HALL OF MYRIAD PATHS
Traditions present: Islam, Orthodox Christianity, Catholicism, Ancestor Veneration
Twenty places written in Turkey. Each carries its history, architecture, site and orientation, festivals, and the way to get there.
Each dot is one placeHover to see its name, click to open its page
All 20 pages now have an English version.
An early 17th-century Ottoman imperial mosque on the historic peninsula of Istanbul, begun in 1609 by Sultan Ahmed I and architect Sedefkar Mehmed Agha, featuring six minarets, a 43-meter central dome, and 21,043 blue-and-turquoise İznik ceramic tiles, inscribed within the Historic Areas of Istanbul UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.
Photo: Ank Kumar, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
A supreme architectural monument erected under Byzantine Emperor Justinian I between 532 and 537 by scholar-architects Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus with a central dome 31.87 meters in diameter rising 55.6 meters high on pendentives, serving for nearly a millennium as the Patriarchal Cathedral of Constantinople before becoming an imperial Ottoman mosque in 1453.
Photo: Adli Wahid, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
The premier Sufi pilgrimage shrine and resting place of the thirteenth-century mystic poet Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (Mevlânâ, 1207 - 1273) in the former Seljuk capital of Konya, founded in 1274 by architect Badr al-Din Tabrizi beneath the turquoise-tiled Green Dome (Kubbe-i Hadra) and serving as the mother lodge of the Mevlevi Whirling Dervishes.
Photo: Emad Nemati, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
The imperial Ottoman mosque crowning Istanbul's Third Hill, commissioned by Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent and built by chief imperial architect Mimar Sinan between 1550 and 1557, celebrated for its 53-meter-high central dome, four minarets with ten balconies, and surrounding Külliye welfare complex.
Photo: Hunanuk, CC0, Wikimedia Commons
A revered Christian and Muslim pilgrimage shrine on Mount Bülbüldağı (Mount Koressos) near ancient Ephesus, traditionally honored as the first-century stone house where the Virgin Mary lived her final years in the care of Saint John the Apostle, rediscovered on July 29, 1891 through the published visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich.
Photo: Erik Cleves Kristensen, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
The world's oldest known monumental ritual complex crowning the Germuş limestone ridge near Şanlıurfa in southeastern Türkiye, constructed by Pre-Pottery Neolithic hunter-gatherers between 9600 and 8200 BCE with circular enclosures of monolithic T-shaped limestone pillars representing stylized ancestors and carved with dynamic wild animal reliefs.
Photo: Teomancimit, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
The supreme masterpiece of classical Ottoman architecture crowning the central hill of the former imperial capital of Edirne, designed by chief architect Koca Mimar Sinan between 1568 and 1574 for Sultan Selim II with a single 31.25-meter central dome resting on eight octagonal piers and four slender 83-meter minarets.
Photo: User:Ggia, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
A thirteenth-century masterpiece of medieval Islamic architecture and stone sculpture in the mountain valley of Divriği, Sivas Province, erected in 1228 to 1229 by Mengüjekid ruler Ahmed Shah and Queen Turan Melek under chief architect Khurramshah of Ahlat, uniting a 25-vault congregational mosque and a psychiatric healing hospital famous for four monumental three-dimensional carved stone portals.
Photo: Bertramz, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
A monastic valley of Eastern Orthodox churches, chapels, and refectories carved directly into the volcanic tuff cliffs and fairy chimneys of Cappadocia in Nevşehir Province from the fourth to the thirteenth centuries, preserving the cenobitic legacy of Saint Basil the Great and radiant Middle Byzantine frescoes in the Dark Church, Buckle Church, and Apple Church.
Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
A dramatic Eastern Orthodox cliffside monastery clinging at an elevation of 1,200 meters to the sheer basalt face of Mount Karadağ above the Altındere Valley in Trabzon Province, founded by tradition in 386 CE to house the miraculous icon of Panagia Soumela attributed to Saint Luke and patronage-enriched by the Emperors of Trebizond and Ottoman Sultans.
Photo: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
The supreme surviving jewel of the Late Byzantine Palaeologan Renaissance near the Edirnekapı Land Walls in Fatih, Istanbul, rebuilt and adorned between 1315 and 1321 by statesman and scholar Theodore Metochites with radiant gold mosaics and the celebrated Anastasis fresco before its conversion into the Kariye Mosque in 1511.
