Turkey’s Best Places

Ölüdeniz is a small neighbourhood and beach resort in the Fethiye district of Muğla Province, on the Turquoise Coast of southwestern Turkey, at the conjunction point of the Aegean and Mediterranean sea. It is located 14 km to the south of Fethiye, near Mount Babadağ.
It has a sandy bay at the mouth of Ölüdeniz, on a blue lagoon. The beach itself is a pebble beach. The lagoon is a national nature reserve and construction is strictly prohibited. The seawater of Ölüdeniz is famous for its shades of turquoise and aquamarine, while its beach is an official Blue Flag beach

Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in Niğde provinces in Turkey.
Since the late 300s BC the name Cappadocia came to be restricted to the inland province (sometimes called Great Cappadocia), Upper Cappadocia, which alone will be the focus of this article. Lower Cappadocia is focused to elsewhere.
According to Herodotus,in the time of the Ionian Revolt, the Cappadocians were reported as occupying a region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the Euxine. Cappadocia, in this sense, was bounded in the south by the chain of the Taurus Mountains that separate it from Cilicia, to the east by the upper Euphrates, to the north by Pontus, and to the west by Lycaonia and eastern Galatia.
The name, traditionally used in Christian sources throughout history, continues in use as an international tourism concept to define a region of exceptional natural wonders, in particular characterized by fairy chimneys and a unique historical and cultural heritage.

Pamukkale, meaning “cotton castle” in Turkish, is a natural site in Denizli Province in southwestern Turkey. The area is famous for a carbonate mineral left by the flowing of thermal spring water.It is located in Turkey’s Inner Aegean region, in the River Menderes valley, which has a temperate climate for most of the year.
The ancient Greco-Roman city of Hierapolis was built on top of the travertine formation which is in total about 2,700 metres (8,860 ft) long, 600 m (1,970 ft) wide and 160 m (525 ft) high. It can be seen from the hills on the opposite side of the valley in the town of Denizli, 20 km away. Known as Pamukkale (Cotton Castle) or ancient Hierapolis (Holy City), this area has been drawing visitors to its thermal springs since the time of Classical antiquity.The Turkish name refers to the surface of the shimmering, snow-white limestone, shaped over millennia by calcite-rich springs.Dripping slowly down the mountainside, mineral-rich waters collect in and cascade down the mineral terraces, into pools below. Legend has it that the formations are solidified cotton (the area’s principal crop) that giants left out to dry.
People have visited area for thousands of years, due to the attraction of the thermal pools.As recently as the mid-20th century, hotels were built over the ruins of Hierapolis, causing considerable damage.An approach road was built from the valley over the terraces, and motor bikes were allowed to go up and down the slopes. When the area was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the hotels were demolished and the road removed and replaced with artificial pools.There are well-preserved Roman ruins and a museum on site. A small footpath runs up the mountain face for visitors to use, however the travertine terraces are all off-limits, having suffered damage, erosion and water pollution due to tourism.

Galata is the former name of the Karaköy neighbourhood in Istanbul, which is located at the northern shore of the Golden Horn. The district is connected to the historic Fatih district by several bridges that cross the Golden Horn, most notably the Galata Bridge. The medieval citadel of Galata was a colony of the Republic of Genoa between 1273 and 1453. The famous Galata Tower was built by the Genoese in 1348 at the northernmost and highest point of the citadel. Galata is now a quarter within the district of Beyoğlu in Istanbul.

The Yedigöller National Park also known as Seven Lakes National Park is located in the northern part of Bolu Province in Turkey.The park is categorized under IUCN II and was established in 1965. The park is best known for the seven lakes formed by landslides and for its profusion of plant life.

Uzungöl (Long Lake) is a lake situated to the south of the city of Trabzon, in the Çaykara district of Trabzon Province, Turkey. Uzungöl is also the name of the village on the lake’s coast. Over the years, the picturesque lake, its village and the surrounding valley have become popular tourist attractions. The lake is at a distance of 99 km from Trabzon’s city center, and 19 km from Çaykara’s district center.It was formed by a landslide, which transformed the stream bed into a natural dam, in the valley of the Haldizen Stream.
The area is most famous for its natural environment.Located in a valley between high rising mountains, the lake and village at first appear inaccessible. The surrounding mountain forests and fog, occasionally enveloping the lake at night, also add to the scenery.
The tourist boom of the recent years has attracted investors, who opened a number of hotels, restaurants, and souvenir shops in the village. The transport infrastructure has also been improved. In 2008, the government built a concrete barrier along the lake’s shoreline, so that its waves would not wet the coastal roads around it. This has triggered protests by the locals, as well as ecologists concerned with environmental damage, who stated that it has turned the lake into a giant artificial pool.

The Maiden’s Tower, also known as Leander’s Tower since the medieval Byzantine period, is a tower on a small islet at the southern entrance of the Bosphorus strait 200 m from the coast of Üsküdar in Istanbul, Turkey.
History;
After the naval victory at Cyzicus, the ancient Athenian general Alcibiades possibly built a custom station for ships coming from the Black Sea on a small rock in front of Chrysopolis (today’s Üsküdar). In 1110 ByzantineEmperor Alexius Comnenus built a wooden tower protected by a stone wall.From the tower an iron chain stretched across to another tower erected on the European shore, at the quarter of Mangana in Constantinople.The islet was then connected to the Asiatic shore through a defense wall, whose underwater remains are still visible.During the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453, the tower held a Byzantine garrison commanded by the Venetian Gabriele Trevisano. Subsequently, the structure was used as a watchtower by the Ottoman Turks during the reign of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror.
The tower, often named Leander’s Tower in reference to the legend of Hero and Leander (which took place in the Dardanelles strait, also known as the Hellespont in antiquity), was destroyed during the earthquake of 1509, and burned in 1721. Since then it was used as a lighthouse, and the surrounding walls were repaired in 1731 and 1734, until in 1763 it was erected using stone.From 1829 the tower was used as a quarantine station, and in 1832 was restored by Sultan Mahmud II.Restored again by the harbour authority in 1945, the most recent restoration began in 1998 for the James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough, and steel supports were added around the ancient tower as a precaution after the 17 August 1999 earthquake.