Most guides will tell you about an archaeological site. Betül Başak has dug one. A licensed Istanbul guide since 2011 with a BA in Classical Archaeology and an MA in Art History, she spent years in the field before she ever led a tour — at excavations on the Aegean coast, and as an archaeologist on the Marmaray underwater tunnel project beneath the Bosphorus. That background comes with her into every street, monument, and layer of the city. And she does it with a laugh that tends to carry.
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She Dug Before She Guided
Betül grew up in Bursa and went south to study at Ege University in Izmir — Classical Archaeology, with a thesis on terracotta figurines from the necropolis of Antandros, a half-forgotten ancient city on the northern Aegean shore. She didn’t just write about it; for three summers she joined the active digs there, learning stratigraphy in the ground rather than on the page.
After graduation she spent a year in the United States before returning to Istanbul, where she interned at the Rahmi Koç Museum and in 2007 joined one of the most significant excavations the city has ever seen.
The Marmaray Project — the rail tunnel linking Istanbul’s Asian and European sides beneath the Bosphorus — turned out to be an archaeologist’s dream inside a civil engineering project. Byzantine harbour walls, Neolithic settlements, layers of city life compressed into a single trench. Betül spent two years cataloguing and dating it all. It remains one of the richest urban excavations in the world, and she was there for it.
Then Came the Master's & the Mic
While still on the Marmaray dig, Betül began a Master’s degree in Art History at Istanbul Technical University. Her thesis moved into unexpectedly rich territory: the Ottoman Empire’s participation in the 1910 Munich Exhibition, subtitled “Masterpieces of Islamic Art” — a close reading of archival documents, displayed objects, and the political calculations behind what an empire chose to show the world. The research eventually became a published book chapter.
“I wanted to bring together all my knowledge and interests and share them — to meet people from all around the world and pass along my experience.”
She graduated in 2011, took her Ministry of Culture and Tourism guiding licence, and for two semesters taught City and Culture: Istanbul at Işık University — an English-language humanities course that drew on everything she’d spent a decade accumulating. In 2017 she joined a TRT documentary project on the civilisations of Anatolia. It was, by that point, exactly what her career had been building towards.
Istanbul, Read from the Inside Out
Istanbul is where Betül guides today — and few guides bring what she brings to it. The city she walks with guests is the same city she excavated beneath, studied in graduate seminars, and taught as a humanities course.
Every neighbourhood carries a layer she can read: the Byzantine city beneath the Ottoman one, the Neolithic harbours beneath both. She lives in Kadıköy on the Asian side, and carries that neighbourhood with her the way locals do — not as a fact, but as a point of view.
Over the years she has also guided across Turkey — through Cappadocia, to sites like Göbeklitepe and Karahantepe in the southeast, and along the western Aegean to Priene, her favourite archaeological site anywhere in the country. These remain personal obsessions — places she returns to, reads about, and knows deeply — even as her guiding is now rooted in Istanbul.
Who She Works Best With
Ask her something she doesn’t expect and she’ll give you ten minutes you didn’t plan for. That’s the version of a tour Betül finds interesting — not the recitation, but the detour. She has a full album of original music, a weakness for sarma, and a laugh that tends to set the tone for the day. She works best with guests who are genuinely curious about what they’re standing in front of — and who don’t mind the answer going somewhere unexpected.
- Travellers with an interest in archaeology or ancient history — she can go as deep as you want
- Anyone exploring Istanbul who wants to understand the city’s layers, not just its landmarks
- Guests who come with questions rather than just a camera — the kind who want to understand a place, not just see it
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
Book Betül Now
We are proud to represent Betül Başak for private guiding in Istanbul and selected destinations across Türkiye. As required under Turkish tourism regulations, licensed guides are booked through licensed travel agencies rather than directly.
When you enquire through this page, our team will personally handle the planning, confirm Betül’s availability, and build the right experience around your interests, pace, and travel dates.
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