Photo: PlanetKorriban, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
The holiest Islamic pilgrimage sanctuary in Istanbul on the upper shores of the Golden Horn outside the ancient city walls, founded in 1458 by Sultan Mehmed II at the tomb of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (the revered Companion and standard-bearer of the Prophet Muhammad) and rebuilt in 1798 to 1800 in Ottoman Baroque style by Sultan Selim III, serving for over four centuries as the site of the Imperial Sword-Girding ceremony.
Photo: Bjelica, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
The royal tomb-sanctuary (Hierothesion) at the 2,134-meter summit of Mount Nemrut in Adıyaman Province, southeastern Türkiye, built circa 62 to 38 BCE by King Antiochus I Theos of the Kingdom of Commagene around a 50-meter crushed-stone tumulus flanked by monumental East and West Terraces bearing 9-meter-tall enthroned statues of syncretic Greco-Persian gods, paternal Persian and maternal Greek ancestor stelae, and the world's oldest surviving stone Lion Horoscope (dated July 7, 62 BCE). Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
Photo: W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
The largest and most revered multi-domed congregational mosque of the early Ottoman Empire in the first imperial capital of Bursa, built between 1396 and 1399 by Sultan Bayezid I with twenty hemispherical domes carried on twelve massive stone piers, a sixteen-sided interior ablution fountain beneath an open oculus, and an unrivaled collection of 192 monumental Islamic calligraphic works.
Photo: Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
The monumental volcanic-tuff cathedral and surrounding border churches crowning the triangular plateau of medieval Ani above the Akhurian River gorge in Kars Province, highlighted by the Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God (completed in 1001 by the royal architect Trdat for Queen Katranide II) alongside the frescoed Church of Saint Gregory of Tigran Honents and the split rotunda of the Church of the Holy Redeemer.
Photo: Jaba1977, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
The monumental sixth-century six-domed cruciform pilgrimage basilica on the southern slope of Ayasuluk Hill in Selçuk overlooking ancient Ephesus and the Temple of Artemis, built between 548 and 565 CE by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I and Empress Theodora directly over the tomb of Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist.
Photo: Giorgio Galeotti, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
One of Christianity's oldest places of worship carved into the western limestone cliff of Mount Stauris overlooking Antakya (ancient Antioch on the Orontes), where Saint Peter the Apostle preached and served as first bishop and where the followers of Jesus were called Christians for the very first time in history according to the Acts of the Apostles (11:26).
Photo: Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
The supreme spiritual seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople located in the historic Phanar (Fener) quarter on the Golden Horn since 1601, serving as the mother church for over 300 million Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide and housing the Column of the Flagellation of Christ, the Throne of St. John Chrysostom, and the relics of the Cappadocian Fathers and early Christian women saints.
Photo: Klearchos Kapoutsis from Santorini, Greece, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
The largest and most vibrant Roman Catholic minor basilica in Türkiye located along pedestrian İstiklal Avenue in Istanbul's Beyoğlu district, designed in Venetian Neo-Gothic red brick between 1906 and 1912 by the Italian-Levantine architect Giulio Mongeri, closely associated with the ten-year ministry of Pope Saint John XXIII, and beloved across Istanbul as an interfaith sanctuary of prayer.
Photo: Giorgio Galeotti, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
The ancient Byzantine domed basilica in the Mediterranean town of Demre (ancient Myra in Lycia, Antalya Province), built between the sixth and eleventh centuries directly over the original burial place and fourth-century church floor of Saint Nicholas of Myra (c. 270 to 343 CE), the beloved Christian bishop and wonderworker whose secret gift-giving inspired the global figure of Santa Claus.
Photo: Eleroja, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
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From Wikimedia Commons under open licences, each credited to its photographer, or photographed by UK MASTER ACADEMY. No image is published without both its author and its licence.
Four tests: it is officially listed as a heritage site, it belongs to a tradition this library covers, its site and orientation can be read in feng shui terms, and an openly licensed photograph exists.
The library opens one country at a time, beginning with the countries that have the most readers, and within each country with its most significant places. A grey country is simply one whose turn has not come. Suggestions are welcome through the page of Master Ưng Khiêm.
