It is foolish to write an abstract of a trip to Turkey since so many monuments are to be seen and re-examine. On a purely informative basis, the "Guide Bleu" of Turkey devotes more than one hundred pages to Istanbul!

Bursa: The city was the first capital of the Ottoman empire after being besieged for more than twenty years. Seen from the Ulu Dag hill, the city is dedicated to the green colour of its mosque and its green trees.
The Muradiye mosque was built under Murat II, 1424-1427. It has mosaics with floral and geometrical decoration on the tympanums of the portal and the windows.
The mausoleums of Murat II and Cem are located in the enclosure of the Muradiye cemetery.
The türbe of Orhan and Osman were rebuilt in the 19th century in the style of the end of the empire. From the Terrace, the panorama on the city is splendid.
The green mosque is spiked with minaret. It is built out of marble and the prayer room is covered with green earthenware tiles.
The türbe of Mehmet Ist is the wonder of Bursa. It is an octagon covered with enamelled earthenware of a bluish green.

The road from Bursa to Ankara, 385Km long, is superb. 300Km away from Bursa, the site of Gordion, is historical by the sword blow Alexander the Great gave to cut the famous Gordian knot. The detour, a loop of a few kilometres from the main road, is justified by a Phrygian king's tumulus whose access was made by a tunnel dug by archaeologists. The funeral room is surrounded by a wall in cedar or pine logs. The burial furniture is exhibited in a small contiguous museum.

Ankara: The arrival at the hotel was late. The city is dual: modern it was built by Atatürk, old it dates back to the Hittite time.
The museum of Anatolian civilizations: It exhibits priceless wonders, mother goddesses of the Hittite period, Phrygian jewels, Egyptian jewels and artefacts of Indo-European civilizations.
The citadel: Two walls were built at different Byzantine times. The current building dates back to 797 after the unsuccessful siege by Haroun Al-Rachid.
The mosque, Arslanhane camii, built in the 13th century with use of elements from Greco-Roman temples. The result is strange.
The August temple: In turn, it was a Roman temple, a Christian church then a mosque to finish its career as a historic building. Its attraction comes from an inscription giving the assessment of the reign of August! The mentality of political leaders has not changed!
The Atatürk's mausoleum: It cannot be compared to the monuments of popular republics. Atatürk is considered in Turkey as the father of the Turkish people. He liberated the territory from foreign dominations and got his country into the modern world.
The visit of the city on foot showed all the ambivalence of this capital divided between past and present. This could be experienced from the citadel with the panorama of the city.

The Hattis occupied the area before the arrival of the Hittites in the 2d millennium BC and disappeared with the invasions. Then Cappadocia knew a boom with the domination of the Achaemenians and Seleucids. It was an independent kingdom until the Byzantine empire and its conversion to Christianity. After the arrival of the Turks and their victory at Mantkizet in 1071, it became the part of the Sultanate of Rûm. Finally in the 14th century, abandoned and without hierarchy, Christians left the place to the progressive Islamization of the area and deserted the former places of worship and dwelling.

Ürgüp: This town occupies several hills covered with houses built of dry stones of various colours.
Uchisar: From the top of the piton, a dramatic panorama shows by Cappadocia and the various geological structures. The visit of the Peribacalari and Avcilar valleys showed all the varieties of natural constructions.
The hidden church: Located in the El Nazar valley, it was discovered in 1957. The flat ceiling is painted with a cross and geometrical ornaments.

Avanos: This stage city is a typically Anatolian village where potters perpetuate their ancestral tradition.

Göreme: The city has a museum in the open air, a set of Christian buildings among the most beautiful dug in the geological structures of soft tuff.
The St Basil chapel: The church is preceded by a narthex and the main apse has exceptional paintings among which a Virgin with the Child.
The Yilanli church: Called the church with the snakes, it has paintings showing emperor Constantine and his mother.
The Ste Barb Church: It is built on cross plan. The motifs are painted in red directly on the rock.
Storeroom, kitchen, refectory: These three constructions are next to each other and communicating. The refectory could contain 40 and 50 people, it is of rectangular shape with walls unpainted and stone tables and benches.
Tokali Kilise: It is the vastest of the set. The porch gives access to the narthex then to the main nave. The paintings date back to Nicephora Phocas (963-969).
The Cavusin Church: It has a single nave with a barrel vault and three apses. The paintings of the vault represent the Escape to Egypt.
The church of the forty martyrs: It has two naves and two apses. The frescos are rather well preserved, in particular the Descent of Christ to Hell.

