🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Aigai Temple of Athena — Manisa Yunt Dağ
Archaic to Roman · Aiolian Greek, Hellenistic Attalid
Yunt Dağ 400-m Aiolian Athena 300 BCE terrace with 3-storey stoa and agora, 12 Aiolian League wool city.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Alabanda Temple of Apollo Isotimos
Hellenistic to Roman · Carian, Hellenistic, Roman
Çine plain 6×12 Ionian Apollo Isotimos 200 BCE with 8 architraved columns, Chrysaoric capital.
🇹🇷 Turkey/Syria · Ancient city
Karkamish (Carchemish) – Hittite–Neo-Hittite Capital on Euphrates Ford
Late Bronze to Neo-Assyrian (c. 1800 BCE – 605 BCE) · Hittite / Mitanni / Neo-Hittite–Aramaean / Assyrian / Babylonian
Euphrates ford harbour capital – quay orthostats 40 m and harbour gate by Euphrates narrows.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Kyme Temple of Apollo — Aliağa Coastal Dune
Archaic to Roman · Aiolian Greek
Aliağa dune harbour Apollo 700 BCE with 600-m mole and 20k theatre, largest Aiolian port (Hesiod origin).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Submerged site
Kekova – Sunken City of Dolichiste (Simena)
Lycian to Byzantine (Hellenistic 4th c. BCE – 7th c. CE) · Lycian / Greek / Roman / Byzantine
Lycian harbour town Dolichiste subsided by 2nd c. earthquakes along 500 m of Kekova Island — sarcophagi awash.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Tilmen Höyük
EB III to Byzantine · Yamhad/Amorite → Hittite → Neo-Assyrian → Byzantine
Old Babylonian Amanus-pass palace-fortress Tilmen with lion gate, archive and Yamhad vassal capital.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Sumatar Harabesi (Soğmatar)
Roman–Syriac (1st–5th century CE) with Bronze/Iron Age antecedents · Harranian Sabian / Edessan Aramaean → Roman / Byzantine
Tektek hilltop Sin-cult oasis with seven baetyl sanctuaries and Syriac rock inscriptions.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Kayalıpınar (ancient Šamuḫa)
Middle Bronze to Iron Age (2000–700 BCE; peak Hittite 1500–1180 BCE) · Hattian → Old Assyrian karum → Hittite → Kaška/Phrygian
Confirmed Šamuḫa on upper Kızılırmak — palace archive and Storm-God cult city of Empire zenith.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Hyllarima Temple of Zeus Hyllos — Kavaklıdere Upland
Classical to Roman · Carian, Hellenistic
850-m Kavaklıdere upland Zeus Hyllos 2nd BCE prostylos with agora odeion, Chrysaoric League pastoral city.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Submerged site
Trapezus – Black Sea Harbour of Trabzon, Pontus
Archaic to Ottoman (631 BCE – 1923 CE) · Ionian Greek / Pontic / Roman / Byzantine / Seljuk
Milesian 756 BCE via Sinope — 180 m eastern mole at −2 m off Trabzon Ortahisar where Xenophon wintered 30 days.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Eskiyapar Höyük
Early Bronze to Iron Age (3000–700 BCE; peak MBA colony and Hittite Empire) · Hattian / Assyrian colony → Old Hittite → Hittite Empire → Phrygian
Alaca plain tell with Assyrian colony, Hittite gold treasure and EB Alaca-culture tombs.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Olba and Diocaesarea (Uzuncaburç)
Hellenistic to Byzantine (c.300 BCE–600 CE) · Seleucid priest-kings → Isaurian → Roman Cilician
Priest-kingdom Olba with colossal Zeus temple (five columns 11 m) and Diocaesarea colonnaded sacred way.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Melid
Chalcolithic–Iron Age (4200–700 BCE), Melid proper c.1100–700 BCE · Late Chalcolithic palace → Neo-Hittite Luwian kingdom of Kammanu/Melid
Neo-Hittite Melid capital (Iron Age successor to Arslantepe palace, UNESCO 1622) on Malatya plain.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Kültepe – Kanesh (Karum Kaneš)
Early to Middle Bronze Age (Assyrian Colony Age) · Anatolian Hattian/ Hittite + Old Assyrian merchants
Double city: 21 m Anatolian upper town Kanesh + lower Karum Assyrian merchant colony (c.2100–1700 BCE) with 23,500 Old Assyrian cuneiform tablets — largest private archive of Bronze Age.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Aphrodisias
Late Bronze Age to Byzantine (c.3000 BCE–12th century CE; peak Julio-Claudian to Severan) · Carian → Hellenistic Greek → Roman → Byzantine
Aphrodite's marble city with 30,000-seat stadium, Tetrapylon and Sebasteion reliefs.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Sagalassos
Hellenistic to Early Byzantine (classical antiquity to c.640 CE earthquake) · Pisidian → Hellenistic → Roman Imperial → Byzantine
Pisidian highland Roman city at 1,600 m with restored Antonine Nymphaeum and cliff theatre.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Sapinuwa (Ortaköy – Ağılönü)
Hittite Empire (Old to New Kingdom) · Hittite (Nesite with Hurrian scribes)
Hittite administrative second capital (c.1600–1180 BCE, peak 1400–1200 BCE) on two hills Ağılönü and Tepelerarası, built by Hatti kings as storehouse/forward capital during Kaskaean wars when Hattusa…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Elaiussa Sebaste
Hellenistic to Byzantine (c.200 BCE–700 CE) · Cappadocian royal → Roman client kingdom
Augustan island-promontory city at Ayaş with hillside theatre, harbour islet and Achilles agora mosaics.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Uşaklı Höyük (candidate Zippalanda)
Early Bronze to Iron Age (3000–600 BCE; Hittite peak 1400–1200 BCE) · Hattian → Hittite → Phrygian
Zippalanda candidate — Hittite storm-god city with palace letters and queen's festival archive.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Harran — City of Sin, Sabians and Beehive Houses
Early Bronze to Medieval Islamic (c.2500 BCE–1271 CE Mongol sack; peak Old Assyrian karum and Sasanian–Umayyad) · Semitic Harranian → Assyrian → Babylonian (Nabonidus) → Parthian/Roman → Arab Sabian–Islamic
Moon-god Ehulhul city of Carrhae — Nabonidus terrace, Crassus battle plain and beehive-house university.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Hüseyindede Tepe
Old Hittite (1700–1500 BCE) · Hattian–Hittite
Old Hittite hill shrine with bull-leaping relief vases linking Anatolia to Aegean iconography.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Sultantepe
Middle Bronze to Neo-Assyrian · Hurrian → Mitanni → Assyrian
Neo-Assyrian library mound Huzirina with 600 tablets outside the gate – scholarly twin to Nineveh.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Beycesultan Höyük
Late Chalcolithic to Middle Bronze to Byzantine · Western Anatolian (Troy I prelude → Hittite Luwian)
Multi-period mega-tell (c.4000 BCE Late Chalcolithic to 1200 BCE Byzantine, peak EBA–MBA) dominating Çivril Plain on Meander headwaters, excavated 1954–59 by Seton Lloyd & James Mellaart then 2007–…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Sarissa (Kuşaklı Höyük)
Hittite Old to Empire · Hittite (upper Kızılırmak frontier)
Highest Hittite frontier city (c.1600–1200 BCE) on 1650 m steppe ridge, holy city of Weather God, planned on grid with dam. Andreas Müller-Karpe (Marburg) excavations (1995–2004) revealed 2.