Places vasconcelloscynthia Wants to Go

One of the earliest Ataturk monuments commemorates the victory of the Turkish War of Independence.

This eatery re-creates dishes from the Ottoman Empire so you can dine like a sultan.

Housed in an old British jail, this spot serves up Georgian, Russian, and Ukrainian specialities with a side of Turkish history.

Unfinished monument to peace between Turkey and Armenia, long divided by a dispute over genocide.

This harrowing memorial remembers a murdered investigative journalist.

A prison-turned-museum sheds light on modern Turkish history.

A museum celebrating the mineral used to make ornate, carved tobacco pipes.

A unique and controversial artifact of the early Turkish Republic.

This 13th-century UNESCO-listed "lion's house" mosque is named after a repurposed lion sculpture.

A rare group of seven-century-old mummies preserved in astonishing detail.

A collection of over 700 chess sets in a beautiful historic building.

Resting place and mausoleum of the founder and first president of Turkey.

A monument to the Turkish librarian who delivered books on the back of a donkey.

The oldest known standing wooden building in the world is a chamber inside a burial mound.

This 3,000-year-old “opium black fortress” towers over the ancient town named after it.

Hundreds of medieval Islamic gravestones decorate the mountainous landscape in the largest cemetery in Turkey.

This large Roman bath complex offers a window into ancient life in the arid Central Anatolian steppe.

An Ottoman-era mosque looking over the Black Sea.

This elevator was built in 1907 to connect two neighborhoods separated by a steep, rocky cliff.

A former salt mine is now a cool picnic spot for families and asthmatics.

This Ottoman bridge is a rare covered bridge with shops, and considers itself the only bazaar bridge in the world.

Feast on the freshest of fish by the Bosphorus.

A small mountain at the crossroads of Turkey, Iraq, and Syria that some believe was the landing point of Noah's Ark.

A little-known caravanserai hidden among farmhouses in the Turkish countryside.