Surrounded by water on three sides, the city of Istanbul straddles Europe and Asia and is one of the largest urban centres in the world. It is a global city whose layers of archaeology and architecture have evolved over centuries in the historic political and religious centre of the eastern Mediterranean. The enviable site was first settled in the seventh-century BCE by Greek fishermen. In 330 CE, the Emperor Constantine chose the trading centre, then known as Byzantium, as his new capital of the eastern Roman Empire. Renamed Constantinople, the holiest and most magnificent city in eastern Christendom was graced with the great domed basilica of Aya Sofya, the ‘Church of Holy Wisdom’. Completed in 537 CE, it was the world’s largest cathedral and an architectural inspiration for nearly a thousand years. The coveted city, surrounded by water on three sides, was all but destitute in 1453 when the Ottoman sultan Mehmet II, ‘the Conqueror’ (r. 1451- 1481), stormed its ancient defence walls. After taking control from the final Byzantine emperor, he began the process of transforming the stricken city into the third and last Ottoman capital, Istanbul, with one of the most distinctive skylines in the world. Modern Istanbul is a booming metropolis, with fascinating street life, beguiling bazaars, lively restaurants and internationally-recognised and fast-evolving architecture, design and contemporary art.
Explore the rich layered legacies of Aeolian and Ionian Greeks, Hellenistic kingdoms, Roman ‘Asia’, and Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman empires that underpin today’s vibrant Turkey. From Istanbul we travel to Bursa, first Ottoman capital, with superb early Ottoman buildings like the famed Green Mosque and Green Mausoleum of Sultan Mehmet I, lovely houses and old caravanserais. On the Aegean coast we visit Gallipoli, the remains of Troy and Graeco-Roman cities such as Assos, Ephesus, Priene and Miletus. Turning inland we travel to Roman Aphrodisias, Hierapolis at Pamukkale; and to Konya, capital of the Seljuks of Rum and site of the shrine of Islam’s most famous mystic, Jalad ad-Din Rumi, founder of the Whirling Dervishes. We make a special visit to the famous Neolithic site of Çatal Höyük, arguably the world’s earliest city. From Konya we journey across the Anatolian heartlands to Cappadocia, visiting the underground Byzantine cities and churches of Göreme. A special highlight is Hattusha, famous ancient capital of the Hittites. We continue to Ankara, Turkey’s modern capital, with the award-winning Museum of Anatolian Civilizations.
Eastern Turkey is a rugged land beyond the Upper Euphrates, seedbed of human civilisation, for millennia a strategic Imperial frontier with a rich, diverse history stretching back beyond 10,000 BC. We begin in Gaziantep, viewing magnificent Roman mosaics of ancient Zeugma and enjoying some of Turkey’s best provincial cuisine. At Halfeti we cruise the Euphrates to the Hellenistic / Roman Rumkale Fortress, and then traverse the lofty peaks of the Taurus Mountains to Nemrut Dagh, where huge statues of gods grace remote hilltop terraces. At Sanliurfa, reputedly the birthplace of Abraham, we view the Haleplibahçe Roman mosaics, and the extraordinary site of Göbleki Teke, the world’s oldest stone temple, with eerie zoomorphic carved megalith pillars. We also visit sublime Orthodox limestone monasteries of Tur Abdin – an ancient centre of Syriac Christianity, and the medieval towns of Mardin and Midyat which boast magnificent old houses, mosques and madrasas in golden stone. We study intricate wall-carvings in the Armenian Church of the Holy Cross on Akdamar Island on Lake Van, and view an Urartian fortress-palace and Kurdish citadel. In the foothills of soaring Mount Ararat, where Noah’s Ark reputedly settled after the flood, we visit the spectacularly sited complex of Ishak Pasha Sarayi. At Erzurum we explore superb Seljuk architecture and visit the magnificently decorated Armenian 10th-century monasteries of Ösk Vank and Khakhuli. We cross the heavily wooded Pontic Mountains, following the route of Xenephon’s famed Anabasis, journeying down to the cool Black Sea littoral, home of the (Byzantine) Trapezuntine Empire (1205-1461). Here we visit Trabzon’s fine church of Hagia Sophia and the extraordinary mountain monastery of Sümela.
The Mediterranean coast of Southern Turkey features spectacular craggy mountains and sparsely inhabited picturesque coves which look out on a breathtaking azure sea. For millennia the ‘Turquoise Coast’ has witnessed the rise and fall of empires – Carians, Lycians, Persians, Athenians, Ptolemaic Egypt, Seleucid Syria, Rome, Byzantium, the Seljuks and Ottomans. Our journey follows myriad traders, exploring a rich trove of archaeological remains in once flourishing ancient maritime cities that died when the coasts silted. The beautiful harbour city of Antalya, is the ‘capital’ of the Turquoise Coast. It provides an excellent base for visiting two great Pamphylian cities, Perge and Aspendos, as well as to the Pisidian city of Termessos which is perched on a precipitous gorge overlooking the Antalya Gulf. Crossing the coastal plain of Pamphylia via Olympos and Phaselis you reach the ancient Lycian port of Myra, departure point for the great grain ships upon which the food supply of Rome once depended. Continuing west by cruising in and around rocky headlands you can visit other ruins of cities that made up the Kingdom of Lycia including Patara, Xanthos and Kas. The Turkish harbour city of Bodrum on the Aegean coast, was once known as Halicarnassus. It was one of the largest cities of the Carian people, and is the location of the great Mausoleum, one of Pliny’s Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Bodrum also features the magnificent waterfront castle built by he Knights Hospitaller; within lies the Museum of Underwater Archaeology containing the remains of five ancient shipwrecks and other underwater finds.
