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Footsteps of St. Paul in Asia Minor (17 nights/18
days), Biblical Tour |
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Footsteps of St. Paul in Asia Minor (17
nights/18 days), Biblical Tour
Footsteps of St. Paul in Asia Minor (17 nights/18 days)
Key Information:
Tour Duration:
17 nights / 18 days
Days of Operation: Private
Tour
Destination(s): Turkey
Hotel's Class: 5, 4, 3 Stars
Hotel or Tourist Class
Season: All Year
Airfare Included: No
Tour Customizable: No |
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Overnight Places:
4 nights Istanbul, 1 night Ankara, 2 nights Cappadocia, 2
nights Adana, 1 night Konya, 2 nights Antalya, 1 night
Pamukkale, 1 night Kusadasi, 2 night Izmir, 1 night Canakkale. |
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Tour Itinerary:
 Day
1: Istanbul.
Arrival and transfer from the airport to your hotel. Brief tour
outline and city orientation given. Free day at your own
leisure. Overnight in Istanbul.
Day 2: Istanbul.
Pick up from your hotel to visit Topkapi Palace, with royal
treasury and elegant four courts. After lunch, proceed to the
Hagia Sophia, a great Byzantine architectural masterpiece, whose
interior is resplendent with golden mosaics. Then admire the
delicate design and Iznik tiles of the Blue Mosque. Explore the
ancient Roman Hippodrome with Egyptian Obelisk and Serpentine
Column. Finally, stop off at the dazzling Grand Bazaar with over
4000 shops. Drop off to hotel. Overnight in Istanbul. Includes:
(B), (L).
Day 3: Istanbul.
 Pick
up from your hotel to visit the bustling Spice Market - a
colourful bazaar heaped with various sweets and spices. Stop
into the beautifully tiled tiny Rustem Pasha Mosque before
taking a relaxing Bosphorus boat cruise between the continents
of Europe and Asia - gliding past Dolmabahce and Beylerbeyi
Palaces, ornate wooden Ottoman mansions and mosques, Rumeli
Fortress and the Bosphorus Bridge. Free afternoon at your
leisure. Drop off to hotel. Overnight in Istanbul. Includes:
(B).
 Day
4: Ankara.
Pick up in the morning and drive to Ankara, where you can stroll
the streets of the old quarter and the Ankara Citadel, before
visiting the Mausoleum of Ataturk, founder of the Turkish
Republic in 1923. Later you will have time to admire the
magnificent treasures of the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations,
where Neolithic frescoes, Bronze Age emblems, Hittite objects
and the remains of the fabled Phrygian King Midas are exhibited.
Overnight in Ankara. Includes: (B), (L).
Day 5: Cappadocia.
Pick up in the morning for Cappadocia. Explore Devrent and
Monk's Valley, to see the extraordinary mushroom-shaped rock
pinnacles or 'fairy chimneys'. Continue on to the small village
of Avanos, famous for clay pottery design. After lunch, proceed
to the Goreme Open Air Museum, featuring the most impressive
rock-carved churches and Byzantine frescoes in all Cappadocia.
Finally enjoy a view of the moonscape valleys from the
rock-perched natural citadel at Uchisar. Drop off to hotel.
Overnight in Cappadocia. Includes: (B), (L).
 Day
6: Cappadocia.
Pick up from your hotel to and start with a gentle hike through
orchards, unusual volcanic rock formations and rock-cut houses
at Red & Rose Valley, (approx. 5km). Visit the old Christian
Village of Cavusin, followed by lunch and then an excursion to
Pigeon Valley. In the afternoon, visit Kaymakli Underground
City, which hid local Christians from Arab invaders, Ortahisar
Castle and Mustafapasa Greek village. Drop off to hotel.
Overnight in Cappadocia. Includes: (B), (L).
 Day
7: Adana.
Pick up in the morning and drive to Tarsus, the birthplace of
St. Paul, and cultural centre of the Roman and Byzantine
Empires, later controlled by Arabs, Crusaders and Mamelukes.
Drive through the Taurus Mountains and visit St. Paul's Arch,
the Well of the Blessed Water (said to be on the site of St.
Paul’s house) and Cleopatra's Gate (built in 2 AD after the
Egyptian queen who met the Roman Mark Anthony here). Overnight
in Adana. Includes: (B), (L).
Day 8: Adana.
Antakya Region Tour Biblical Antioch-on-Orantes and third
largest city in the old Roman Empire. Here Barnabas brought Paul
to join in the congregation's ministry for the first sustained
efforts to bring non-Jews into the Christian community, calling
the first converts ‘Christians’. Visit the town of Samandag,
once the ancient biblical port of Seleucia ad Piera serving
Antioch. See the Grotto of St. Peter - a little cave church
where early Christians secretly met for prayer, the Titus Water
Tunnel and the exquisite Roman mosaics on display at the Mosaic
Museum. Overnight in Adana. Includes: (B), (L).
 Day
9: Konya.
Pick up in the morning for Konya, from which St. Paul and St.
Barnabas were forced to flee due to persecution. Centuries
later, it became the focus for the Whirling Dervishes' mystical
order, under the founding ‘Mevlana’ or master Sufi philosopher.
Visit the Whirling Dervish Museum and Monastery, which houses
the sacred silver and gold decorated Tomb of the Mevlana.
