Travel guide
Featured on September 22, 2026
In 1453, Mehmed II dragged ships overland into the Golden Horn.
Places
Take the ferry between Eminönü, Beşiktaş and Kadıköy, then walk the old peninsula and Beyoğlu. The city makes sense from the water: palace walls, mosque domes, tanker traffic, fishermen and tea sellers.
Tip: Give it several days; ferries are cheap and often faster than taxis.
Walk the tuff valleys, step into cave churches with Byzantine frescoes, and descend into underground refuges cut from soft volcanic rock. The landscape explains the architecture better than any museum label can.
Tip: Stay overnight; sunrise is the moment, even if you skip the balloon.
Go for the scale of a Roman city you can still read street by street: the Library of Celsus façade, the theatre, marble roads and terrace houses. It feels less like scattered ruins than a whole civic plan left on the ground.
Tip: Arrive at opening time or late afternoon to miss the worst heat and bus crowds.
Climb for the toppled stone heads and the first light on an ancient royal tomb sanctuary high above Commagene. The point is the strange mix of Greek and Persian imagery on one exposed summit.
Tip: Sleep nearby and go before dawn; the summit is colder and windier than it looks.
Base yourself here for clear-water swims, diving, boat trips to coves and the short hop to the sunken ruins around Kekova. By evening, the harbor fills with divers, families and long outdoor dinners.
Tip: Best in late spring or early autumn, when the water is warm and the town is less crowded.
Eat
A ring of yeasted bread, brushed for color and baked with a thick coat of sesame seeds until the crust crackles.
Where: From ferry piers, street carts and neighborhood fırın in the morning, usually with tea.
Tiny dumplings stuffed with minced meat, boiled, then covered with yogurt, garlic and melted butter with pepper.
Where: At mantı houses in Kayseri or family-run lokanta inland.
Hand-minced lamb with tail fat and red pepper, pressed onto a wide skewer and grilled over charcoal.
Where: At an ocakbaşı, especially in Adana or in kebabçı districts of big cities.
Thin layers of filo wrapped around pistachios or walnuts, baked, then soaked with syrup.
Where: In Gaziantep at a baklavacı after lunch or mid-afternoon, when the trays are fresh.
Story
On the Galata Bridge at dawn, tea steam mixes with diesel and salt while men fish above the Bosphorus. In Gaziantep, the street smells of pistachio, butter and lamb fat long before lunch. Then a call to prayer rolls over Cappadocia just as the first balloons lift and the rock valleys go pink.
On a ridge near Şanlıurfa, builders raised the T-shaped pillars of Göbekli Tepe and carved foxes, snakes and cranes into them. No king signed the work. Later came Hittites, Greeks, Romans and Byzantines. In 330, Constantine rededicated Byzantium as Constantinople and fixed the Bosphorus at the center of an empire.
In 1453, Mehmed II faced the chain across the Golden Horn. He had ships hauled over greased timbers behind Galata and lowered them into the harbor inside the defenses. Weeks later, Constantinople fell. The Ottoman court, markets and mosques remade it into an imperial capital.
In Ankara in 1928, Mustafa Kemal stood at a blackboard and wrote the new Latin letters. Teachers copied them. Shop signs changed. The steppe capital became the workshop of a republic, and the argument over what that republic should be still fills tea houses, television studios and election rallies.
Say hello
Merhaba
Hello
Say: MEHR-hah-bah
Teşekkür ederim
Thank you
Say: teh-shehk-KOOR eh-deh-REEM
Kolay gelsin
May your work go smoothly
Say: ko-LIE gel-SEEN
Elinize sağlık
That was delicious; literally, health to your hands
Say: eh-lee-NEE-ze sah-LUK
Hesap, lütfen
The bill, please
Say: heh-SAP, LOOT-fen
Surprises
Alexander Hamilton cited the Lycian League on the southwest coast in Federalist No. 9. He used it as an example of how a union of cities could share power without collapsing into one center.
One of the earliest known peace treaties survives from Anatolia. Hittite copies of the Treaty of Kadesh with Egypt were found at Hattusa, the Hittite capital.
“Veni, vidi, vici” was written after a battle in Anatolia. Julius Caesar used the phrase after defeating Pharnaces II at Zela, now Zile.
Quiz
Which town in today’s Türkiye gave its name to the Nicene Creed?
The creed is named for Nicaea, the ancient name of İznik. The First Council of Nicaea met there in 325, and its statement of belief travelled far beyond the town itself.
3 days
Day 1
Morning in Sultanahmet and the Basilica Cistern, afternoon ferry from Eminönü to Kadıköy, evening meze in Beyoğlu.
Day 2
Early flight to Kayseri or Nevşehir, morning at Göreme Open Air Museum, afternoon walk in Rose Valley, evening sunset from Uçhisar Castle.
Day 3
Dawn at a balloon launch in Love Valley, late morning at Derinkuyu Underground City, afternoon in Ürgüp before flying back.
At a glance
At a glance
Member of
Listen
The song of the day
Memleketim
Ayten Alpman
Its chorus turns homesickness and attachment to place into a singalong almost everyone knows.
Play a 30-second preview30-second clip via Apple Music
Before you go, watch or read
Kar
Book
Orhan Pamuk uses snowbound Kars to open up the country’s arguments about faith, power, class and the pull between center and edge.
Entry requirements
Türkiye entry requirements by passport: of 197 passports, 98 can enter without a visa, 8 get a visa on arrival, 77 apply online before they travel and 14 need a visa from an embassy or consulate.
Find your passport for the documents, the cost and how long you can stay.
Safety
Due to terrorism and arbitrary detentions
US State Dept, updated November 5, 2025. Advisories change: check your own government's travel advice before you go.
From the community
🇹🇷 Today's country is Türkiye. In 1453, Mehmed II dragged ships overland into the Golden Horn. On the Galata Bridge at dawn, tea steam mixes with diesel and salt while men fish above the Bosphorus. In Gaziantep, the street smells of pistachio, butter and lamb fat long before lunch. Then a call to prayer rolls over Cappadocia just as the first balloons lift and the rock valleys go pink. 📍 Places to visit • Istanbul — Take the ferry between Eminönü, Beşiktaş and Kadıköy, then walk the old…
Questions
At a glance
A red flag with a white crescent and star, symbols associated with Islam and Turkish identity.
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