A reference list of the cultural and natural sites in the Republic of Türkiye that UNESCO has placed on the World Heritage List, with the context that links them to one another.
Last reviewed on 2 May 2026.
UNESCO inscribes sites under three categories: cultural, natural, and mixed. Türkiye's list is dominated by cultural sites — the country has been continuously settled for so long that almost every era has left durable architecture or archaeology — with two mixed sites that combine cultural with striking natural geography. Sites span all seven geographic regions, but the densest cluster sits along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, where the ancient Greek and Roman worlds left their longest record.
A complex of T-shaped megalithic pillars carved with animals, built by hunter-gatherer communities roughly twelve thousand years ago — older than the wheel, older than written language, older than agriculture as a settled practice. Its inscription rewrote the textbook on when and how monumental religious architecture begins.
Located near Şanlıurfa in Southeastern Anatolia.
One of the earliest known proto-urban settlements anywhere — densely packed mud-brick houses entered from the roof, decorated with wall paintings and animal symbolism. Çatalhöyük is the canonical example of how early people moved from villages into something that begins to look like a town.
Sits in Central Anatolia, southeast of Konya.
The fortified capital of the Hittite Empire, with monumental gates carved in low relief and a network of stone-cut sanctuaries at nearby Yazılıkaya. The Hittites were the great rival of New Kingdom Egypt and pioneers of iron working — see the history overview for context.
Layered ruins on a low hill above the Dardanelles whose various phases match — closely enough — the Troy of Homer. Inscribed for both archaeological depth and literary significance.
One of the best-preserved ancient cities in the Mediterranean, with the Library of Celsus, the Great Theatre, and the foundations of the Temple of Artemis. A short drive from İzmir; see the Aegean region page for surrounding context.
A marble-rich Roman city dedicated to Aphrodite, famous for its sculpture school and a remarkably intact stadium. Less crowded than Ephesus and easier to read at human scale.
Twin sites of the ancient Lycians on the Mediterranean coast: Xanthos, the political capital, and Letoon, its religious sanctuary. Lycian rock tombs cut into cliff faces nearby remain among the most photographed in Türkiye.
Volcanic ash compacted into "tuff", then carved by wind and water into the famous fairy-chimney landscape. Early Byzantine Christians extended that natural carving inwards: rock-cut churches with painted frescoes, monastic complexes, and entire underground cities that could shelter thousands. See the Cappadocia guide.
Cascading white travertine terraces formed by hot mineral springs, with the ruins of the Greco-Roman city of Hierapolis sitting at the top. The site combines a striking natural process with a continuous human story stretching from Hellenistic baths through Roman necropolis and Byzantine basilica.
A composite inscription covering the Sultanahmet archaeological park (Hagia Sophia, the Hippodrome, the Blue Mosque), the Süleymaniye and Zeyrek districts, and the surviving Theodosian land walls. In effect, the inscription protects the visible spine of Byzantine and early Ottoman Constantinople. See the Istanbul guide.
A 13th-century Seljuk mosque-hospital complex in eastern Anatolia famous for its astonishingly inventive stone carving — the kind of decoration that almost overflows the architecture it sits on.
Mosques, tombs, market quarters and a fortified village that together preserve the early Ottoman urban template — before it was carried west to Edirne and Constantinople.
Sinan's masterpiece in Edirne, often described as the architectural answer he had been working towards his entire career. Its pencil-thin minarets and clear central dome are textbook examples of mature Ottoman classical architecture.
The 1st-century BCE summit shrine and tomb of King Antiochos of Commagene, with colossal stone heads ranged around an artificial peak. A genuinely strange and memorable site, especially at sunrise. See the Eastern Anatolia page.
The ruins of a once-great Armenian and Silk Road city on the modern border with Armenia. Inscribed for its layered medieval architecture and its place at the crossroads of multiple religious and political traditions.
The basalt city walls of Diyarbakır — among the longest continuous defensive walls anywhere — together with the river-edge market gardens that have fed the city for centuries.
Türkiye's list also includes Pergamon and its multi-layered cultural landscape on the Aegean; Bursa's silk-trade architecture already noted; the Aphrodisias sculpture school; and additional sites that have been added or are on the tentative list. Because the list grows over time, the canonical and current enumeration is on the UNESCO Türkiye page linked at the top of this article.
If you trace the inscriptions across the country, three broad clusters emerge. The Aegean and Mediterranean coasts hold the densest concentration of Greek and Roman sites — a legacy of the Ionian, Lycian and Pamphylian city networks. Central Anatolia carries the Hittite, Byzantine and Seljuk imprint, with Cappadocia as its natural-cultural showpiece. Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia preserve frontier sites — Commagene, Armenia, Mesopotamia — that lay outside the classical Mediterranean orbit. Each of the regional pages places its inscribed sites in local context.