Highlights of Turkey: Istanbul, Ephesus, Cappadocia

Hippodrome: 

• An enormous public entertainment arena, it once seated as many as 100,000 zealous fans who came to watch chariot races, executions, and mock battles.  Formerly the center of Byzantine civic life, it is still marked by the Egyptian Obelisk, the Bronze Serpentine Column, and the Column of Constantine.

Blue Mosque:  

• With its massive central dome flanked by six slender minarets, the Blue Mosque stands as the single most recognizable monument in the Istanbul skyline.  Built between 1609 and 1616, the enormous complex also included a hospital, caravansary, public kitchen, marketplace, schools and the Mausoleum of Sultan Ahmet I.  The mosque’s immense interior, flooded with sunlight streaming through 260 windows, is decorated with more than 20,000 precious Iznik tiles detailing traditional flowers of Ottoman design.  In fact, it is the deep blue glow of the tiles in the sunlight that gives the building its name.

Hagia Sophia:

•  This famous basilica was constructed in the 6th century A.D.. It is often described as the greatest work of Byzantine architecture.  Once the Church of Holy Wisdom, Christendom’s crowning glory, it glittered with mosaics and artistic treasures.  Today, the Hagia Sophia is the fourth largest building constructed as a church in the world. It was dedicated to Hagia Sophia which means Divine Wisdom – an attribute of Christ.

Basilica Cistern: 

• Istanbul, besieged countless times, has always needed permanent water supplies.  As a result, many underground cisterns were built during the Byzantine Empire.  Water was brought to these big reservoirs from distant sources via aqueducts.  We will visit the largest and most ornate of these cisterns.

Grand Bazaar:  

• The area of the Grand Bazaar was a trade center during the Byzantine period.  Two domes were built by Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror to enrich the economic life of the city.  Today, the atmosphere of the Grand Bazaar is mysterious and intriguing.  It has become a very popular place, where visitors explore a labyrinth of streets and passages housing eighteen entrances and more than 4,000 shops.

Topkapi Palace: 

•  The home for 400 years of ruling Sultan’s in Istanbul, this is a not to be missed site. The second palace built in Istanbul after its conquest by the Turks, it served as the center of the Ottoman Empire between the 15th and 19th centuries. This palace’s maze of oppulent buildings is where the sultans, their courts, and their harems lived and governed.

Spice Market:  

• This covered market, built as part of the Yeni Cami (New Mosque) complex, is filled with the fragrant scent of spices from the Orient.

Bosphorus Straits: 

• This narrow, navigable strait between Europe and Asia connects the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea.  It is about 20 miles long and up to one and a half miles wide.  Our cruise will take us past the late Ottoman Palaces – Dolmabahce and Beylerbeyi, as well as beautiful, wooden mansions and modern villas built in this elegant section of the city during the 19th & 20th centuries.

Ephesus: 

• Once a leading city of Rome - it fell prey to silting up of the harbor - which also lead to the cities downfall and protection, to our benefit as it is now one of the best preserved cities from the ancient world.