Türkiye's cultural attractions pulled in a record 34.8 million visitors in 2025, according to Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, who announced the figures with a tidy revenue number attached: more than TL 7.3 billion, roughly $204 million.
The star of the show was Ephesus, the vast ancient city near Izmir, which topped the list with 2,552,734 visitors. Close behind came Hierapolis at Pamukkale in Denizli — the travertine-terrace site where you can swim between Roman columns — with 2,302,218.
Cappadocia's sites filled much of the rest of the leaderboard. The Göreme open-air museum counted 1,187,185 visitors and the fairy-chimney valley of Paşabağları 1,143,434, while the underground cities of Kaymaklı (688,459) and Derinkuyu (548,687) proved that descending eight storeys below ground remains a reliable crowd-pleaser. In Istanbul, Galata Tower drew 953,537 people up its medieval ramparts, and the Istanbul Archaeological Museums brought in 534,602.
Further afield, the legendary site of Troy recorded 360,209 visitors, and Bodrum's Museum of Underwater Archaeology — home to one of the world's great collections of shipwreck finds — welcomed 312,951.
Ersoy framed the numbers as proof that cultural tourism in the country is on the rise, from Ephesus to Göreme, and pledged continued investment in preserving and promoting the heritage behind them.
For travellers, the takeaway is straightforward: Türkiye's headline ancient sites are busier than ever, and that should shape how you plan. Ephesus and Hierapolis in high summer can feel like a queue rather than a ruin, so go at opening time or in the shoulder seasons of April-May and September-October. Cappadocia's spread of sites — Göreme, Paşabağları, the underground cities — rewards a two- or three-day stay rather than a rushed day trip, and buying a museum pass can streamline entry. The quieter names on this list, like Bodrum's underwater museum or Troy, often deliver more breathing room than the top two.
If 34.8 million people voted with their feet in 2025, the sites are worth the hype — they just reward a little strategy.
