HELD 

 MUSEUM 



TURKEY 

 Past and Present 



OCTOBER, 1989 



Sat 21 Chicago/Zurich. Our adventure begins 

 as we board our overnight Swissair flight to 

 Zurich. 



Sun 22 Zurich/Ankara. We arrive in Turkey's 

 capital city of Ankara in the early afternoon and 

 transfer to our hotel, the deluxe Etap Altlnel, to 

 rest and refresh ourselves before our evening 

 Welcome Dinner. Ankara, set in Turkey's 

 strategic heartland, is a modern city with a long 

 and fascinating heritage that stretches back 

 nearly 1 0,000 years. Once a Hittite settlement 

 in the second millennium B.C., five centuries 

 later it became the capital of the Galatian 

 nation. D 



Men 23 Ankara/Cappadocia. We set out this 

 morning on an exploratory tour of the city of 

 Ankara: the Citadel, or Kale, the original 

 fortress of the old city, the Hittite Museum with 

 exhibits dating back to cave paintings and 

 stone-age relics, as well as an extensive 

 collection of rare Hittite artifacts, Haci Bayram 

 Mosque, one of Ankara's oldest, and Anit Kabir, 

 Ataturk's Mausoleum, a giant stone rectangle 

 set on a hill in the midst of the city. Following 

 lunch at the Milka Restaurant, we continue to 

 Cappadocia and visit the Byzantine refuge city 

 of Derinkuyu, a vast and amazing underground 

 complex of entire communities inter-connected 

 by tunnels. Dinner is taken enroute in Alsaray. 

 and we arrive late this evening at our hotel in 

 Cappadocia, the elegant Boydas. B/L/D 



Tue 24 Cappadocia, Thanks to a series of 

 violent volcanic eruptions three million years 

 ago, Cappadocia — in the very center of 

 Anatolia — is one of those rare regions in the 

 world where the works of man hollowing out 

 rocks to build dwellings, chapels and 

 monasteries blend in perfect harmony with 

 Nature's own surrealistic landscapes. Here, 

 against the majestic backdrop of 13,000-foot 

 Mount Erciyes, the earth's terrain takes on an 



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almost moonlike appearance, with gouged 

 valleys, rock cones, capped pinnacles and 

 fretted ravines in colors ranging from warm 

 reds and golds to cool greens and grays. Here, 

 the troglodyte (rock) dwellings date as far back 

 as 400 B.C., and the multi-level underground 

 cities reach well below the surface of the earth. 

 In the nearby Goreme valley — known as 

 Petrified Valley — there are 365 churches with 

 whimsical names such as Slipper Church and 

 Buckle Church, scooped out of solid rock and 

 decorated with remarkable frescoes. Even the 

 columns have been shaped and hewn from the 

 soft volcanic rock. We visit the picturesque 

 villages of Cavusin, Heden and Avanos, 

 famous for their onyx and beautiful old houses. 

 From the ancient citadel of Uchisar, we have a 

 spectacular view of Petrified '\/alley. B/L7D 



Wed 25 Cappadocia/Konya/Alanya. We depart 

 early this morning for the drive to the Plain of 

 Kenya, a cradle of civilization and one of the 

 oldest continuously inhabited sites in Turkey. 

