Turkey Travel Guide

The State Agora of Smyrna is the most complete Greco-Roman site in central Izmir, laid out in the fourth century BC with the Hellenistic refounding of the city as its civic, commercial and religious square. After the earthquake of AD 178 it was rebuilt under Marcus Aurelius, and most of what survives — Corinthian colonnades, the Faustina relief on the west gate and the long basilica on the north side — dates from that phase. The vaulted basement of the basilica preserves extensive Roman graffiti of ships, gladiators and love notes, the most absorbing part of a visit. This was a public square, not a town hall.

Konak Clock Tower stands in the middle of Konak Square, built in 1901 for the twenty-fifth anniversary of Sultan Abdülhamid II's accession and designed by the French architect Raymond Charles Péré. The 25-metre marble shaft carries North African and Andalusian detailing, the clock faces were a gift from Kaiser Wilhelm II, and the small fountains at its base still run. Pigeons crowd the square, with the tiny Konak Mosque and the ferry pier alongside — İzmir's most photographed corner.

Before it was a mosque, Zeyrek was the 12th-century Monastery of Christ Pantokrator, built under Empress Irene, wife of John II — the second-largest church complex in Constantinople after Hagia Sophia, and tied to imperial coronations and burials. After the Ottoman conquest the complex became a mosque, yet its thick walls, narrow windows and triple-arched silhouette still announce middle-Byzantine architecture at a glance. It crowns the hill above the Golden Horn, overlooking the Valens Aqueduct, and gave its name to the UNESCO-listed Zeyrek quarter. Weathered but dignified, it is the best physical lesson in the city's layered ruptures.

The Dolmabahçe Mosque — formally the Bezm-i Alem Valide Sultan Mosque — stands on the square before Dolmabahçe Palace, commissioned in the mid-19th century by the sultan's mother for the imperial household's Friday prayers. Designed in Ottoman Revival style, it balances restrained mass with delicate detail, its twin minarets and broad dome facing the Bosphorus. It makes a fascinating stylistic conversation with the extravagantly Baroque palace across the square: one looks back toward Ottoman tradition, the other toward Europe. Since it sits at the palace gates, it costs almost no detour before or after your palace visit.

The Church of St. Stephen is a cast-iron church in Istanbul's Balat quarter: in the late 19th century the Bulgarian Orthodox community replaced their wooden church with prefabricated iron sections ordered from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, shipped down the Danube and the Black Sea, then riveted together like a giant kit — a marvel of the industrial age. Its facade carries neo-Byzantine iron reliefs in grey and gold, striking amid Balat's rainbow houses. Together with the Greek school and Jewish hospital nearby, it completes the district's patchwork of faiths. The open prayer hall is a genuine iron sanctuary, and its front steps offer one of the neighborhood's most coveted photo angles.

Built in 1892 to receive Orient Express passengers, the Pera Palace Hotel was the first hotel in Turkey with an elevator — and that original lift still runs. Its Art Nouveau facade and marble staircase preserve the scale of a vanished century, while legends accrue to every corner: Agatha Christie reputedly writing 'Murder on the Orient Express' here, Hemingway's stay in Room 601, and a guest ledger of spies and celebrities. The hotel is effectively a museum, complete with a dedicated Agatha suite for guests. Even without a room, you can book a guided tour or simply order a drink at the Orient Express bar — boarding a train that never departs.