Anatolia has been inhabited continuously for tens of thousands of years. The country's modern history is layered on top of one of the oldest cultural records in the world.
Last reviewed on 2 May 2026.
The territory of the modern Republic of Türkiye is one of the most layered historical landscapes on earth. The earliest known town, Çatalhöyük, was already a busy settlement when most of Europe was uninhabited. The Hittite, Phrygian, Lydian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman worlds all overlapped here, leaving behind written records, ruins and traditions that the modern republic still draws on.
This section gathers our long-form history pages. The home page already presents a condensed timeline; the dedicated guides below go deeper.
Çatalhöyük, Göbekli Tepe and other early Neolithic sites — among the oldest known human settlements anywhere.
A major Bronze Age power centred on Hattusa, in conflict and treaty with Egypt; pioneers of iron working.
Ionian cities, the Persian Wars, Alexander's campaigns, and the long Roman period that ended with Constantinople.
The eastern Roman world. Constantinople is the political and religious heart of Christendom for over a millennium.
Seljuk arrival after Manzikert, the rise of the Ottoman beylik, the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, and six centuries of empire.
The War of Independence, the founding of the Republic in 1923, the reform programme, and the country's contemporary trajectory.