In Anatolia, all surrounding civilizations settled at one point in time. The Hittites, followed by the Greeks and the Romans, the proto-Christians, the Byzantine, followed by the Ottomans, were the ones who built and created remarkable monuments.

The Istanbul skyline is dominated by the famous minarets of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, originally a church, later a mosque, a museum, and again a mosque. Delicate Byzantine mosaics cover the interior of these buildings, witness of the splendors of Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium.

To visit Turkey, we drove from Istanbul to the heart of Anatolia. The Cappadocia landscape is covered in cones and troglodyte carvings in caves. The open-air museums from Goreme, Uchisar, and Zelve are astonishing as they challenge your imagination. In the area, there are also two underground cities, Kaimakli and Derynkuyu, of the old Hittite culture.

Departing from this incredible land, we headed towards the holy city of Konya and to the white limestones draperies of Pamukkale looking like snow and ice at 100 F.


The Western coast of the Aegean Sea hosts the iconic Greek colonies of Priene, Milet, and Didime. Around them, Ephesus and the cruciate city of Bodrum are two of the sites of the seven wonders of the world, while to the north is the spectacular Pergam perched on a cliff glorifying the gods watching from the clouds.