Turkey

Istanbul – City of Seven Hills worth walking up and down.

Istanbul European Side

First Theodosian Wall at Golden Horn crossing between Europe and Asia, 4th century CE, Constantinople.

Hagia Sophia: church 5th century, mosque 6th century, museum 20th century, mosque again 21st century.

Medusa head holding up pilar at Basilica Cistern. Site of filtered water for 6th century CE Constantinople.

Istanbul’s archaeology museum, a throw-back in time. Like digging in the Raiders of the Lost Ark archives-tombs everywhere in the basement.

Istanbul’s 19th century CE Orient Express train station is still there.

Side door to 17th century CE spice market.

Back entrance to 15th century CE Grand Bazaar.

Best mosque to visit. 16th century CE Suleymaniye Mosque, built on the 3rd Hill next to the Sultan’s tomb.

Taking selfies outside Suleymaniye Mosque. Charming girls.

4th century CE Eastern Orthodox Chora Church, unlike other Christian depictions of Christ’s life.

17th Century CE, St. George’s Eastern Orthodox Church. Worth the hike up the hill.

Drying goat hides in the side yard, along the waterfront just down from St. Georges.

Constantinian Wall, built during the Byzantine Empire (14th-15th centuries CE), near 7th hill.

Looking at Asia Minor from atop Constantinian Wall on the European side of Istanbul.

Istanbul Asia Minor Side

View from Asia to European side with Galata Bridge crossing the Golden Horn.

19th century CE Pera Palace, where Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express.

Traditional Turkish instruments. Eat, drink, and be merry in Istanbul.

North Aegean – Izmir

Pergamon, Temple of Tragen outside Izmir. Not on the beaten path. A bit of a drive.

Processional colonnade at Pergamon. The biggest city in the region during the 2nd century BCE.

SOUTH AEGEAN – EPHESUS, DIDYMA, BODRUM, AND FETHIYE

Ephesus, 10th century BCE, once the most important Greek City in Ionian Asia Minor.

Restoration work inside the homes at Ephesus.

Ephesus’s Tomb of St. John. Like Knights of Templar, St. John Knights of Hospitaller, 14th century CE, crusaded against Muslims.

Ephesus, an ancient port city along the Silk Road, died once its harbor silted up.

Didyma Temple of Apollo, 5th century BCE. Worth a short stop.

15th century CE, Castle of Bodrum, a medieval fortress that housed the Knights of St. Johns

Bodrum harbor today. Jumping off point to visit ruins along the Aegean Sea.

12th century BCE ruins from the Lycian City of Pinara, near Fethiye.

Monolithic tombs, honeycombed in cliffs outside Fethiye.

HIKING THE LYCIAN WAY

Following the map in Kate Clow’s, The Lycian Way, Turkey’s First Long Distance Walking Trail, we covered only a portion of the -550 km hike.

Beautiful views of bays along the Aegean Sea during the day. You can camp or glamp at night.

Red markers on rocks are not always there. Use mapsme or a satellite-based GPS so you don’t get lost.

Letoon, 1st century BCE religious-cult city near Xanthos.

The sunken city of Kekova, near Kas, was destroyed by an earthquake, 2nd century CE. Not much to see.

Myra, 5th century BCE cave community, near modern Kale, Demre.

TURQUOISE COAST – Antalya Province

Antalya coast, once clustered with ports serving the Silk Road, is now filled with resorts.

The Museum of Antalya is worth the visit.

Aspendos Roman amphitheater, 2nd century CE.

Basilica at Aspendos. A short drive from Antalya.

SOUTHEASTERN ANATOLIA

We were going to fly into Diyarbakir to visit the Coptic churches in the areas around Batman, Midyat, and Mardin, but tensions at the Syrian border got out of control so we changed our flight to Malatya. Upon landing in Malatya, I noticed all the fighter planes on the tarmac but figured they were part of the Turkish military. The next day we drove down to a place outside Mt. Nemrut. At midnight I heard the rumble of planes overhead. The next day we learned of the bombings in Syria. That’s when the great exodus from Syria began.