Central Anatolia

Museum

The best place in the country to get to grips with the complex weave of Turkey's history, the exhibits here house artefacts cherry-picked from just about every significant archaeological site in Anatolia. The central hall houses reliefs and statuary, while the surrounding halls take you on a journey of staggering history from Neolithic and Chalcolithic, through the Bronze Age Assyrian and Hittite eras, to the Iron Age's Phrygian and Urartian periods.

Architecture

The real joy of Safranbolu is simply wandering the cobblestone alleys. Everywhere you look in Eski Çarşı (Safranbolu's old town) is a feast for the eyes. Virtually every house in the neighbourhood is an original, and what little modern development there is has been held in check. Many of the finest historic houses have been restored, and as time goes on, more and more are being saved from deterioration and turned into hotels, shops or museums.

Museum

Excellent information boards provide a thorough grounding in both Hittite history and culture while the pieces on display – all unearthed at Hattuşa – have been thoughtfully and artistically curated to aid visitor understanding. The pride of the collection are the two original sphinx statues that once stood guard at Hattuşa's Sphinx gate, atop the fortified mound above the postern gate of Yer Kapı. They were only returned to Boğazkale in 2011, having previously been on display in Berlin and İstanbul.

Mosque

Amid rolling hills and fertile fields, the hamlet of Kasaba, 17km northwest of Kastamonu, is a pretty but unlikely place to find one of Turkey's finest surviving wooden mosques. Dating to 1366, the interior of Mahmud Bey Cami is a feast of intricate craftwork with painted wooden columns, a wooden gallery and finely painted ceiling rafters. You can climb some rough ladders to the gallery's third storey for closer views of the ornate beam-ends and interlocking motifs topping the pillars.

Museum

Tokat's impressive museum is housed within the beautifully restored Arastalı Bedesten (covered market). The collection packs in intricately decorated Bronze Age and Hittite artefacts, Phrygian ceramics, Hellenic jewellery, Roman tombs, and icons and relics from Tokat's churches (including a Greek Orthodox representation of John the Baptist with his head on a platter), all with plenty of English information to help you make sense of the vast amount of history on display here. It's easily one of central Anatolia's best museums.

Mosque

Tokat's historic neighbourhood of slouching Ottoman houses, nestled at the foot of the castle hill, hides this gem of a mosque with floral motifs crawling up the arched stone columns and a colourful painted wood-panel ceiling in dazzling orange and blue. To find it, take the lane off GOP Bulvarı just before the Taş Han and head up the hill.

Museum

For Muslims and non-Muslims alike, the main reason to come to Konya is to visit this former lodge of the whirling dervishes and home to the tomb of Celaleddin Rumi (later known as Mevlâna), who we have to thank for giving the world the whirling dervishes. This is one of the biggest pilgrimage centres in Turkey, and the building's fluted dome of turquoise tiles is one of Turkey's most distinctive sights.

Mausoleum

The monumental mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938), the founder of modern Turkey, sits high above the city with its abundance of marble and air of veneration. The tomb itself actually makes up only a small part of this complex, which consists of museums and a ceremonial courtyard. For many Turks a visit is virtually a pilgrimage, and it's not unusual to see people visibly moved. Allow at least two hours in order to visit the whole site.

Archaeological Site

Rising 20m above the surrounding flat Konya plains, the East Mound at Çatalhöyük is one of the most important, and largest, Neolithic settlements on earth. About 9500 years ago, up to 8000 people lived here, and the mound comprises 13 levels of buildings, each containing around 1000 structures. Little remains of the ancient centre other than the two excavation areas, which draw archaeologists from all over the world.