Agzikarahan: A large Seldjukide caravanserai located on the previous Achaemenian royal road which connected Persia to Sardes.

Konya: Former Iconium was the capital of the sultanate of Rûm. It is localised in the steppe. It was the Holy City of Sufism. Djalât Ad Dîn Rûmi (1207-1273) was the founder of the sect known as that of the Dancing Dervishes, due to their gyratory dance, the samâ.
The Alaedin Camii Mosque: Built in 1220, it was the work of a Damascus architect under Seldjukids. The prayer room is equipped with Roman and Byzantine columns.
Tekke de Mevlâna: This attractive monument was the major place of Moslem mysticism. It is the headlight of the city with its high tower covered with green enamelled earthenware.
Büyük Karatay Medresesi: The medrese has a very beautiful marble gate decorated with geometrical drawing and stalactites. It shelters the museum of ceramics.
Ince Minare Medresesi: This former medrese shelters the museum of wooden and stone sculpture.

Pamphylia was one of the two Roman provinces. It extends around the Antalaya gulf with Lycia in the east and Cilicia in the west.

Aspenos: The city is said to have been founded in the 2d century BC by the inhabitants of Argos. it has the most beautiful theatre of the Roman world built in 170 AD. It could contain twenty thousand people. It takes some of the Greek layouts, the backing on a hillside. The Seldjukides added blue earthenware to the decoration of the stage.
From the northern gate of the ancient city, there is a very beautiful sight on an aqueduct dating back to the 2d century.

Perge: The site is one of the most evocative of ancient life with its theatre, its stadium, its nymphea and its porticos road opened in its southern part by a gate (3rd century BC).

Termessos: The site is one of the most extraordinary be it visited in the sun or on a foggy day, which was my case. The visit revealed the wild beauty of the landscapes, the charm of its theatre against the mountainside, the necropolis and the rupestral tombs. The site is strewn with scattered vestiges which one does not know if they will ever be restored.

The Meander valley with gathers several sites is a rich area fertilized by the winding course of the Meander, Büyuk Menderes.

Hiérapolis: Pamukkale, the Cotton castle, is one of the most spectacular natural phenomena in Turkey, a chalky cliff made of terraced basins from which the water of the hot sources runs out in cascade. The ancient cities was one of the Roman-world spa city. Patients flocked to be cured. The excavation of the theatre revealed splendid reliefs of the 2d century illustrating the myths of Dionysus, Apollo and Artemis. The necropolis out of the ramparts is one of the largest of the Roman world.

The southernmost Aegean coast, Eolia, starts at the foot of Kaz Dagi, the mount Ida of mythology, and finishes at the Marmaris bay.

Ephesus: The geographical situation of the city explains its influence at the mouth of Kaystros, Küçük Menderes, in a bay which caused its decline by alluvium accumulation. It is located now 5 Km away from the sea. The vestiges of Hellenistic and Roman Ephesus are among the most impressive of the Mediterranean sea. The streets and buildings exceptionally well preserved have been restored: the marble street, the theatre, the Celsius library, the Agora, the Church of the Synod and many others to quote only the most remarkable.
Meryemana: In an admirable peaceful site, the house where the Virgin Mary is said to have finished her life is now a chapel been used by lazarist priests.
Basilica Saint John: It was built on the supposed tomb location of the apostle.
The Isa Bey Mosque: Close to the basilica, a Seldjukide mosque dating back to 1375 opens by a gate with stalactites surmounted with dedicatory inscriptions.
The museum: It exhibits artefacts found on the site and in particular a splendid head of Eros and the extraordinary statue of Artemis the fertility goddess.

Bergama: The city was with Alexandria the focal point of the Hellenistic world after the decline of Athens in the 2d century BC. King of Bergama had his craftsmen invent pergamina, a parchment, to replace papyrus. The city knew its apogee at the time of the Attalid dynasty, then challenged by Petra and Palmyra, it declined. The city was built in terraces on the hillside overhanging the modern city: successively upwards, civil and religious buildings, then houses and the gymnasium. Among the many monuments:
Asclepeion is the most interesting: a sanctuary where pilgrims came to cure their bodies and their souls.
The acropolis: The theatre is built on a very stiff hill slope, it could contain 10,000 people. The sight from its steps on the valley is impressive.
The museum exhibits models of the site and beautiful artefacts, ornaments of acroterion.

The septentrional Aegean coast, Troada, starts from Dardanelles, the Hellespont of the ancients, and finishes at the foot of Kaz Dagi.