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Istanbul, Haghia Sophia, early 18th-century engraving.
Cultural tours in Turkey
On our expert-led tours of Turkey, we unveil the stories of civilisations that have shaped this bridge between Eastern and Western worlds. From the Byzantine splendour of Istanbul to the subterranean cities of Cappadocia, our carefully honed itineraries uncover Turkey's unique position at the crossroads of empires – where Roman legions, Ottoman sultans, and ancient Anatolian kingdoms have left their mark.
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Exploring Turkey on a cultural tour
We unlock Turkey's layered heritage: from the world's oldest known place of worship at Göbekli Tepe to the magnificent Hagia Sophia, where Byzantine mosaics glisten. We stay in Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet district, while in Cappadocia's volcanic landscape, we study rocky churches cut into the hillside by early Christian hermits.
Our journeys uncover architectural marvels that span millennia: brilliant Iznik tiles, the haunting ruins of churches standing sentinel on the Armenian border, and the UNESCO-listed Seljuk mosques and madrassas, with magnificent decorative doorways.
Featured cultural tours in Turkey
Eastern Turkey - Archaeology, architecture, history & landscapes
A journey through Turkey’s historic East from Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent to the Caucasus and the Black Sea. Spectacular landscapes featuring mountains, valleys, plains and... Read more
stdClass Object ( [name] => Eastern Turkey [code] => 9390 [slug] => eastern-turkey [introduction] => A journey through Turkey’s historic East from Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent to the Caucasus and the Black Sea. Spectacular landscapes featuring mountains, valleys, plains and coast. Wide-ranging themes and varied architecture; Byzantine and Georgian churches, Seljuk mosques and Armenian monasteries. Showcases the many cultural interactions between East and West, the Mediterranean and the Iranian and Islamic worlds. This tour is particularly strenuous. Please read the advice under 'Practicalities'. [description] =>The majestic scenery of eastern Anatolia is the setting for this ambitious tour, which, while remaining firmly within the borders of modern-day Turkey, encompasses an extraordinary range of historic and contemporary cultures. From the broad plains of Mesopotamia, to the verdant slopes of the Pontic alps, via the Taurus mountains and the East Anatolian plateau, this part of Anatolia has always been a crossroads, whether for Abraham, patriarch of the three Near Eastern faiths, as he followed the Fertile Crescent from Ur to Canaan, or for the Greek mercenaries hired to fight for the Persian king Cyrus, who had to make their way back to their homeland across the Anatolian plateau and the Pontic Mountains.
The tour journeys through the cradle of civilisation between the Euphrates and the Tigris, where human settlement in the towns of Urfa and Harran goes back to the fifth millennium bc. It includes a Neolithic religious sanctuary, Urartian citadels and Roman frontier towns, Byzantine churches and Seljuk mosques and madrassas. It explores cultures and civilisations that have almost disappeared from the historical record – early Christian monasteries of the Tur Abdin, Georgian churches of Tao-Klarjeti and the lost Armenian city of Ani. It even takes in the sites of two medieval coronations – of the Armenian king Gagik Artzruni on the island of Aktamar in 908 and that of the Byzantine emperor of Trebizond, Alexius III Comnenos, at the monastery of Sümela in 1349.
Far from being backward-looking, though, this tour offers a remarkable opportunity to meet people trying to forge their present-day identities: the Kurds of Diyarbakir, the Syrian Orthodox monks and nuns of the Tur Abdin and, of course, the Muslim population of Turkey itself, whose efforts to work out what it means to live in a secular Islamic country are and will continue to be of huge significance for us all.
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Istanbul Revealed - Byzantine and Ottoman metropolis
An extraordinarily diverse city: Roman remains; outstanding Byzantine buildings; Ottoman mosques and palaces. Stay in the heart of the old and welcoming Sultanahmet area. Explore the... Read more
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Initially a modest Greek city, it was chosen by Constantine as the site of the new capital of the Roman Empire and inaugurated in AD 330. The Byzantine Empire continued in direct succession to the Roman, and its capital became one of the largest cities in medieval Europe, the guardian of classical culture and a bastion of Orthodox Christianity.
The city walls were the strongest in the western world, and while the Byzantine Empire gradually shrank before the onslaughts of Persians, Arabs and Latin crusaders, it was not finally extinguished until 1453 when Ottoman Turks captured the city.
In the century and a half after the Ottoman conquest, the city steadily acquired some of the finest Islamic architecture in the world, aided by the example of Hagia Sophia, the architect Sinan and the brilliant tile factories at Iznik.
Minarets and mosques now dominate the skyline, but churches, temples, palaces and other pre-Ottoman buildings, whole or fragmentary, and the arts which decorated them, are to be found in abundance. Istanbul has evolved into a melting-pot of cultures, with a lively streetlife and colourful bazaars. The city’s international outlook is epitomised by its division between Europe and Asia, now linked by modern bridges crossing the mighty Bosphorus, and a new underwater railway tunnel.
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Other Middle East & Central Asia destinations
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