The Earliest Times
The Mediterranean region was inhabited as early as 7500 BC, during the Paleolithic times (Old Stone Age). By 7000 BC a Neolithic (New Stone Age) city had grown up at what's now called Catalhoyuk, 60 km. southeast of Konya. Continue reading earliest times...

Hatti and Hittites
The old Bronze Age (2600-1900 BC) was the time when Anatolian man first developed cities of substantial size. An indigenous people now named the Proto-Hittites, or the Hattians, built a cities at Kanesh (or Nesa-today's Kultepe) and Alacahoyuk. The first known ruler of Kanesh was King Zipani (about 2300 BC) according to the Akkadian texts. Continue reading about the Hittite Empire...

Hellenistic Era
Many important civilizations inhabited Anatolia at the Hellenistic Era. The Ionians were the first Greek people of Anatolia that migrated to West Anatolia fleeing from the Dorian invaders. Lydia emerged as a Neo-Hittite state after the collapse of the Hittite Empire in the Western Anatolia region with Sardis their capital. Lycians were the Greek colonists that inhabited the southwest Anatolia and was composed of 12 city-states and administered by democracy.

Alexander the Great of Macedonia and Cyrus of Persia
The end of the Hellenistic Era was the storm-like entrance of teh Persians into Anatolia from the East. Ruled by Cyrus, Persians conquered everything and everybody in the whole Anatolia. Ironically, Persians were also conquered by Alexander the Great who also stormed out of Macedonia and swept into Anatolia, from the west this time. Continue reading about the period of Cyrus and Alexander and the period after them...

The Roman Period
The Romans took Anatolia almost by default. The various Anatolian kings couldn’t refrain from picking away at Roman holdings and causing other sorts of irritation, so finally the legions marched in and took over. Defeating Antiochus III, King of Seleucia, at Magnesia (Manisa, near Izmir) in 190 BC, the Romans were content for the time being to leave ‘Asia’ (Anatolia) in the hands of the kings of Pergamum. But the last king, dying without an heir, bequeathed his kingdom to Rome (133 BC). In 129 BC, the Romans established the Province of Asia, with its capital at Ephesus. Continue reading the Roman Period...

The Birth of Christianity at Anatolia
Christianity began in Roman Palestine (Judea), but its foremost proponent, St Paul, came from Tarsus in Cilicia, in what is now southernTurkey. Paul took advantage of the excellent Roman road system to spread Jesus’s teachings. When the Romans drove the Jews out of Judea in 70 AD, Christian members of this Diaspora may have made their way to the numerous small Christian congregations in the Roman province of Asia (Anatolia). Continue reading about the birth of Christianity at Anatolia...

Byzantine Empire
Byzantine term is used since the 19th century to describe the Eastern Roman Empire centered in Istanbul (Constantinople) built after the divergence of the Roman Empire. The Byzantine Empire was also known as the Greek Empire because contrary to the Roman Empire the Byzantine Empire was mostly influenced by Greek language and culture. Continue reading about the Byzantine Empire...

The Birth of Islam
Five years after the death of Justinian, Muhammed was born in Mecca. In 612, while meditating, he heard the voice of God command him to ‘recite’ . Muhammed was to become the Messenger of God, communicating His holy word to men. The written record of these recitations, collected after Muhammed’s death into a book by his family and followers, is the Kuran. Continue reading about the birth of Islam...

The Seljuk Turks and the Seljuk Empire
Seljuks were a Muslim dynasty of Oghuz Turkic roots from the Central Asia that ruled part of the Central Asia and the Middle East between the 11th and 13th centuries. The empire they built, The Great Seljuk Empire, stretched from Anatolia to Pakistan and was centered in Konya, Anatolia. Seljuk Turks were the actual targets of the First Crusade of the Christian European Armies in the aim of saving Anatolia. Continue reading about Seljuks...

Ottoman Empire
The Ottomans built a small principality around Bursa after the Byzantine weakness leaving a power vacuum. Small Turkish tribes, each led by a warlord, took over parts of the Aegean and Marmara coasts. The Turks who moved into Bithynia, around Bursa, were followers of a man named Ertugrul. His son, Osman, founded (in about 1288) a principality which was to grow into the Osmanli (Ottoman) Empire. Continue reading the Ottomans...

Turkish Republic
After the defeat of the Ottoman Period, Anatolia lived a period of chaos where the Allies were conquering most parts of Anatolia and the Greeks conquering the Aegean Region. War of Independence, led by an idealist young Turkish General, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, was the step towards building a new modern nation. Continue reading about Turkey...