Large miniature theme park with 100-plus models.

Step back in time and witness the fall of Constantinople.

Ancient serpentine sacrifice holder that has stood the test of time.

A fountain standing as a testament to a doomed alliance.

This museum was invented in a novel before being made real by the author.

The home-turned-museum of Barış Manço, the mustachioed Turkish Elvis for children.

The legendary luxury train passage is commemorated with a charming museum inside its former eastern terminus.

The most metal church of all time was built in record time because of an international, pious pissing contest.

No one is sure if the world's fourth-largest diamond had been found in a rubbish heap or was pawned by Napoleon's mom.

This former Imperial summer home was the venue for a royal slap that once echoed 'round the world.

An Art Nouveau gem hides beneath the layers of city grime obscuring this once-magnificent building.

The eclectic home of a leading Turkish architect is a gorgeous piece of eye candy.

This shuttered power plant is now Turkey's first industrial archaeology museum.

Legend says if you stick your thumb in the hole and it gets wet your wish will be granted.

A surprising and unconventional mosque hidden in the subsoil of Istanbul.

A section of the long chain that blocked enemy ships from entering Constantinople.

A sixth-century Byzantine cistern hidden below a modern carpet store.

Climb a set of vertiginous stone steps to the top of this impressive ancient edifice.

This historic hotel preserves many treasures from its heyday hosting passengers on the Orient Express.

A tiny park in the middle of some big power politics.

One of the largest wooden constructions in Europe was meant to be a casino, but soon became an orphanage.

Climb a steep hill in 90 seconds on the second-oldest urban subway in the world.

This column celebrates Rome's victory over the Goths, and may be the oldest Roman monument in Istanbul.

Quite possibly the oldest love poem known to humankind.