MAGGIE OLIPHANT
maggie@maggieoliphant.com
This page last updated on August 19, 2011

Depart London Heathrow - Flight TK1980, Dep11.25; 3hr. 50mins flight arrives Istanbul Arr 17.15 (local time)
Immigration/Customs etc.

Overnight TAV airport Hotel B & B (www.airporthotelinstanbul.com).

Flight from Istanbul to Urfa, TK2246, Dep 07:05 - Arr 08:50

Drive to ARSAMEIA the ancient Hellenistic capital of Commagene and to NEMRUT DAG the mountain which Antiochus (62 -32BC) chose for his mausoleum. The tumulus with its terraces and huge seated statues in mixed Greek and Oriental style is an impressive sight. The enormous fallen heads with their idealised features, some with Persian headress, represent the various deities with whom the ruler assocated himself. Drive on to URFA

Overnight Manici Hotel, Urfa. (www.maniciurfa.com)

After breakfast to GOBEKLI TEPE. Still being excavated, it has the world's earliest known man made building complex c.9,000 BC and has carvings of animals and in one case, of a woman giving birth. This remarkable place has led to a reconsideration of the transition from hunter-gathering to settled agriculture in the Fertile Crescent. Return to URFA, an atmospheric Middle Eastern city, where according to tradition Abraham lived before going to Canaan. Probably the site of a Hurrian and Hittite city, it was founded as Edessa by Seleucus I c.300BC and later became the earliest Christian kingdom; as a border town it was fought over and claimed by Romans, Parthians, Byzantines, Sasanians and various Muslim dynasties. Visit the tomb and grotto of Abraham, the Sacred Lake, the Citadel, Bazaar etc. Dinner with traditional siragecesi entertainment in the old quarter.

Overnight Manici Hotel, Urfa. (www.maniciurfa.com)

Continue Visit in Urfa - then, drive to HARRAN, mentioned in the Book of Genesis because Abraham stayed there; once a centre of the cult of the moon god Sin, the city became an important Islamic centre after it was taken by the Arabs in the 7th.c. Not far from the Syrian border, there are traditional beehive style mud brick houses and many people here still wear colourful Kurdish dress. Return to Urfa

Overnight Manici Hotel, Urfa.

Drive to GAZIANTEP via Birecik and Halfeti. Boat ride in Dam lake to visit sunken city of Halfeti and the Rumkale, the Byzantine castle. Afternoon, continue the drive to Gaziantep.

Dinner and overnight Tugcan Hotel, Gaziantep (www.tugcanhotel.com.tr/)

Morning visit the Zeugma Museum housing a rich collection of mosaics recently unearthed at the Roman site of Zeugma on a major crossing of the Euphrates River, 50kms south east of Gaziantep and now covered by a dam.

Afternoon drive to ANTAKYA via YESEMEK the fascinating Hittite quarry site with many unfinished sculptures still in situ.

Dinner and overnight Narin Hotel, Antakya. ( www.narinhotel.com)

Visit the Mosaic Museum and St Peter's Grotto. Afternoon, visit St.Simon Monastery and Samandag and on the coast the ruins of SELEUCIA PIERIA, once the port of Antioch, with one of the major engineering feats of antiquity built in the reigns of the Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus, a huge tunnel cut through a hill into a canal to divert water.

Dinner and overnight Narin Hotel, Antakya.

Drive to ADANA along coast road via ISSOS (where Alexander defeated Darius) - visit HIERAPOLIS KASTABALA, the Roman ruins of the capital of a small kingdom. Continue to KARATEPE, a late Hittite summer palace next to a lake; here the finding of a Phoenician and Hieroglyphic Hittite inscription was the clue to understanding the language of the Neo-Hittites. Drive to ADANA with its interesting old bazaar quarter and Roman bridge still in use.

Overnight Adana. Zaimoglu Hotel Adana. (www.zaimoglu.com.tr/eng_flash_index.htm)

Fly to Istanbul Flight TK 2455, Dep 09:15 - Arr 10:55

Istanbul London Flight TK1989P, Dep 12:35 - Arr 14:35 London Heathrow