Classical Turkey: The Aegean Coast

Arrive into Istanbul and meet your Expert Guide Lecturer and fellow travellers at 6pm at your hotel in the historic district of Sultanhamet.

Meals: Dinner

Accommodation: Yasmak Sultan Hotel

Istanbul is kaleidoscopic, and every street yields a different refraction. We explore some of its major sites today, starting at the magnificent Agia Sophia, built by the Emperor Justinian in 537 AD. From here, we descend into the Yerebatan Sarnici, a vast subterranean cistern which once held enough water to sustain a city under siege. Next, we see the Hippodrome, the great public arena of Byzantine Constantinople. The grandstands are long gone, but the central spine of the track remains. Here we can also see the Obelisk of Theodosius, a single shaft of red Aswan granite, carved for the Pharaoh Thutmose III around 1450 BCE and brought to this square fifteen centuries later. We close the day at the Blue Mosque, whose six minarets and cascading domes define the Istanbul skyline. The interior is vast, its walls clad in more than 20,000 hand-painted İznik tiles, their blues ranging from cobalt to turquoise to the palest ice-white.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation: Yasmak Sultan Hotel

We make the long journey around the sea of Marmara to Cannakale, where we take the ferry across the Dardanelles and continue to Troy. This is a place to heighten the senses, and it is tantalising to imagine the Greek army ranged across the landscape while Paris paced the walls of the city and Hector duelled with Achilles. Its first excavator, Heinrich Schliemann dug between 1871 and 1879, cutting through nine later levels to get to the second, which he thought was ‘Homeric’ Troy. Following later excavations, we now know that the sixth level (1750-1300 BCE) is most likely Homer’s city. The 2025 excavation season has produced some of the most compelling evidence yet for the historical reality of a conflict behind Homer's legend – a dense concentration of sling stones, arrowheads, charred buildings and hastily buried human remains, which suggest an episode of sudden violence rather than gradual abandonment.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation: Assos Kervansaray Hotel

This morning, we drive from sea level up to the site of Assos, one of the most beautifully situated sites in Turkey, perched on a prominent hilltop overlooking the Aegean and Sappho’s island of Lesbos. The city was founded by colonists from the island around 900 BCE and it enjoyed its peak in the 4th century when students came to attend its school of philosophy; Aristotle being one of them. The site has a fine set of city walls, magnificent theatre and the famous Doric Temple of Athena, situated on the east side of the acropolis. From here, it could easily be seen by approaching ships and its position is as striking today as it must have been in antiquity. This afternoon, we continue our journey around the coast to Ayvalik, stopping on the way to visit a hidden gem, the small archaeological site of Antandros. This Greco-Roman city is located on the slopes of Mount Ida and was established in the 7th century BCE. It is mentioned in both the Iliad and Aeneid as the city where Aeneas built his ships. Excavations here have been ongoing for some time and there have been some exciting new discoveries. A Roman villa has been excavated with mosaic and fresco decoration, in part intact, and there are also the remains of huge baths, Roman cisterns and an extensive necropolis. Later, we arrive in Ayvalik.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation: Joon Cunda Hotel

We spend the day at the great Hellenistic city of Pergamon, one of the greatest ancient cities in Turkey, its extensive remains ranging across a dramatic rocky outcrop. Our explorations include the Acropolis and its oldest and most sacred structure, the Temple of Athena, dating to the 4th century BCE. It was here that a huge library was built considered second only to Alexandria's. Below it, carved into the precipitous western slope, sits the theatre with 80 rows of seating dropping more than 120 vertical feet to the stage below. After lunch, we visit Pergamon Museum and the Aesclepium. This was the shrine of the healing God Asclepius, whose cult became one of the most popular in the ancient world. Pilgrims, usually those with some ailment, would visit the shrine, take part in rituals and then be visited by the god in their sleep to be healed. After our site visits, we continue to Izmir.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation: DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Izmir – Alsancak

