Like the inspired visions of a dervish mystic’s meditation, civilizations and faiths have grown up alongside one another in this ancient land of poetic beauty. After witnessing the supernatural beauty of the 14th century mosaics and frescoes of the Chora Church, we visit the Hagia Sophia Basilica (Church of Holy Wisdom), and centre of the Eastern Orthodox Church for centuries. The Spice Market was the end of the Silk Road, which began in southern China and has been used right up to the beginning of the 20th century. Here we see the best of henna, the greatest variety of oils and rose water being sold next to natural sponges, hand woven kese (used in Turkish baths for scrubbing) and herbs.

In Cappadocia, we enter the churches of early Byzantines carved from living rock, whose frescoes are still richly evocative. We visit the amazing underground city of Kaymakli. Signs of an early troglodyte lifestyle is evident in the communal kitchens blackened by smoke, stables, and storage spaces carved into the rock as need arose. The maze of living quarters hundreds of feet below ground is startling proof that tens of thousands of people existed deep within the earth.

If you’ve heard the words “a reading from St. Paul to the Ephesians”, now’s your chance to sit in the same theatre where St. Paul preached. Become a Roman conqueror. Ephesus is part of your mighty empire. See it through the eyes of a Roman. Think how its marble streets would compare with the enduring streets of Rome. Try to place it in your own modern context. What would be a Roman citizen expect from a modern city ? What would you expect in comparative terms. Ephesus was considered one of the most complete cities of antiquity- It was supposed to contain everything for education, politics, entertainment and sport. So it boasted the Library of Celsus, the Roman Baths, the Gate of Hadrian and Roman Terrace Houses. Ephesus is still the best-preserved classical city on the Mediterranean, and perhaps the best place in the world to get the feeling for what life was like in Roman times. As a strategic coastal gateway to the Eastern World, this Ionian refuge grew to be the second largest city in the Roman Empire, the site of a Christian shrine, and one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

A symphony of blue sea and charming white village houses in the shadow of a magnificent Crusader castle – Bodrum. Once the ancient port of Halicarnassus and birthplace of the Greek historian Herodotus, Bodrum is one of the most beautiful towns along the Aegean, with a perfectly situated harbour that attracted Dorian Greek settlers from the Peloponnese in the 10th century BC. Our stay in Bodrum gives us the opportunity to explore the unique Museum of Underwater Archaeology, housed in the former Crusader Castle. The Castle which is in excellent repair was built from the remains of the Mausoleum but there is little to see of that original structure. We visit Ulu Burun shipwreck. Excavated by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology between 1983 and 1994, it was located close to Kas and is the oldest wreck ever excavated (3600 years old).

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