Oct 1st - Saturday - Day 1
Arrive in Istanbul and transfer to our domestic flight to Ankara.  Upon arrival in Ankara, we will be met at the airport by our local professional guide.

Transfer to 4-star hotel, have dinner and stay overnight.

Oct 2nd - Sunday - Day 2:
After breakfast we visit the Mausoleum of Ataturk, founding father of the Turkish Republic and the Anatolian Civilizations Museum, situated below the citadel. With its crown of ten domes it was once a covered bazaar where cloth made from angora wool was traded. In 1951 it was converted into the now world-famous museum, with a great collection of the Hittite Civilization antiquities with Neolithic statues dating to the 5th millennium BC. There are many artifacts from Çatal Hoyuk.

In the afternoon, depart for Cappadocia via the Salt Lake Road.  Arriving in Cappadocia for dinner and overnight.

Oct 3rd - Monday - Day 3:
Today we experience Zelve Valley, The Uçhisar Village, The Pottery Village of Avanos, and the Underground city of Kaymakli.

One of the strangest regions on earth, with its surrealist landscapes. Several thousand years of erosion formed the Fairy Chimneys.

We visit Goreme Valley and some of its famous rock carved churches.

Cappadocia saw the penetration of Christianity into Anatolia. Following the footsteps of St. Paul, the first Christians came to settle in the almost inaccessible natural grottoes. They created the rock carved churches and the underground cities. The churches were painted with brilliant colors relating the important episodes of the Bible. The apogee of Byzantine and Christian Cappadocia took place between the beginning of the 10th Century and the second half of the 11th Century. Its magnificent rock churches and Byzantine paintings constitute an important part of the Oriental Christian art.

Oct 4th - Tuesday - Day 4:
After breakfast we depart for Nigde via Tyana

Kemerhisar is to the south of Nigde and is scattered over three hills on the site of the ancient town of Tyana. Semiramis, the legendary queen of Assyria and founder of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, is thought to have been instrumental in establishing Tyana, which dates from 1200 B.C. as a late Hittite principality. Ancient remains on the site include a Doric marble pillar on the "Hill of Semiramis" and fifteen linked marble arches of a Roman aqueduct. A path leads from the south of the site to the Baths of Kemerhisar, which is mentioned in ancient writings. The warm water was drunk for its healing powers.

It is here that we get a feeling of Apollonius, the great philosopher often referred to as a Greek, but who was actually born at Tyana. Excavations are now underway in Tyana of a temple that marked his birthplace.

Lying on a plateau embellished by volcanic peaks is this city of the Central Anatolian Region, which was called "Nahita" in the Hittite period. Since its foundation, it has been a major commercial center, standing on the ancient trade route between Anatolia and the Mediterranean.

Visit Nigde Archaeological Museum. The museum rooms contain written documents of the Hittite period, statues, masonry, lamps, bronze and gold objects from the Roman-Byzantine periods, coins from the Hellenistic to Ottoman periods, carved wooden doors from the Seljuk period, and many other artifacts.

Oct 5th - Wednesday - Day 5:
We drive to Pessinus, where we visit the Temple of Cybele, the Phrygian Mother Goddess who was also venerated by the Greeks and Romans. Discovered by Belgian archaeologists in 1967, it is surprisingly small, though it was once the most important temple in the area. Next to the sanctuary was a theater, which also served as the stairs leading to the temple, a combination that was unique in the ancient world.

Next we travel to Konya, a green Oasis in the middle of Anatolia, known for its Seljuk Art and mysticism. In the antiquity known as Iconium, this was a prosperous city on the way to the Orient. However the apogee of the city took place after the conquest of Seljuk Turks. In the 12th Century the city became the Islamic Cultural Center with a very high spiritual level.

Free time to explore.

Oct 6th - Thursday - Day 6:
Visit Rumi's Tomb, Çatal Hoyuk,  Whirling Dervish  

After breakfast we explore the Mevlana Museum, with the tombs of Rumi, his family, and outstanding members of the Mevlevi order. In addition ceremonial musical instruments and materials, handwritten books, and carpets of the time can be seen at the museum. Take time to meditate near the tomb of this awe-inspiring mystic and see what worlds might open to you. Return to the hotel. Lunch on your own.     

This afternoon we have the rare opportunity to visit the 9,000 year old Neolithic site of Çatal Hoyuk, located on a vast prairie beside the active Hasan Dag volcano. The name means "forked mound" and refers to the site's mounds which formed as centuries of people tore down and rebuilt the settlement's mud-brick houses.