Our first visit of the day is to the Agora of Smryna, located in the Mezarlikbasi neighbourhood of Izmir. Built during the reign of Alexander the Great, it served as a commercial, judicial and political centre of the ancient city. Recent excavations here have promoted a tentative World Heritage listing as part of the historic port of Izmir. We continue inland to Sardis, a city that has always acted as a centre of power. Initially the centre of the Kingdom of Lydia until about 500 BCE, it became a Persian administrative centre, the Roman capital of Asia, and survived into the Ottoman empire. We see its massive gymnasium and bathhouse, and the finely preserved Temple of Artemis. We continue to Pamukkale, the limestone ‘cotton castle' of calcite pools with warm thermal springs. Located in the River Menderes Valley, the Roman ruins here remain remarkably well preserved.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation: HIERAPARK THERMAL & SPA HOTEL

Today we explore ancient Hierapolis, which benefited hugely from the nearby thermal springs, with its extensive tombs and the oracular Temple of Apollo. Adjacent to the temple lies the Plutonium, a shrine of the lord of the underworld. It conceals a vent which still releases noxious fumes. This would have been used to induce trance like states and is the source of the oracular powers of the temple. The limescale formations with cascading pools and hot springs make this site very picturesque. In the afternoon, we visit Laodicea, a site largely unknown until 2003 when excavations revealed its history dates to 5,500 BCE, with the city’s peak occurring between the first and third centuries AD. With a population estimated at around 80,000 at that time, Laodicea was far larger than Hierapolis.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation: HIERAPARK THERMAL & SPA HOTEL

We travel east up the long valley of the Menderes River, through magnificent scenery to Aphrodisias. The river appears in Homer’s Iliad and was noted in antiquity for the winding course it struck through the hills. We get our own word meander, for a winding river, from this ancient original. Aphrodisias was capital of the Roman province of Caria and the city's wealth derived from adjacent marble quarries whose stone supplied sculptors of extraordinary skill. Traces of their work can be seen everywhere. The Sebasteion, an elaborate temple complex, represents a remarkable fusion of Hellenistic, Roman and local Aphrodisian artistic traditions.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation: Korumar Hotel

We spend the morning at Priene, which is set on a peaceful wooded hillside beneath a towering limestone peak. The Temple of Athena stands as a substantial ruin. The city was never large and was forced to shift its lotion due to the silting of its harbour by the Menderes River. From here, we follow in the footsteps of the Greeks to Didyma. Originally a Carian city, it became an Ionian Greek settlement with a huge temple that housed a shrine and oracle of Apollo, famed for its religious festival, the Didymea. A number of significant personalities participated in the festivals including Alexander the Great and in AD 129 Emperor Hadrian. We end the day at Miletus, well built with its regular street grid on a peninsula. This was the home of Hippodamus of Miletus, among others, who is credited as inventing regular city organisation, the origin of town planning no less!

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation: Korumar Hotel

Our tour culminates at Ephesus, one of western Turkey’s highlights. Probably originally a Hittite city, it was colonised by Attic and Ionian Greeks. This was one of the richest cities in Asia Minor and continued to thrive through the Roman period. Ephesus was famed for its gigantic temple and sanctuary of Diana/Artemis, built in around 550 BCE it was considered one of the wonders of the ancient world and a major example of Ionic architecture. Sadly, a single column now marks its remains. Images of the famous cult statue were extensively copied in the ancient world, the goddess hung about with sacrificial remains.

The city is full of fine architecture, including the restored but harmonious library of Celsius. After exploring the city, we visit the museum that houses treasures from the site. Ephesus had one of the earliest Christian communities outside Palestine, formed by the Apostle John. His successor, Paul of Tarsus, visited and lived in the city between AD 53-56. We end the day at the fortifications and Basilica of St John at Selçuk, an extensive church built by emperor Justinian over the tomb of John, in the 6th century. This was in the town that replaced Ephesus in medieval times.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation: Korumar Hotel

Depart for the airport or continue your trip at leisure.

Meals: Breakfast