The Best Museums, Mosques & Churches in Turkey
The Blue Mosque in Istanbul is a beautiful landmark mosque that has authority over Sultanahmet Park. Just under the dome, hundreds of stained-glass windows light it up and they look fantastic. Depending on the time of day the blue of the mosque actually changes to yellow, orange, and red but it also depends on the entrance you choose to use. To go there is a great Turkish experience and it is in one of Turkey’s most amazing destinations.
Ayasofya is in Istanbul, the dome of this masterpiece results in temptation to mimic the actions of Mehmet the Conqueror of almost 600 years ago and drop to your knees in a gesture of utter humility. It has low levels of filtered light that finds its way in, temporarily blinding you to everything except the source of illumination.
Topkapi Palace is also in Istanbul and was once people’s home and a lot of people at that, anything up to 5000 people at a time that all serviced one man. Six hundred years of Ottoman history and it''s all behind these grand ornamental gates.
Istanbul Archaeology Museum is one of those must see places. It makes for a brilliant Turkish experience and also being in Istanbul it’s in one of Turkey’s most amazing destinations. It''s actually the largest museum in the country, chronicling in stone both the life of Istanbul and of Byzantium''s emperors. Some artifacts that are there date back to 6000 B.C. and proceed through the centuries. A separate building houses the Museum of the Ancient Orient which exhibits artifacts obtained during the course of the Ottoman period.
St. Savior in Chora, again in Istanbul is an empire''s devotion to the faith which is mirrored in the opulence of the finest preserved collections of Byzantine mosaics just about anywhere.
Ephesus Museum is in Selcuk.A lot of the treasures of Ephesus were smuggled out of the country to end up in Western museums however some remained in Turkey hence this museum. It is designed in a different way to others as it goes on each room in the museum having a theme such as, they have The House Findings Room, The Hall of The Fountain Relics, The Hall of The Funerary Relics, The Hall of Artemis and The Gladiators Section. This is great when wanting to brush up on Turkish history and this can be arranged through Turkey package tours.
Bodrum Underwater Archaeology Museum is the only one of its kind. The Underwater Archaeology Museum shows findings from the discovery of a pre-14th-century shipwreck. All the more amazing, because when divers stumbled on it, all they were looking for were a few sponges. This is a popular Turkish attraction.
Another great Turkish attraction is the Underground Cities of Derinkuyu & Kaymakli in Cappadocia.These multilevel cave cities that have been roughly dated back to the 2nd century B.C have supported up to 20,000 people at once in times of danger and religious persecution. You get too clamber through the warren of passageways and living quarters where entire villages thrived in safety and darkness for months at a time.It''s very dark and there isn’t lots of room so if claustrophobic it may be wise to rethink this tour.
Open-Air Museums of Zelve & Goreme are fantastic as when you live amid a landscape composed primarily of porous volcanic tufa, it can make for a beautiful home so checking this out would be a great cultural experience. In Goreme you''ll see cave churches decorated with stunning medieval frescoes and the ingenious structures at Zelve are more a window into daily living, troglodyte-style.
Museum of Anatolian Civilizations is in Ankara. It''s This museum has the material to catalog a culture''s background from beginning to end. This museum has for prehistoric cave paintings of Cappadocia''s volcanoes and many other amazing things such as, detailed archives of commerce from 2000 B.C.