Assos

Last update September 24, 2026

Located on the northwestern coast of Turkey, Assos has a small fishing harbour and an ancient city situated on a hilltop occupying the same cliff face which looks out over the Aegean Sea and the Greek island of Lesbos across the water. Nothing else makes the detour from the main travel route between Istanbul and the coast worthwhile. If you climb up from the harbour you will come to the ruins of an ancient city where Aristotle once taught, having stayed there for several years to study natural philosophy before Alexander the Great called him to tutor his son.

The Temple of Athena is located at the highest point, its columns being only partly rebuilt, and on clear days the view from there extends over the sea to Lesbos. It is one of the best places in the area to see the sunset, there being much fewer people there than at similarly attractive ruins elsewhere in Turkey. The old theater and the city walls are worth taking a more leisurely walk around, particularly as the site is never very crowded even during peak season.

At the harbor, the town is small and was designed with the idea of staying there rather than for the purpose of sightseeing. A few restaurants are situated along the water, offering fish that was caught that morning, and a number of boutique hotels are located in the old stone buildings which originally housed fishermen and not tourists. If you are there in the evening after the day-trippers from the ruins have gone, you’ll find the harbor becomes quiet, a kind of quiet that is difficult to find in the more crowded areas of the coast.

It is better to use Assos as a place to stay over night rather than just pass through it, since the main attraction lies in the contrast between the ancient site on the hill and the modern harbour below. The town goes well with a trip to Troy, which is about one hour and a half north, or it can be included as part of a longer route along the northern Aegean coast. If you spend a night or two there, you’ll end up with a more peaceful and relaxed experience of coastal Turkey than that offered by the more developed resort areas further south.