Topkapı is the most popular monument

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

Hürriyet Photo

According to the latest data taken from the Culture and Tourism Ministry of Turkey, Topkapı Palace is the most-visited monument in Turkey. The palace attracted the highest number of visitors during the first two months of 2013.

After Topkapı, the Mevlana Museum ranked second on the list. While Topkapı Palace was visited by 325,685 people, the Hagia Sophia attracted a total of 313,549 people during the first two months of the year.

Other places in Turkey such as Ephesus, Denizli Hierapolis and Göreme Open Air Museum also ranked high on the list.

In the first half of last year, Topkapı Palace and the Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul and Ephesus in İzmir once again were the top three places visited by tourists, the Culture and Tourism Ministry said, noting that it had earned over a billion Turkish Liras from entrance fees around the country. A total of 189 museums and 131 historical sites managed by the Culture and Tourism Ministry were visited by almost 13 million people in the first half of 2012.