Cappadocia is one of the most breathtaking and unique places on Earth. With its fairy chimneys, hot air balloon sunrises, ancient cave dwellings, and vast underground cities, it feels like a living fairy tale. Yet most visitors only glimpse a fraction of its wonders. This video is a full exploration of Cappadocia — the best viewpoints, must-visit towns, open-air museums, secret valleys, balloon experiences, scenic hiking trails.
Balloon flight at sunrise over the spectacular landscape of Cappadocia, Turkey.
Pamukkale, Turkey is known for its mineral hot springs flowing down white travertine terraces, its name means "Cotton Castle" in Turkish. Pamukkale is also the site of the ruins of the ancient city of Hierapolis: an important Hellenistic, and later - Roman city, famous for its hot springs used as a spa.
Istanbul (former Constantinople) served as imperial capital for the Roman and Byzantine (330–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin (1204–1261), and the Ottoman (1453–1922) empires (Wikipedia). With its strategic location on the Bosphorus peninsula between the Balkans and Anatolia, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, Istanbul has been associated with major political, religious and artistic events for more than 2,000 years (UNESCO).
Nemrut Dağı (Mount Nemrut) is a mountain in Southeastern Anatolia, Turkey. On the top of the mountain is one of the most fascinating sites in Turkey - the funerary mound of Antiochus I who ruled the Greco-Persian kingdom of Commagene in the 1st century BCE.
The famous large statues of the king and various Greek and Persian gods surround a 50-meter-high burial mound on the summit, where the archeologists have been looking for the royal tomb, but it has never been found. The statues sit on two terraces, their heads toppled from the bodies in ancient earthquakes. The video shows the Eastern Terrace at sunrise and the Western Terrace at sunset.
Nemrut Dağı is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Ancient city of Ephesus is a renowned World Heritage Site, that comprises "successive Hellenistic and Roman settlements... Excavations have revealed grand monuments of the Roman Imperial period including the Library of Celsus and the Great Theatre. Little remains of the famous Temple of Artemis, one of the “Seven Wonders of the World”, which drew pilgrims from all around the Mediterranean. Since the 5th century, the House of the Virgin Mary... became a major place of Christian pilgrimage.”
Göbekli Tepe is a Neolithic archaeological site in Southeastern Turkey, which is widely considered the oldest known religious complex, sometimes described as the "zero point of history". The site was built by nomadic hunter-gatherers more than 11,000 years ago, not for shelter, but as a ritual site. It has been in use for more than a thousand years, attracting worshipers from far away. The monumental architecture at Göbekli Tepe presents humanity's oldest known monumental megalithic structures, predating those at Stonehenge by some 6,000 years. Göbekli Tepe is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Dara Ancient City became an important fortress city during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I, at the beginning of the 6th century, in the Northern Region of Mesopotamia, at the border with Persia. The East Romans left behind rock tombs, impressive cisterns, churches. Today the ruins of ancient Dara are located in the south-eastern Anatolian province of Mardin, almost on the border with Syria.