Central Anatolia - Cappadocia & the civilisations at the heart of Turkey

Fly at c. 11.30am (Turkish Airlines) from London Heathrow to Ankara (via Istanbul). First of three nights in Ankara.

Installed in a 15th-century market hall and recently renovated, the Museum of Anatolian Civilization has a wonderful collection of art and artefacts from many of the sites on the tour. After lunch visit the Atatürk Mausoleum, a revered shrine to the creator of modern Turkey.

Morning drive to Gordion, site of the Phrygian capital where Alexander cut the knot and where Midas is reputedly buried. The afternoon is free to walk up to the massive Byzantine and Seljuk walls of the citadel; here survives a traditional village apparently oblivious to the seething modern city spread over the surrounding hills.

 In remote hill country to the east of Ankara, commanding an immense landscape, lies the site of Hattusas, the Hittite capital of the 2nd millennium bc. Of staggering size (the perimeter wall is 7 km), it retains the main gateways and figurative carvings in a temple of Yazilikaya across a gorge just outside the city. The Bronze Age site (c. 2300 bc) of Alaca Höyük has an imposing Sphinx gateway and has yielded a collection of precious objects of highly accomplished workmanship. Overnight in Çorum.

Nestling in a deep valley and with old Ottoman houses overhanging the River Yesilirmak, Amasya is one of the loveliest towns in Anatolia. Capital of the Pontic kingdom, there are remains of the hilltop palace and rock-cut royal tombs in the cliffs overlooking the town. Continue to Sivas with traditional architecture, Seljuk and Ottoman monuments. First of two nights in Sivas.

A beautiful drive through the Anatolian plains with snow capped mountains to the Great Mosque and Hospital at Divriği. Built in the early 13th century, the building is famed for its three unique decorated doorways carved with vegetal, geometrical, star and knotted motifs, the quality of which are unrivalled in the region. Largely unknown to visitors to Turkey it is one of unesco’s least visited world heritage sites but one of Turkey’s most splendid.

Sivas, which preceded Konya as the regional Seljuk capital, has some of the finest remaining architecture of the 13th century including a complex of colleges and minarets and an attractive old quarter and Ottoman structures. Drive through mountainous terrain to Kayseri. Overnight Kayseri.

Kayseri (formerly Caesarea), was the capital of Roman Cappadocia and includes a Byzantine fortress, Islamic buildings including the Great Mosque with re-used Corinthian columns, and an intriguing ethnographic museum. The archaeological site of Kültepe was a settlement of 1800 bc with a colony of Assyrians. Continue to Cappadocia for the first of three nights in Ürgüp.

Drive through a gorge which in addition to geological oddities has tumble-down villages, orchards and small holdings. The Soganli valley has many dwellings and churches cut into the rock, the finest of all remnants of Byzantine Cappadocia is the monastery at Eski Gümüs.

Morning visit of the spectacular Goreme open-air museum. The rest of the afternoon is free to explore the landscape on foot (there are several walking trails). 

Whole morning walking through the deep Ihlara Gorge with abundant flora, fauna and rock-cut Byzantine churches including Güzelyurt, birthplace of St Gregory. Drive westwards across a plain to Sultanhani, a splendid 13th-cent. caravanserai, with a cathedral-like five-aisled main hall. Continue to Konya, where two nights are spent.

The capital of the 13th-cent. Seljuk empire and home of Sufism, Konya remains the religious centre of Turkey. Visit the Mevlana Tekke, monastery of the Whirling Dervishes, with its turquoise dome and collection of Islamic art. The Karatay Madrasa with its marvellous Seljuk tiles is now a museum of ceramics. Afternoon excursion to Çatal Höyük, the most important Neolithic site in Turkey and probably the earliest town in the world (c. 6000 bc).

Morning flight (c. 8.45am) from Konya to Istanbul, and on to London Heathrow, arriving at c. 3.00pm.