli Tepe

Göbekli Tepe, which means Potbelly Hill in Turkish, dates back nearly 12,000 years and is considered one of the world’s oldest temples, featuring massive carved stones and T-shaped pillars that predate the invention of agriculture. 

Göbekli Tepe was added to the World Heritage List in 2018.

Gordion

The archaeological site of Gordion ranks as one of the most important historical centres in the ancient Near East. Gordion lies approximately ninety kilometres south-west of Ankara in central Türkiye, at the intersection of the great empires to the east (Assyrians, Babylonians, Hittites) and the west (Greeks, Romans). Consequently, it occupied a strategic position on nearly all trade routes that linked the Aegean and Mediterranean seas with the Near East. Gordion is an outstanding archaeological site for understanding the Phrygian civilisation and its achievements. The buildings of its Early Phrygian citadel, and the burial mounds of the city’s rulers, constitute the exceptional exemplars of monumental architecture in the Iron Age Near East.

Gordion was added to the World Heritage List in 2023

Sources: UNESCO/Wikipedia/Featured image courtesy of National Geographic

This post was first published on 9 December 2021 and updated on 14 November 2023

The post UNESCO World Heritage sites in Türkiye – part one appeared first on Fethiye Times.

Walk through the preserved streets and explore the opulent houses of Ephesus, the most visited attraction in Turkey…

Once through the security checkpoints on the road to Ephesus, the first sight of the ancient city isn’t that salubrious. If you’ve heard tell of the famed ancient city – once second only in size to Rome – you may expect something grander than a tumbledown stone gateway. It’s impressive in size, admittedly, but still, a lonely sentinel surrounded by olive groves and farmland.

Emperors, warriors, Christian saints, barbarian hordes, Crusaders, Alexander the Great, Anthony and Cleopatra and even Mary, mother of Jesus, may have passed through those portals at one time or another.

Ephesus today

Today, the grey stone buttress stands silent and remote, screening what little is left of the city within which is reported to have once housed a quarter of a million people (although more modern scholars estimate it was a quarter of that).

As you pull up outside the main gates, there’s still little clue as to what lies behind the modern turnstiles which now allow access to the site which was once one of the Seven Wonders of The Ancient World.

Where once guards may have manned their posts, stalls and shops now sell fridge magnets and all the usual tourist trinkets. While it might be a good idea to buy a hat in the fierce heat of summer, there’s little else here.

A fascinating and complex tale

Once through the gates though, a fascinating, enthralling and complex tale slowly unravels of a city which can trace its history back 6,000 years, encompassing the rise and fall of the Greek, Roman, Byzantium and Ottoman empires, enduring invasions and countless wars, witnessing periods of prosperity, sack and pillage until finally succumbing – not to some feted general, warlord, emperor or caliph but to the power of nature which turned the harbour to a swamp, choking off access to the outside world.

Much of that story is told in silence, written on plinths adjacent to the notable ruins. However, it’s also possible to hire audio equipment with headsets which help visitors understand what lies before them – or at least what once did.

Knowledgeable and well-rehearsed guides – each with their own style – can also be hired to recount highlights of Ephesus’s complex and chequered past, telling tales of murder and intrigue, regime change and politics, laced with details of how citizens actually lived.

Highlights of any visit are bound to include the celebrated Library of Celsus, a 25,000-seat amphitheatre – thought to be the largest in the ancient world – and the huge gate built in honour of Augustus Caesar.

But, like many historical sites, there are stories linked to the small detail – the Christian fish symbol etched into paving stones, others said to highlight discreetly where ‘ladies of the night’ could be found, remains of bathhouses and public latrines where occupants would happily sit side-by-side and chat, and tombs to gladiators who fought and died for public entertainment.

In the brochures and on the tour websites, Ephesus is billed as a spot to check off your travel list and, until recently at least, its proximity to the coast and the cruise ships’ moorings meant many visitors rushed through to meet tight deadlines.

But, if you can find the time – and if you can endure or (even better) avoid the heat of high summer – this is a place which deserves more than a couple of hours. After all, it’s taken 6,000 years for Ephesus to become the place it is today.

Come early, sit awhile and take in some of the history soaked into the tumbled pillars, columns and rocks and there’s a good chance you’ll come away with a bit more than a fridge magnet.

Getting there

The best way to see Ephesus from Fethiye is probably on an organised tour, available from most local travel agents although independent travel by road is not difficult. Travel time by coach or car is approximately three hours, allowing time for comfort breaks, although some tours will take a little longer if lunch or a breakfast stop is included.

There is an admission charge with some exhibits – such as the House of Mary, The Basilica of St John and the terraced houses – subject to an additional charge. We would suggest allowing a minimum of two hours to see the main attractions but a whole morning or afternoon would be sufficient to take in all the sights and do a little shopping.

A trip to Ephesus can also be combined with a visit to the volcanic terraces at Pamukkale, another of Turkey’s amazing wonders worth a day’s visit in itself.

Photographs by Steve Parsley.

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