Ottoman Timeline

10000 BCE – 2000 CE · 8 sites

All sites in this period

Derinkuyu

800 BCE – 1923 CE

The deepest known underground city in the world, extending 85 meters below the surface with 18 levels. It could shelter approximately 20,000 people along with livestock and food stores.

312

Iron AgeClassicalByzantine

Traditional beehive houses and ruins at Harran, southeastern Turkey

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Country Record

Oldest City in Türkiye

Harran

3000 BCE – 2000 CE

One of the oldest continuously inhabited places on Earth, where Abraham paused on his journey to Canaan, where the last pagan temple of the Moon God survived into the Islamic era, and where distinctive beehive houses dot the Mesopotamian plain.

411

Bronze AgeIron AgeClassical

Sümela Monastery

386 CE – 1923 CE

A Byzantine Greek Orthodox monastery carved into a sheer cliff face at 1,200 meters altitude in the Pontic Alps. Founded in 386 CE, it contains remarkable frescoes spanning centuries.

312

ByzantineMedieval

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World Record

Oldest City in the World

Hasankeyf

10000 BCE – 1500 CE

A 12,000-year-old cliff city on the Tigris River with cave dwellings, medieval bridges, and Artukid monuments — one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world, now partially submerged by the Ilısu Dam in one of the most controversial heritage losses of the 21st century.

411

NeolithicBronze AgePrehistoric

Fortress walls on the summit of Acrocorinth above Corinth

World Record

Oldest Fortress in the World

Acrocorinth

1600 BCE – 1830 CE

The sheer citadel hill towering 575 metres above ancient Corinth, fortified continuously from the Bronze Age through Venetian and Ottoman times. Whoever held Acrocorinth controlled the Isthmus of Corinth and, with it, overland traffic between southern Greece and the rest of the mainland.

Bronze AgeClassicalHellenistic

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Amasya

300 BCE – 1500 CE

The royal capital of the Pontic Kingdom, where monumental rock tombs of Pontic kings are carved high into the cliffs above the Yesilirmak River, overlooked by a citadel and flanked by elegant Ottoman mansions.

321

HellenisticRomanByzantine

Venetian castle and Bourtzi tower at Methoni harbour

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Country Record

Oldest Fortress in Greece

Methoni

700 BCE – 1830 CE

A fortified harbour town on the southwestern tip of the Peloponnese, crowned by a Venetian castle whose sea gate opens onto the Ionian. Methoni guarded routes to Italy and the Crusader East; its walls and Bourtzi tower still frame the channel where Bronze Age traders and modern film crews alike seek the open sea.

ClassicalHellenisticRoman

Tlos

2000 BCE – 1400 CE

One of the oldest and most important cities of Lycia, dominated by a dramatic rocky acropolis with Lycian rock tombs, a Roman theatre, and an Ottoman fortress crowning its summit.

411

Bronze AgeClassicalHellenistic