13 nights from £947 - Early Booking Offer
For all 2009 bookings made by 25th Feb 2009 deduct £50 per person
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) was where the empire’s 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. The court architect, Sinan, served three sultans and designed monuments of great dignity and grandeur which reached its apogee in the creation of the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, the capital from 1381 to 1453. 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.
Special VJV 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.
