Visit Konya

The first Ottoman capital under Mount Uludag: the Green Mosque, the silk bazaar and Iskender kebab.

The Black Sea port of the Byzantine Comnenes, the Hagia Sophia of Trabzon and the Sumela monastery on a cliff.

Honey-coloured stone houses stepping down a hill above the Mesopotamian plain, with Syriac monasteries.

The world's largest car-free old city.

Ancient Islamic city of 82 mosques, where hyenas are fed by hand at night.

Faded Ottoman-Italian Red Sea port.

The city of saints: blue-tiled Sufi shrines and the hottest summers in the subcontinent.

Visit Istanbul, Turkey's historic city straddling Europe and Asia. Explore the Hagia Sophia (a 6th-century Byzantine cathedral turned mosque and museum), marvel at the Blue Mosque's six minarets and 20,000 Iznik tiles, wander the Grand Bazaar (one of the world's oldest and largest covered markets with over 4,000 shops), and cruise the Bosphorus Strait for views of palaces and bridges linking continents.