Turkey

Hagia Sophia has been a cathedral, a mosque, a museum and a mosque again since its dome was raised in 537 AD. Facing it across a park, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, known as the Blue Mosque, is clad inside with more than twenty thousand hand-painted İznik tiles.

Our tip Avoid the hours around Friday midday prayers, and carry a scarf so women can cover their hair and both men and women their shoulders.

For nearly four centuries Ottoman sultans ruled from this palace, laid out around courtyards above the meeting of the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn. Its treasury holds the Spoonmaker's Diamond, and the Harem's tiled chambers reveal the private world of the imperial family.

Our tip Buy the Harem ticket, which many visitors skip, and go there first, before the crowds arrive in the main courtyards.

The Grand Bazaar's vaulted streets shelter thousands of shops selling carpets, lamps, jewellery and ceramics. Downhill by the Golden Horn, the Spice Bazaar fills the air with saffron, sumac, dried fruits and lokum, a perfect place to find gifts to take home.

Our tip Go with a guide who knows reputable dealers, and visit on a weekday morning; the Grand Bazaar is closed on Sundays.

The strait separating Europe from Asia is lined with Ottoman palaces, wooden waterside mansions and fortresses. Dolmabahçe Palace, with its crystal staircase and chandeliers, faces the water, and a cruise north passes beneath the great suspension bridges to the fortress of Rumeli Hisarı.

Our tip Charter a private yacht for the late afternoon, timing your return for sunset over the domes and minarets of the old city.

Erosion has carved this central Anatolian plateau into fairy chimneys, ridges and valleys of soft volcanic rock. Early Christians cut churches and entire underground cities into the stone, and the Göreme Open-Air Museum preserves frescoes that still glow with colour.

Our tip Schedule the balloon flight for your first morning, so there is a second chance if winds cause the flight to be cancelled.

Once among the largest cities of the Roman world, Ephesus still has marble streets lined with temples, fountains and terraced houses. The two-storey façade of the Library of Celsus and the great theatre, which held some twenty-five thousand people, are its most striking survivors.

Our tip Enter from the upper gate and walk downhill, and add the Terrace Houses, whose mosaics and frescoes are under cover.