Archaeological Anatolia 9 Days

We meet you at the airport and, after dropping off your bags, we open the trip where it should begin: the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, with the Alexander Sarcophagus and the Treaty of Kadesh — the oldest written peace treaty in the world, signed by the very Hittites we will visit in their capital. Dinner at your leisure and overnight in Istanbul.

An early drive to the plateau. At Gordion, capital of Phrygia, we walk through a 70-metre tunnel into the heart of King Midas's tumulus, a 2,700-year-old wooden chamber that is still standing — and where Alexander cut the famous knot. In the afternoon, in Ankara, the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations puts everything we will see into order: Hittites, Phrygians, Urartians, piece by piece. Dinner and overnight in Ankara.

Today we walk through the capital of an empire that stood up to Ramesses II: Hattusa, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with its six kilometres of walls, the Lion Gate and the Yerkapı tunnel beneath the ramparts. In the rock sanctuary of Yazılıkaya, the twelve gods of the underworld have marched in procession, carved into the rock, for 3,200 years. We continue to Cappadocia. Dinner and overnight in Cappadocia.

Cappadocia's archaeology is hidden: we descend into Kaymaklı Underground City, eight levels of tunnels, stables and cellars where thousands of people held out for months, and continue to the painted rock-cut churches of the Göreme Open-Air Museum. In the afternoon we stroll through Paşabağ and its fairy chimneys with hermit cells inside. Dinner and overnight in Cappadocia.

Heading for the Konya plain to touch the beginning of everything: Çatalhöyük, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of humanity's first towns — 9,000 years old, with houses entered through the roof and wall paintings older than any pharaoh. In Konya, the afternoon is for Rumi's mausoleum and its turquoise dome. Dinner and overnight in Konya.

We cross the Taurus Mountains through the Cilician Gates, the pass used by Alexander and the Roman legions, and descend into the heat of Cilicia. In Adana we stretch our legs on the Taşköprü, the stone bridge that Hadrian built across the Seyhan River eighteen centuries ago and which you can still cross on foot, and taste the kebab that bears the city's name. Dinner and overnight in Adana.

A day on the road with a big reward. We climb via Adıyaman to Mount Nemrut and, at 2,150 metres, wait for sunset on the west terrace of King Antiochus I: two-metre colossal heads of gods, fallen from their thrones centuries ago, glowing orange as the sun goes down. It is one of the great moments in Türkiye, and tonight we sleep at the foot of the mountain. Dinner and overnight near Nemrut.

We descend to the Euphrates and enter Gaziantep to see the Zeugma Mosaic Museum, the largest of its kind in the world: entire Roman villas rescued from the waters of the reservoir, with the haunting gaze of the "Gypsy Girl" waiting at the end of her room. The afternoon is for the castle and the coppersmiths' bazaar, with an obligatory stop for pistachio baklava, which set the standard here. Dinner and overnight in Gaziantep.

A last unhurried stroll around Gaziantep, a pistachio katmer breakfast for the road, and transfer to the airport for the direct flight to Istanbul. End of our services: nine thousand years in nine days.