South Aegean

Civilisation on Turkey's sparkling Aegean coast looks back thousands of years. Indeed, cave paintings discovered in the Beşparmak Mountains above Lake Bafa date to 6000 BC, the earliest evidence of human settlement in Turkey. Among the region's embarrassment of ruins is Ephesus, the celebrated capital of Roman Asia Minor. Nearby, the ancient ports of Priene and Miletus, and the temples at Euromos and Didyma, offer an evocative picture of the ancient past.