Explore Ancient Anatolia

A Hittite-era dam located in the central Anatolian province of Çorum and believed to be one of the oldest in the world to have survived to date has been restored and is once again serving as a source of irrigation for local residents. The dam, located at the Alacahöyük archaeological site, was built by the Hittites in 1240 B.C.

The Leleges were one of the aboriginal peoples of Greece, the Aegean Sea and southwest Anatolia, who were already to be found there when the Indo-European Hellenes arrived.

The Chora Church (Turkish Kariye Müzesi, Kariye Camii, or Kariye Kilisesi — the Chora Museum, Mosque or Church) is considered to be one of the most beautiful examples of a Byzantine church. The church is situated in the western, Edirnekapı district of Istanbul. In the 16th century, the church was converted into a mosque by the Ottoman rulers, and it became a secularised museum in 1948. The interior of the building is covered with fine mosaics and frescoes.

Ephesus (Greek: Έφεσος, Turkish: Efes) was one of the great cities of the Ionian Greeks in Asia Minor, located in Lydia where the Cayster river flows into the Aegean Sea (in modern day Turkey). It was founded by colonists principally from Athens. The ruins of Ephesus are a major tourist attraction, especially for people travelling to Turkey by cruise ship via the port of Kuşadası.

Bodrum (in Greek, Αλικαρνασσός, formerly Budrum, previously Petronium, originally Halicarnassus) is a Turkish port in Muğla Province. It is on the Bodrum Peninsula, near the northwest entrance to the Gulf of Gökova, and faces the Greek island of Kos. Today, it is a center of tourism and yachting. It is the ancient Halicarnassus of Caria, renowned for the Mausoleum.

Halicarnassus (Ἁλικαρνασσός; modern Bodrum; see also List of traditional Greek place names), an ancient Greek city on the southwest coast of Caria, Asia Minor, on a picturesque, advantageous site on the Ceramic Gulf (Gulf of Cos, Gulf of Gökova). It originally occupied only the small island of Zephyria close to the shore, now occupied by the great castle of St. Peter, built by the Knights of Rhodes in 1404; but in course of time this island was united to the mainland and the city extended so as to incorporate Salmacis, an older town of the Leleges and Carians.

Caria was a region of the Asia Minor situated south of Ionia and west of Phrygia and Lycia. The eponymous inhabitants were known as Carians, and came to Caria before the Greeks. The land was originally called "Phoenicia", because a Phoenician colony settled there in early times. Afterwards it received the name Caria from Kar, a legendary king of the Carians. Independent Caria arose as a "Neo-Hittite" kingdom around the 11th century BC, and was incorporated into the Persian Achaemenid empire as the satrapy in 545 BC. The most important town was Halicarnassus, from where its sovereigns reigned. Other major towns were Heraclea, Antiochia, Myndus, Laodicea, Alinda and Alabanda. The Iliad records that at the time of the Trojan War, the city of Miletus belonged to the Carians, and was allied to the Trojan cause.