Here there existed a matriarchal, spiritual and art-loving people who worshipped a Mother Goddess of a fertility cult that could have been the precursor of Artemis, or Cybele as she is known in Anatolia. The room set aside as a catal hoyuk turkey spiritual toursshrine for the ancient Mother Goddess had a sculpture of the Great Mother of Çatal Hoyuk seated with a tame lion on either side, showing that She was a sacred woman, the Great Mother of Nature, and the tamer and civilizer of the world as well. There were also paintings of animals, cryptic symbols, and geometric patterns.

During excavation, it was found that the cult room was frequently rebuilt, and many religious articles were uncovered. Most were votive statuettes, in the form of pottery with reliefs of the Mother Goddess, bull's heads and horns, women's breasts, and leopards. These religious items show a high degree of skill, and cultural refinement. The site was first discovered in the late 1950s, excavated between 1961 and 1965, and became famous internationally due to the large size and dense occupation of the settlement, as well as the spectacular wall paintings and other art that was uncovered inside the houses. Since 1993 an international team of archaeologists has been carrying out new excavations and research.

Return to the hotel. Dinner with the group, followed by a Whirling Dervish performance by men dressed in white robes, whirling and rotating around the floor. During this moving meditation the dancer focuses on his great love of God, and can thus attain divine unity.

Oct 7th - Friday - Day 7:
After breakfast we depart for Pamukkale, experiencing Aphrodisias en route.

Its ruins are as impressive as those of Ephesus. The Aphrodite Temple, the marbled stadium, the Theatre, the Odeon, the Agora and the Roman Baths are all beautifully preserved.

After lunch we continue to Pamukkale, one of the most interesting places in the world, famous not only for the entrancing beauty of its unique geological formations, but also for its historical remains.

Located above the theater of the area, the mineral water comes from the thermal springs of Mount Caldag and is collected in the "Sacred Pool" of ancient times, where we will have the option to swim amidst the Travertine Terraces, a UNESCO World Heritage site, which are among the remains of Hierapolis (Holy City). The name Pamukkale means "cotton castle", derived from the dazzling white calcareous castles which are formed by limestone-laden thermal springs, creating a fairyland of bizarre solidified cascades and shell-shaped basins. Enjoy meditating in the waters, which change color according to how the light enters.

Oct 8th - Saturday - Day 8:
Early departure for Kusadasi via Miletus & Dydma.

At Miletus we explore the Temples of Serapis, Athena and Asclepius. The ancient city of Miletus was the oldest and the most powerful of the twelve Ionian cities in Asia Minor

The Temple of Serapis is from the 3rd century CE. Only the very fine pediment is visible, the rest of the temple being concealed under dense vegetation. In the remains of the Temple of Athena, built in the first half of the 5th century BCE, there are six Ionic columns on each of the shorter sides and ten on the longer sides.

Before 500 BC, Miletus was the greatest Greek city in the east. It was the natural outlet for products from the interior of Anatolia and had a considerable wool trade with Sybaris in southern Italy. Miletus was important in the founding of the Greek colony of Naukratis in Egypt and founded more than 60 colonies on the shores of the Black Sea.

In the afternoon we drive to Didyma and the Temple/Oracle of Apollo and the Artemis Temple. The design of the Temple of Apollo was influenced by the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the Temple of Hera at Samos.

Originally, 122 enormous Ionic columns surrounded the temple; today only three remain intact. Dating from the 2nd century BC, the columns are 60 feet tall, the height of a six-story building, and have a diameter of 6 feet at the base. Even the stumps of columns that fell are impressive in size and display beautiful carvings at their base. In the western end of the roofed chamber three doors lead via a great staircase to the oracle room, to which only the priests and oracles had access. Within this room is a small chapel that held the cult statue and the sacred spring. This is where the priestess of Apollo uttered her oracles.

Didyma was an ancient Ionian city, the modern Didim, Turkey. The town formed just outside of the sanctuary containing a temple and oracle of Apollo, the Didymaion. Next to Delphi, Didyma was the most renowned oracle of the Hellenic world, first mentioned among the Greeks in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, but preceding literacy and even the colonization of Ionia. Mythic genealogies of the origins of the Branchidae line of priests, designed to capture the origins of Didyma as a Hellenic tradition, date to the Hellenistic period.

Oct 9th - Sunday- Day 9:
We spend a full day at Ephesus. Ephesus is the greatest Temple City in Asia Minor and was dedicated to the Great Goddess Artemis Diana. The Temple of Artemis Diana, built about 550 BCE, is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and one of the most complex temples built in ancient times. The temple was the last of the Great Goddess temples to remain open, and was the site of Goddess worship well into the Christian era.

