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Not sure where to start? Pick a path. Each one lines up articles on the same subject in chronological order, and every article ends with a link to the next stop.

Anatolia’s oldest roots

From the stone temples of Göbekli Tepe to the first coins of Lydia: nine thousand years of Anatolia in eight stops. 8 stops

  1. Göbekli Tepe: The 12,000-Year-Old Temple That Rewrote History
  2. Karahan Tepe and Taş Tepeler: Göbekli Tepe’s Sister Site
  3. Çatalhöyük: Was the World’s First City Built in Konya?
  4. Arslantepe Mound in Malatya: A 5,500-Year-Old Palace
  5. Hattusa: The Hittite Capital and What to See There
  6. The Treaty of Kadesh: History’s First Written Peace Treaty
  7. Ancient Troy: Where It Is and Its Nine Cities in Çanakkale
  8. The Lydians: The Anatolian People Who Invented Coinage

Timeline of this path →

The Turks, from the steppe to Manzikert

From Modu Chanyu’s steppe state to the Orkhon inscriptions, from Dandanaqan to Manzikert: the Turks’ road to Anatolia across more than twelve centuries. 8 stops

  1. Modu Chanyu: The Hun Ruler Who Created the Decimal Army
  2. Attila the Hun: The Ruler Who Terrified Europe (434–453)
  3. Asena and the Grey Wolf: Origin of the Turkic Wolf Legend
  4. The Orkhon Inscriptions: Oldest Written Turkish Texts
  5. The Uyghur Khaganate: Cities, Scripts and Printing
  6. The Kara-Khanids: The First Turkish State to Embrace Islam
  7. The Battle of Dandanaqan 1040: Birth of the Seljuk State
  8. The Battle of Manzikert 1071: How Anatolia’s Gate Opened

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Seljuk Anatolia

From a state founded in Nicaea (İznik) to Konya’s golden years, from the defeat at Köse Dağ to the beyliks: two centuries of Seljuk Anatolia. 8 stops

  1. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum: The Turkish State Ruled from Konya
  2. First Crusade Through Anatolia: Nicaea, Dorylaeum, Antioch
  3. Battle of Myriokephalon 1176: Date, Location and Outcome
  4. Kayqubad I: The Golden Age of the Seljuks of Rum Explained
  5. Seljuk Caravanserais: Silk Road Hotels Every 40 Kilometers
  6. The Battle of Köse Dağ 1243: Seljuks Defeated by Mongols
  7. Who Was Rumi? His Tomb in Konya and the Story of the Masnavi
  8. Karamanids: The Beylik That Made Turkish Official

Timeline of this path →

The Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) and Constantinople

A thousand years of an empire that called itself Roman: from Constantine’s capital to Hagia Sophia, from the sack of 1204 to 29 May 1453. 8 stops

  1. Who Were the Byzantines? 1,100 Years of Eastern Rome
  2. The Column of Constantine: Relics Beneath Çemberlitaş?
  3. The Council of Nicaea, 325: How the Creed Was Decided in İznik
  4. The Walls of Constantinople: Unbreached for a Thousand Years
  5. Justinian and the Nika Riots: The Emperor Who Built Hagia Sophia
  6. The History of Hagia Sophia: Church, Mosque, Museum, Mosque
  7. The Fourth Crusade 1204: How Latins Sacked Constantinople
  8. Constantine XI: How the Last Byzantine Emperor Died, May 29, 1453

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An introduction to the Ottomans

From a small beylik in Söğüt to a six-hundred-year empire: foundation, conquests, crises, reforms and the last sultan, in ten stops. 10 stops

  1. Osman Gazi and the Founding of the Ottoman State
  2. Orhan Gazi and the Conquest of Bursa: The First Ottoman Capital
  3. The Ottoman Interregnum: Four Brothers’ War for the Throne
  4. Mehmed the Conqueror: Life of the Sultan Who Took Constantinople
  5. The Battle of Mohács: The Two-Hour Battle That Ended Hungary
  6. Mimar Sinan: The Master Architect of the Ottoman Empire
  7. The Second Siege of Vienna, 1683: Where Ottoman Decline Began
  8. The Tulip Era: How the Ottoman Age of Pleasure Ended
  9. Who Were the Janissaries? Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Corps
  10. Mehmed VI Vahideddin: The Last Sultan, Traitor or Victim?

Timeline of this path →

From Gallipoli to the Republic

From 18 March 1915 to the alphabet reform: Mudros, Samsun, Sivas, the Assembly, Sakarya, the Great Offensive, Lausanne and 29 October 1923, in ten stops. 10 stops

  1. The Gallipoli Campaign: How ‘Çanakkale Is Impassable’ Came True
  2. The Armistice of Mudros: The De Facto End of the Ottoman Empire
  3. The SS Bandırma and May 19, 1919: The Voyage to Samsun
  4. The Sivas Congress: Rejecting Foreign Mandate in 1919
  5. National Sovereignty and Children’s Day: April 23, 1920 Story
  6. Battle of Sakarya: Turning Point of the War of Independence
  7. The Great Offensive and August 30: How the War Was Won
  8. The Treaty of Lausanne: What It Decided for Modern Turkey
  9. The Proclamation of the Republic, October 29, 1923 Explained
  10. Atatürk’s Reforms: Alphabet, Dress, Calendar and Surname Law

Timeline of this path →