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6. Patara
Stretching for over seven miles, Patara Beach is Turkey’s longest and most wildly beautiful beach. It’s also one of the emptiest. This deep, wide stretch of pale sand, with crashing waves at one end and dunes, pine trees, marshes and lagoons at the other, is surrounded by water and wildlife, especially the endangered loggerhead turtles, in what is now a bird-rich natural park. The turtles are partly responsible for the beach’s pristine preservation, and at the back of the beach are the ruins of the ancient city of Patara, said to have been founded by the son of Apollo. The coast is accessed through these ruins, which include an amphitheater, a parliament building (discovered buried in sand in the 1990s) and the remains of a main street surrounded by columns. It is believed that Apollo’s temple lies somewhere beneath it, still undiscovered.
Istanbul Dome Getty Images
5. Dome of Istanbul
Across the Golden Horn, the more modest Ortakoy Mosque is one of the city’s most beautiful, built of white marble and stone with pink mosaics inside. Its location on the water’s edge next to the Bosphorus Bridge makes it breathtaking in its golden light at dusk and its morning call echoing across the water. One of the most beautiful places in Istanbul is a mosque. The city’s architectural masterpiece, Hagia Sophia, began as a Byzantine cathedral 1,500 years ago, was converted into a mosque by the Ottomans, then became a museum in the 1930s, and controversially became a mosque again in the summer of 2020. But all visitors are still welcome to pray, meditate in awe under the towering golden dome, or watch the sunlight pierce the stained-glass windows like the fingers of God. Next door, the Ottoman-era Blue Mosque, with its interior covered in handmade Iznik ceramic tiles and painted different shades of blue overhead, is so beautiful that even Pope Benedict XVI couldn’t help but notice it; during a visit in 2006, he thanked “divine providence.” And that’s exactly what the Suleymaniye Mosque, built by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century, is. Set high on Istanbul’s Third Hill, this magnificent mosque is surrounded by gardens and marble colonnades, and offers great views of the city.