When the Temple was in use, it was brightly painted and inlaid with stone and had a marble sanctuary and a tile-covered wooden roof. Conceived by architect Chersiphron and his son, Metagenes, the temple's inner space featured a double row of at least 106 columns, each believed to be 40 to 60 feet high. The foundation was approximately 200 feet by 400 feet. The original temple burned in 356 BCE and was rebuilt on the same foundation. Fire devastated the second temple in 262 CE, but its foundation and some debris have survived.

Next we explore Mother Mary's House inside the ruins of Ephesus. In 431 CE it was here the Christian church declared Mary to be the "the God-bearer" in order to legitimize Christianity in the eyes of the people of Asia Minor. Prior to that time, she was not recognized by the Christian church.

Many of the Great Goddess's titles were taken and declared to be the titles of Mary, including; "Queen of Heaven", "Divine Virgin", "Mother of All". Ephesus was chosen for Mary's installation to add legitimacy to the church's claim that Mary, not Diana, was "the Mother of God", the "Mother of All." Many believe that with the rise of Christianity and papal power, the Goddess slowly disappeared from western culture and faded into the mist. But, so great was devotion to the Goddess that She was resurrected in the hearts of the people by a new Goddess, Mary, Mother of Jesus.

Visit St. John Basilica built by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I in the 6th century AD with the belief that it was the site of the tomb of St John.

Ephesus was one the biggest and most famous sites in the ancient world. Towards the 3rd Century BCE, Ephesus was located naturally on the crossing point of the commercial road and so gathered all the richness of the Orient. This city offers us its witnessing to the splendor of Asia Minor during the Roman Era. Among its numerous monuments, you will see its famous Arcadian Street, large Hellenistic Theatre, the Celsius Library, and the magnificent façade of the Hadrian Temple (2nd Century Corinthian style).

Oct 10th - Monday- Day 10:
After breakfast we depart for Izmir for an early flight to Istanbul.

Situated on two continents (Europe and Asia) and inheritor of a great history where we can still witness the remnants of five civilizations, Istanbul is one of the most fascinating capitals of the Orient. The antique Constantinople became Byzantium in the 4th Century. In 1453, the city passed from Christianity to Islam with the rule of Ottoman Sultans and a new name, Istanbul. Its urban profile has since then been symbolized by the minarets of its mosques. You will plunge to the heart of the history of the old Istanbul and discover its principal Byzantine and Ottoman monuments.

Upon arrival in Istanbul we're off to visit Chora Church. Chora has mosaics from the 12th century depicting the role of Virgin Mary as the Mother of God, with the emphasis on Her being Mother rather than Jesus being the God, a profound thought to ponder as you take time to meditate in Her presence!

In the afternoon we explore the Topkapi Palace, the ancient residence of the Ottoman Sultans. Built by Mehmet the Conqueror on the ancient location of the Byzantine Acropolis, the palace is now used as a museum and has a wonderful view of the Marmara Sea.

Oct 11th - Tuesday - Day 11:
We continue to explore Istanbul with the Blue Mosque, St. Sophia Museum and much more.

Today, we visit the famous Blue Mosque, with its mighty dome, and the only mosque in Istanbul with minarets, and built on the site of the Great Palace of Byzantium in the early 17th century. Today it is a working mosque and is therefore closed to non-worshippers during the five daily prayers. The interior, with its lightness, spatial effect and color, is one of the finest creations of Turkish architecture.

Next is the St. Sophia Museum, formerly known as the Hagia Sofia (Holy Wisdom), a former Greek Orthodox Church that was converted to a mosque in 1453 by the Ottoman Empire and today is a museum. The supreme achievement of Byzantine architecture, it is the city's most celebrated monument. Large numbers of columns were brought to Constantinople from temples in Asia Minor, Lebanon, Greece and Italy, and the finest marbles and noblest metals were used.

Next we visit the At Meydani, the Ancient Hippodrome of Septime Severius (2nd Century), the Obelisk of Theodosius, the Serpentine Column and the Column of Constantine.

Afternoon shopping tour at the famous Grand Bazaar, the largest of its kind with 17 gates, 65 streets and 4000 shops in addition to its historical importance. Barter for colorful kilims, leather goods, pottery and jewelry.

The market was constructed in the 1660's as part of the imperial mosque complex, with its shop rents supporting the upkeep of the mosque as well as its schools, hospitals, baths and public fountains. Merchants sold such things as cinnamon, gunpowder, rabbit fat, pine gum, peach pit powder and many folk remedy ingredients.

Oct 12th - Wednesday- Day 12:
We say our farewells and depart for Istanbul International Airport grateful for all that we encountered and experienced on this sacred journey in Turkey.