Byzantine Era

330 CE – 1453 CE · 46 sites

All sites in this period

World Record

Most-Visited Ancient Site in the World

Troy

3000 BCE – 500 CE

Nine settlement layers at Hisarlık in northwestern Türkiye, where Heinrich Schliemann dug for Homer's Troy and archaeologists still debate which level matches a historical war. UNESCO listed the site in 1998; renewed interest from epic film adaptations keeps new visitors comparing poetry with stone.

312

Iron AgeClassicalRoman

Ephesus

1000 BCE – 700 CE

Major Ionian city near modern Selçuk, once home to the Temple of Artemis and later a Roman metropolis of marble streets, terrace houses, and the Library of Celsus. Paul's epistles and pilgrimage routes kept Ephesus famous after the ancient harbour silted away.

312

RomanClassicalHellenistic

The Dome of the Rock and Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem

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Country Record

Oldest City in Israel

Old City of Jerusalem

1000 BCE – 1900 CE

The walled heart of Jerusalem — roughly one square kilometre sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — where the Western Wall, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Dome of the Rock stand within Ottoman-era ramparts and layers of Iron Age, Roman, Byzantine, and medieval archaeology.

211

Iron AgeClassicalHellenistic

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

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Ani

500 CE – 1400 CE

A medieval Armenian capital on the Turkish-Armenian border, once home to over 100,000 people. Its ruins include magnificent churches, mosques, and fortifications spanning centuries of multicultural history.

312

ByzantineMedieval

Panoramic view of ancient Antakya from the hills

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Antioch (Antakya)

300 BCE – 1268 CE

One of the four great cities of the ancient world and a cradle of early Christianity. Antioch's extraordinary mosaics rival those of Pompeii, and its layered history spans Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic civilizations.

312

ClassicalHellenisticRoman

Ancient Roman colonnades and paving stones at the Al-Mina excavation sector in Tyre, Lebanon, facing the Mediterranean Sea

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Country Record

Longest Continuously Occupied Site in Lebanon

Tyre

2750 BCE – 1291 CE

Legendary Phoenician island metropolis and queen of the Mediterranean maritime trade, founded in the 3rd millennium BCE. Renowned as the birthplace of royal Tyrian purple dye, mother city of Carthage, site of Alexander the Great’s epic 332 BCE siege causeway, and home to the world’s largest Roman hippodrome.

Bronze AgeIron AgeHellenistic

Pergamon

800 BCE – 700 CE

A major Hellenistic capital perched on a dramatic acropolis, renowned for its Great Altar, its library rivaling Alexandria, and the Asclepion healing center.

211

RomanClassicalHellenistic

Roman theatre and Mediterranean shoreline at Caesarea Maritima, Israel

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Country Record

Known by the Most Names in Israel

Caesarea Maritima

22 BCE – 1265 CE

Herod the Great’s purpose-built Roman port on the Sharon coast, with the harbour of Sebastos, a theatre, hippodrome, and aqueduct. A 2025 Haifa–Malta photogrammetric survey of the drowned harbour mouth shows two building phases and a channel still deep enough for ships.

HellenisticRomanLate Antique

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Hierapolis

190 BCE – 1354 CE

A Greco-Roman spa city perched above the famous white travertine terraces of Pamukkale. One of the best-preserved ancient cities in Turkey, with a vast necropolis, theatre, and the Plutonium — a gate to the underworld.

211

HellenisticRomanByzantine

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

Fairy chimneys and cave churches at Goreme Open Air Museum, Cappadocia

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Country Record

Oldest Complex in Türkiye

Cappadocia (Goreme Open Air Museum)

3000 BCE – 1300 CE

A surreal landscape of fairy chimneys and cave churches carved into volcanic rock, housing some of the finest Byzantine frescoes in existence. Cappadocia's Goreme valley is where geology and faith converge in extraordinary form.

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Bronze AgeRomanByzantine