Grand Tour of Turkey

The land that bridges Europe and Asia has seen
travellers in many forms over the millennia. From
the earliest prehistoric cultures of Anatolia, it has
absorbed the imprint of many (often in search of conquest
and plunder) including the Hittites, Greeks and Persians
who were later followed by Romans, Byzantines and
Ottomans and more recently the French and British.
The nomadic origins of the Turkic peoples in central Asia
covered a thousand years and reached its apotheosis during
a golden age between 1450 and 1566. Its territorial influence
and expansion accelerated in the 13th century and extended
at its zenith from Egypt and present-day Iran deep into the
Balkans; almost to the gates of Vienna! Ruled from its then
capital, Constantinople, by Mehmet II who swept away the
last vestiges of the declining Byzantine Empire in 1453,
foreign ambassadors were accredited to the ‘Sublime Porte’
a monumental gateway today dominated by the complex of
magnificent buildings which make up the Topkapi Palace,
residence of the Sultans and women of the harem.

These were the years of Mehmet II, Selim I and Suleyman
the Magnificent, a period of opulence, grandeur and
exceptional achievements in art and architecture. The
Ottoman society was multi-ethnic and artists and scholars
who worked at the royal court reflected the artistic
traditions of the many countries ruled by them with both
masters and apprentices paid as salaried officials.
Bursa, the first capital of the empire (1326) where
its great architectural style was first developed under
Suleyman. The resulting art and architecture was a
style clearly distinguishable from the traditions of
contemporary Islamic dynasties in Iran and India.

This comprehensive arrangement travels from the shores of
the Black Sea, Aegean and Mediterranean seas through rocky
pine-forested mountains to the grasslands of the Anatolian
plateau. From the city of Troy, with its myths of the wooden
horse told in the Iliad to the centres of learning created in
Pergamon and Ephesus - and where St. Paul once preached
- our journey includes the travertine terraces of Pamukkale,
underground cities and fairy chimneys in the villages of
Cappadocia and the treasures of the ‘Sublime Porte’ where
centuries of Ottoman pomp and power are on display in the
Topkapi Palace.

VJV Special Event - Ottoman Dinner
A drink in a typical Ottoman house followed by a candlelit dinner in the vaulted dining room of an ancient 6th-century cistern.