The Taurus Express

Following the success of this new tour, all departures in 2008, apart from one in October, are now full. Additional dates have been added for Spring and Autumn 2009. ‘Her husband’s to Aleppo gone’, wrote Shakespeare in Macbeth, and for centuries before and after the Bard’s time, traders and travellers alike flocked to this cosmopolitan city. At the crossroads of the great caravan routes, Aleppo grew rich and her prosperous past can still be glimpsed as you view the beautiful 17th and 18th-century merchant houses.

This itinerary is full of the past – cities whose evocative names bear witness to millennia of history, atmospheric and historic hotels and timeless landscapes. The Old Testament contains a wealth of references, the writings of Herodotus tell of its great Hellenic cities, Crak des Chevaliers bears witness to the exploits of the crusaders and more recently both Agatha Christie and T.E. Lawrence made their contributions at a time when the Orient and Taurus Express linked Europe and Asia.

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