Section iii · The Cities

The cities of Anatolia

Every one of Türkiye's 81 provinces, grouped by region — and a thematic shelf for the great ancient archaeological sites. Live essays are linked; the rest are forthcoming.

No provinces match that search.

Marmara & Aegean

19 provinces

The metropolitan northwest, the Trakya wheat plain, and the Aegean coast from the Dardanelles down to the Menderes valley — the early Ottoman capitals, the great archaeological coast, and Türkiye's industrial and cultural heartland.

İstanbulUNESCO15.7M
The city on two continents — Byzantion, Constantinople, and the 1453 conquest.
BursaUNESCO
The first Ottoman capital beneath Uludağ — Orhan Gazi's 1326 conquest.
EdirneUNESCO
The Ottoman second capital — Mimar Sinan's Selimiye Camii (1569–75).
ÇanakkaleUNESCO
Troy at Hisarlık, the Dardanelles, and 18 March 1915.
Kocaeli
Diocletian's Nicomedia and the modern Marmara metropolis of 2.13 million.
Sakarya
The Sangarius valley and the 1921 Battle of the Sakarya.
Tekirdağ
Greek Bisanthe, the 1357 Ottoman conquest, and the rakı capital.
Kırklareli
The Trakya frontier — Byzantine Saranta Ekklesies, Murad I's 1363 conquest.
Bilecik
Where the Ottoman state was founded — Osman Gazi's 1299 conquest.
Balıkesir
Karesi country — Pergamon's hinterland and the Edremit olive coast.
Yalova
The small Marmara province on the Gulf of İzmit.
İzmir4.4M
Smyrna of the Ionian gulf — Roman "first city of Asia" and 9 September 1922.
Aydın
Tralles and the Maeander valley — Aphrodisias, Miletus, Priene, Nysa.
ManisaUNESCO
Croesus's Sardis, the 190 BCE Battle of Magnesia, and the Ottoman şehzadeler şehri.
Muğla
Hellenistic Caria — Halicarnassus, the Mausoleum, and Herodotus's birthplace.
DenizliUNESCO
Pamukkale's travertines, Hierapolis (UNESCO 1988), and Laodicea.
Uşak
The Holbein-carpet capital, the Karun Treasure, and the great Ulubey canyon.
KütahyaTentative
The çini capital — Germiyanoğulları (1302–1429), Aizanoi's Temple of Zeus.
Afyonkarahisar
The Black Castle of the Poppy — Phrygian monuments and the 1922 Great Offensive.

Mediterranean

8 provinces

The southern coast and its mountain hinterland — Antalya's Pamphylian beaches, Mersin's Çukurova cotton plain, Hatay's Hellenistic Antioch country, and the inland Lakes Region of Pisidia.

Central Anatolia

13 provinces

The high plateau between the Toros and Pontic mountains — the Republican capital, the Seljuk heartland, Cappadocia's volcanic country, and the great Hittite homeland of Hattuşa and Aslantepe.

Black Sea

18 provinces

The Pontic coast and its mountain hinterland — Trebizond, Sinope, Samsun on the great river deltas; the hazelnut country of Ordu and Giresun; the inland Hittite heartland at Çorum; the Çoruh-valley country to the far northeast.

Eastern Anatolia

23 provinces

The high plateau and the great river country east of the Euphrates — the Urartian capitals on Lake Van, the Seljuk frontier from Manzikert (1071), the Kurdish principalities of the long Ottoman centuries, and the upper-Tigris country down to the Iraqi border. Includes the historical Southeastern Anatolia (Diyarbakır, Şanlıurfa, Gaziantep).

Erzurum
Saltukid Erzen-i Rûm — the Çifte Minareli Medrese and the 1919 Congress.
Van
Urartian Tuşba on the soda sea — Akdamar Island and the Manzikert frontier.
KarsUNESCO
The Bagratid Kingdom of Kars, the 1064 Seljuk capture, UNESCO Ani (2016).
MalatyaUNESCO
Aslantepe (UNESCO 2021) — the world's earliest known palace and the apricot capital.
Elazığ
Harput Kalesi from Urartu, the Artukid Ulu Camii of 1156, the Keban dam.
Erzincan
The Mengücek capital, Mama Hatun's Tercan külliyesi, the 1939 earthquake.
BitlisTentative
Ahlat's Selçuklu cemetery, the Şerefhanlı (1182–1849), Nemrut Krater Gölü.
Muş
The field of Manzikert (26 August 1071) and the endemic Muş Lalesi.
Tunceli
The Munzur Vadisi Milli Parkı and Pertek Kalesi on the Keban reservoir.
Hakkâri
Çölemerik and the Cilo glaciers — Uludoruk-Reşko (4,135 m).
Iğdır
Mount Ararat's northern face — the 1828 Turkmenchay to 1921 Kars frontier.
Ağrı
Mount Ararat (5,137 m) and the İshak Pasha Sarayı at Doğubayazıt.
Ardahan
The 1578 Battle of Çıldır, forty years of Russian Kars, and 23 February 1921.
Bingöl
The eastern Anatolian plateau province — Çapakçur and the Bingöl Dağları.
DiyarbakırUNESCO
The black basalt city on the Tigris — Roman walls, Ulu Camii (1091), Hevsel Gardens.
ŞanlıurfaUNESCO
Göbekli Tepe (UNESCO 2018), Abraham's birthplace, and Edessa-Harran.
Gaziantep2.2M
The basalt citadel and pistachio orchards — the city that stood, and that feeds Türkiye still.
MardinTentative
The stone city above Mesopotamia — Saint Ephrem's Nisibis and Tur Abdin.
AdıyamanUNESCO
Mount Nemrut and Antiochus I's Commagene — the Cendere Bridge.
Siirt
The Marwanid frontier, Veysel Karani's tomb at Baykan, the büryan kebabı.
Batman
The first oil city and Hasankeyf — the 12,000-year Tigris fortress.
Şırnak
Cudi Dağı (Sūrah Hūd 11:44), Cizre, and Ehmedê Xanî's Mem û Zîn (1692).
Kilis
The Syrian-border province established 1994 — Oylum Höyük.

Ancient archaeological sites

thematic

A thematic shelf for the great sites of Asia Minor — Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Hittite, Urartian. Most are covered inside the host-province essay; a handful have their own deep-dive page.

All 81 provinces accounted for — 75 with live essays as of May 2026, six forthcoming (Yalova, Osmaniye, Karaman, Karabük, Düzce, Kilis). The ancient-sites shelf is a thematic cross-reference; each site is fully covered inside the essay for the modern province that holds it.