Landmarks & Monuments

The Ottoman Empire ruled Anatolia and much of the world around it for over six centuries, and it left behind one of the great architectural traditions of Islam.

No skyline in the world tells a longer story than Istanbul’s.

Turkey’s cities today are among the most dynamic construction sites in the world, and contemporary Turkish architecture tells an exciting story of ambition, identity, and reinvention.

When you travel across central Turkey, you will notice buildings that look unlike anything else you have seen: vast stone portals carved like lace, geometrically patterned brick, and domes crowned with tiled cones.

When you travel through Turkey, you are walking through the living museum of the Byzantine Empire.

No single person shaped the skyline of Turkey more than Mimar Sinan, the chief architect of the Ottoman Empire in its golden age.

Turkey is one of the world’s great architectural museums, a country where ten thousand years of building history stand side by side.

Istanbul is a city that rewards height. From a rooftop, the chaos of the streets resolves into order: the minarets and domes of the old city, the glittering ribbon of the Bosphorus, the hills of the Asian shore.

Istanbul has the museums everyone knows, from the great archaeological collections to the palaces and cisterns.

Turkey is one of the great heritage countries of the world, and its UNESCO World Heritage Sites tell the story of ten thousand years of civilization on the bridge between Asia and Europe.