Nearby, you will visit the beautiful hill-perched Syrian and
Selcuk style Alaeddin Mosque and its unique medrese with tiled
dome of stars, hunting friezes and ceramic collection. Overnight
in Konya. Includes: (B), (L).
Day 10: Antalya.
 Pick
up in the morning for Yalvac, site of the ancient city
Antioch-in-Pisidia near the foothills of the snow capped Sultan
Mountains. It was here in a local synagogue that St. Paul’s
sermon presenting Jesus in light of Israel's history to a mixed
audience was recorded. See the ruins of the paved and colonnaded
streets, theatre and aqueduct. In the afternoon, drive to
Antalya, a coastal resort town with picturesque old quarter,
shopping bazaars and natural yachting harbour. Overnight in
Antalya. Includes: (B), (L).
Day 11: Antalya.
Pick up in the morning for an excursion to the ancient city of
Perge - a Pamphylian
 city
where St. Paul later preached after arriving from Cyprus. Walk
through the Roman Gate and down the Colonnaded Avenue past the
Agora, Baths, Hippodrome and Aqueduct terminating at the
Nymphaeum or great fountain. This is followed by a visit to the
Aspendos Theatre, a gigantic 2nd century Roman design so well
preserved that it is still in use today. Continue on to the
ancient city of Side and the Temple of Apollo, at whose ancient
port landed St. Paul, Barnabas & Mark during their missionary
journeys, en route to Antioch. Overnight in Antalya. Includes:
(B), (L).
 Day
12: Pamukkale.
Pick up in the morning for Pamukkale or 'Cotton Castle', famous
for the healing properties of its thermal mineral baths and
beautiful cascading snow-white terraced cliff side basins and
waterfalls. After lunch, visit the ancient Roman city ruins of
Hierapolis, where St. Philip the Apostle was martyred in 1AD.
See the magnificently preserved Necropolis, Avenue of Tombs,
Gates, Thermal Baths, Devil's Hole and the Masterpiece Theatre.
Drop off to hotel for a leisurely bath in the hot spring pool of
your hotel. Overnight in Pamukkale. Includes: (B), (L).
Day 13: Kusadasi.
 Pick
up in the morning to visit Eskihisar, site of the ancient city
of Laodicea. It ranked among the Seven Churches of Asia, to
which St. John addressed his letter concerning the city’s faith
and its waning progress. This is followed by a tour of one of
Turkey's most beautiful ancient cities - Aphrodisias, renowned
for its intricate stone friezes and aesthetic architecture. See
the Temple of Aphrodite, the monumental Tetra Pylon Gateway, the
ancient Gladiator Stadium and many delicate carvings and
sculptures in the onsite museum. Overnight in Kusadasi.
Includes: (B), (L).
Day 14: Izmir.
Pick up from your hotel. Visit the House of Virgin Mary, where
she is said to have spent her final years. Continue on to the
marble white ancient city of Ep hesus,
where St. Paul's Third Journey involved a long ministry. See
spectacularly restored monuments such as the great Library of
Celsus, Agora, Odeon, Trajan Fountain, Domitianus Temple, Roman
Latrines, Theatre and Stadium in which St. Paul preached the
gospel. Following a lunch break in Selcuk, visit the Archaeology
Museum and St. John's Basilica, a Byzantine church ruin marking
his burial place. Also stop-off at the picturesque Sirince
village. Drop off to hotel. Overnight in Izmir. Includes: (B),
(L).
Day 15: Izmir.
Pick up in the morning for an excursion to the Church of St.
Policarp in Izmir, one of the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse.
This is followed by a visit to Sardis - the capital of the
ancient kingdom of Lydia. Walk the Royal Avenue and see the site
of one of the Seven Churches built on the foundations of the
Temple of Artemis. Then proceed to the ancient Philadelphia
Church at Alasehir and one of the last cities to fall to the
Ottomans. Overnight in Izmir. Includes: (B), (L).
Day 16: Canakkale.
Pick up in the morning for Akhisar to visit the Church of
ancient Thya tira,
one of the Seven Churches, set in an ancient commercial town
with strong ties to Troy and Sardes. This is followed by a visit
to the hill-perched Acropolis, Asclepion (hospital), Altar of
Zeus and other pagan temples of ancient Pergamum at Bergama.
Also see the church ruins at the site of ancient Serapium and
the Red Court of St. John. Drive to Canakkale. Overnight in
Canakkale. Includes: (B), (L).
Day 17: Istanbul.
Pick up in the morning for the ancient city of Troy. Following a
lunch break en-route, visit the archaeological site of this 5000
years old city, scene of the legendary Trojan War as described
in Homer's Iliad. See a reconstruction of the fabled Wooden
Horse, the city ruins from a succession of 9 civilizations, the
Roman Bouletarion, Theatre and onsite Museum. St. Paul travelled
through the southern city of Troas nearby here several times.
After the tour, continue to drive back to Istanbul. Overnight in
Istanbul. Includes: (B), (L).
Day 18: Departure.
Free Day. Depart from Istanbul / Additional nights in Istanbul.
Includes: (B).
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 Notes:
Airfare is not included in the tour price.
(B), (L), (D); B= Breakfast, L= Lunch, D= Dinner.
Reservation |
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