What this project is
Antik Rota (Ancient Route) is a free route planner and encyclopedic guide dedicated to the ancient cities of Türkiye. It brings together two things travellers usually have to piece together themselves: a map-based planner that suggests historical stops along the road between your start and destination, and in-depth articles on roughly 140 ancient cities scattered across Anatolia.
The goal is simple — to make Anatolia's archaeological heritage easier to discover, plan around, and understand, whether you are an academic, a student, or simply curious.
How routes are computed
Routes are calculated with OSRM (the Open Source Routing Machine) running on road data from OpenStreetMap. When you enter a starting point and a destination, the planner finds the driving route between them and surfaces the ancient cities that lie close to that corridor, so you can weave history into an ordinary journey.
Distances and travel times are estimates based on open road data and may differ from conditions on the ground. Always check current road and site-access information before you travel.
How the cities and articles were compiled
The catalogue of roughly 140 sites was assembled by collecting the coordinates and names of ancient cities across Türkiye and cross-checking them against public and historical sources. Each city article is written to give a faithful overview of the site's history, the civilisations connected to it, and what remains to be seen today.
We aim for accuracy and revise entries as better information becomes available. If you spot an error, we would genuinely like to hear about it.
Data sources and attribution
This project is built on open data and open tools, and we are grateful to the communities behind them:
- © OpenStreetMap contributors — map & road data
- Project OSRM — routing engine
- CC BY-SA 4.0 — content licence
An independent project
Antik Rota is an independent, academic and research-oriented project. It is not affiliated with any government body, tourism agency, or commercial tour operator, and it does not sell tickets or tours. It exists to share knowledge about Anatolia's ancient past.
Contact
Questions, corrections, or suggestions are always welcome. You can reach the project at:
ugurdarr@gmail.com