I made my first visit to Turkey in 2019 during a stopover on my way to Kazakhstan. I had found Istanbul quite fascinating with its mixture of ancient culture and architecture embedded in a vibrant modern city and vowed to return to see more of the country.

Fast forward to 2023, and I did just that when I spent over two weeks in Turkey, traveling by train and bus across the width of the country. I revisited Istanbul before boarding the first of seven trains. Along the way I admired Roman ruins, incredible churches and mosques, and astonishing landscapes. There was great architecture, even on mountain sides and underground. On one amazing day, I took a balloon ride over Cappadocia at sunrise and then boarded the Doğu Ekspresi at midnight for a ride to the far border with Armenia.

This book contains photographs from both that short visit in the 2019 and my long tour in 2023.