Ankara

Hittite and Phrygian finds are gathered in one building, and the building itself was a caravanserai. Carved lions and reliefs run along the walls of the main hall. It sits just below the citadel, so you can walk up to the walls afterwards.

An avenue of stone lions leads to the steps up to the mausoleum hall. The guard changes at set hours and the walkway is cleared for it. The site is broad enough that the gate to the hall alone takes over fifteen minutes.

You can walk along the wall itself, and the city opens on every side from up there. Some stretches have no railing, so the edge is not the place to stand. People still live inside the walls and the washing hangs across the lanes.

A mosque and a Roman temple share a wall here. Inside the temple, Augustus's account of his own deeds is cut in Latin and Greek, and this copy survives more completely than any other. During prayer the mosque side is left to worshippers.

A whole block of failing Ottoman timber houses was restored lane by lane. Tea houses and craft workshops fill them now, and at weekends the wedding photographers move in.

The Phrygian capital stood here, and a large mound carrying Midas's name rises from the plain. A cut passage takes you in to the timber burial chamber, though the man buried there is now read as his father rather than Midas. It joined the UNESCO list in 2023.

A locomotive depot was not pulled down but emptied out and turned into a contemporary art museum. The ceiling is high with few columns, so large installations turn up often.

A lake inside the university grounds south of the centre, with a cycle path around it. The queue for hire bikes grows at weekends, so a weekday afternoon is the quiet time.

The slope up to the citadel is market on both sides the whole way. One stretch sells spices and dried fruit, another beats copper into shape. The climb is steep, and a heavy bag makes the way back down harder.

A town west of Ankara where whitewashed timber houses and silversmiths' workshops follow the narrow hill lanes.

A vast mosque completed in 1987, copying the classical Ottoman style down to its four minarets. Hilltop placement makes the dome visible across town. A shopping centre and supermarket occupy the basement, so some worshippers shop before prayers.

A private museum opened in 2015 on the slope below the citadel, strong on Roman-era finds. Glass floors show mock excavation pits, and the labels explain well. Lying between the citadel and the Anatolian Civilisations museum, it fits one walking loop.

An industrial museum of old cars, machines and toys inside Cengelhan, a caravanserai of 1523. Vintage vehicles parked in the central courtyard grab attention. Facing the citadel gate, it makes an easy detour.

Remains of a 3rd-century Roman bath, rows of the brick stacks that held up its heated floors still in place. Gravestones and sarcophagi lie about the surrounding lawn. Walkable from Ulus square and rarely busy.

The Hittite capital, at Bogazkale some 200km east, is World Heritage listed. The circuit of walls, with the Lion Gate and an underground tunnel, is big enough to drive round. Nearby Yazilikaya, a rock sanctuary, is carved with processions of gods.

A salt lake about 150km south, the second largest in Turkey. It is so shallow that summer bares a white salt crust you can wade out on barefoot. The glare bounces straight back, so pack sunglasses.