Byzantine Era

330 CE – 1453 CE · 42 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.

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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.

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RomanClassicalHellenistic

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

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Country Record

Known by the Most Names 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.

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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.

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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.

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ClassicalHellenisticRoman

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.

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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.

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Bronze AgeIron AgeClassical

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

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Continent Record

Oldest Complex in Asia

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

The colonnaded Oval Forum at Jerash (Gerasa), Jordan

Country Record

Longest Continuously Occupied Site in Jordan

Jerash

170 BCE – 749 CE

One of the best-preserved Roman provincial cities anywhere — a Greco-Roman town in the hills of northern Jordan with a colonnaded main street, a unique oval forum ringed by columns, two grand theatres, hilltop temples to Zeus and Artemis, and triumphal arches, all buried by earthquake and sand and recovered in remarkable completeness.

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Miletus

1500 BCE – 700 CE

Birthplace of Western philosophy — home to Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes. One of the greatest Ionian cities, with a massive theatre, baths, and the ancient world's first grid-planned city layout.

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