 Known as Iconium in Roman times, Kenya was 

 the capital of the Seljuk Turks in the 1 2th and 

 1 3th centuries . . . and one of the greatest 

 culture centers of its time. It was during this 

 period that the Moslem mystic Mevlana 

 Celaleddin Rumi founded the set of the Whirling 

 Dervishes, an order based not on fanaticism, 

 but on universal faith and love. The former 

 dervish seminary attached to the Mausoleum is 

 now a museum, devoted to manuscripts of 

 Mevlana's works, and to other articles 

 belonging to the order. Since this is a full day's 

 overland journey, we take lunch and dinner on 

 the road, arriving at our hotel — the Serapsu — in 

 Alanya this evening. B/UD 



Thu 26 Alanya/Side/Alanya. This morning is 

 free to allow you to enjoy the swimming and 

 shopping facilities at the Serapsu Hotel. We 

 leave this afternoon to explore the ancient city 

 of Side and its remarkable monuments. Side 

 (the Turkish word for pomegranate) was an 

 ancient Turkish harbor that has made a graceful 

 transition into a lovely resort village today. Its 

 popularity is due not only to its hotels, 

 restaurants, beaches, shops and sea views, 

 but also to the many archaeological ruins that 

 permeate this ancient settlement. This 

 still-active theater of the ancient city, built on 

 colonnaded arches next to an agora (ancient 

 marketplace), is the largest in the area, seating 

 25,000. The creamy white columns of the 

 Temple of Apollo are a striking contrast to the 

 blue sea below; and the extensive Roman Bath, 

 now a museum, houses one of Turkey's finest 

 archaeological collections. At the museum, we 

 see many of the priceless statues uncovered 

 during the city's excavation B/D 



Fri 27 Alanya/Perge/Aspendos/Antalya/ 

 Alanya. Our first stop this morning is at the 

 Pamphylian city of Perge, where St. Paul 

 preached his first sermon. Next will be 

 Aspendos, where we see the best-preserved 

 theater of antiquity, dating from the second 

 century A.D. Its acoustics are still magnificent. 

 Our route takes us to Antalya, the heart of the 

 "Turkish Riviera," set on the perfect crescent of 

 the Mediterranean's Konyaiti Beach. Antalya's 

 incomparable beauty makes it a paradise on 

 earth; year-round, the slopes of the Toros 

 Mountains are blanketed in green forests that 

 dip to the sea, forming an irregular coastline of 

 rocky headlands and secluded caves of clear 

 turquoise water. This area is rich in history, 

 interwoven with legends that go back as far as 

 the Paleolithic Age. It was here that Bellerophon 

 slew the fire-breathing Chimera; where the 

 nymph Daphne was turned into a bay tree by 

 Zeus to save her from Apollo's amorous 

 advances; and this was the home of St. 

 Nicholas, our own Santa Claus. Before 

 returning to Alanya and the Serapsu Hotel, we 

 have the opportunity to enjoy lunch on our own 

 at one of the many restaurants in Antalya's 

 lovely harbor area. B/D 



Sat 28 Alanya/Pamukkale. Pamukkale (Cotton 

 Castle) is a beautiful and spectacular natural 

 site unique in the world. It is a fairylike, dazzling 

 white petrified cascade falling from a height of 

 100 meters. Thermal spring waters, laden with 

 calcareous salts running off the plateau's edge, 

 have created this fantastic formation of 

 stalactites, cataracts and basins. The thermal 

 waters have been used since Roman times for 

 their therapeutic powers. Situated on the 

 plateau are both the modern thermal center 

 and the ruins of the ancient cemetary of 

 Hierapolis. Lunch is served by Lake Egridir. 

 Dinner is at our hotel in Pamukkale, the Tusan 

 Hotel. B/L/D 



Sun 29 Pamukkale/ Aphrodlsias/Ephesus/ 

 Izmir. The fabled city of Aphrodisias — the home 

 of the greatest sculpting schools of antiquity — 

 has not yet been fully explored; every year new 

 and important areas and finds are being 

 uncovered. After lunch, we drive on the 

 Ephesus, one of the most important sites in 

 Christendom, of which St. Paul asked "Is there a 

 greater City?" Here, side by side with Moslem 

 treasures such as Isa Bey Mosque, we find the 

 basilica of St. John and the house of the Virgin 

 Mary. We visit Odeon, the Arcadian Way, where 

 Mark Antony and Cleopatra once rode in 

 procession, the Gate of Magnestia, the 

 Temples of Hadrian and Serapis. the Marble 

 Street, the Great Theater where St. Paul argued 

 against the Ephesian goddess Arteis, and the 

 agora. Here, loo, are the ruins of the fabled 

 Temple of Diana, one of the Seven Wonders of 

 the Ancient World. We overnight this evening at 

 Izmir, in the deluxe Buyuk Efes Hotel. B/L 



