Must-see places with best landscapes in Turkey

One of the most attractive stretches of Turkey's Turquoise Coast, the little beach town of Ölüdeniz sits just south of Fethiye, where the Aegean meets the Mediterranean. In addition to just sitting back and enjoying this Blue Flag beach, you can also get into paragliding here. Cappadocia is one of the country's hottest tourist attractions, with a truly unique landscape. You can sleep in a cave hotel and rise before the sun to go on a hot-air balloon ride over Cappadocia. Hike the 300-mile Lycian Way, which stretches from Ölüdeniz to just shy of Antalya. The route has many inland sections but provides plenty of awesome sea views from ridges and mountains high above the water, and also passes through plenty of ruins. Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey, spans Europe and Asia — it occupies land on both sides of the Bosphorus Strait. Apart from this geographical fact, the defining features of Istanbul's landscape come from its architecture, along with countless other gorgeous and historic structures. At Pamukkale in Denizli Province, natural hot springs flowing for millennia down the slope of a small mountain have created a series of terraced pools formed of pure white travertine. The effect is magical and probably unlike anything you've seen before. Turkey's largest lake, covering 1,450 square miles with a maximum depth over 1,400 feet, Lake Van sits in the southeast of the country. Akdamar Island in Lake Van, is the site of a 10th-century church, while the ruins of monastic facilities have been found on the other islands. Kaputaş Beach lies 10 miles or so west of Kaş, at the outlet of a narrow valley, bookended by steep cliffs. The geography here has prevented hotels or other infrastructure from springing up to take advantage of this sweet stretch of sand on the Turquoise Coast. Mount Ararat, in far eastern Turkey, is associated with the mountains named in the Book of Genesis as the landing place of Noah's Ark following the flood. It dominates the landscape of the entire region, visible for dozens of miles in most directions. Built into a steep cliff face above the Altındere Valley, Sumela Monastery in Trabzon province was founded in the 4th century AD and inhabited on and off through the centuries. Kaçkar Mountains is another spectacular attraction which rises above the Black Sea coast in eastern Turkey.