ISTANBUL AND
THE 7 CHURCHES OF RELAVATİON TOUR 8 DAYS 7 NİGHTS
DAY 1:(D)
We will pick you up from the airport in Istanbul and bring
you to your hotel, where you can spend the rest of the day at your choice
DAY 2:(B,L,D)
In the morning around
8:30, we will pick you up from your hotel in Sultanahmet or Taksim and we will have a nice sightseeing tour in
Istanbul ‘” the old City tour”: Today we will see the Topkapi Palace where the
Ottoman sultans had their residence years ago, after the Topkapi palace we will
go for lunch. In the afternoon our program starts with the underground water
Basilica “’ Yerebatan sarnic”’ After we have seen this underground cistern we
will go, tot, the famous Hagia Sophia, in its time the praying place for the
Christians and later in 1453 it became a mosque you will see some beautiful
mosaics in the mosque. From here on we will continue with the Sultan Ahmet
mosque also known as the blue mosque because of all its Iznik tiles in blue
colors on the inside of the mosque. After the blue mosque, we will go to our
last piece of the tour the Hypodrome, where you can see the Egyptian obelisk
and feel the growth of the city Constantinople till Istanbul from now.
From here on we will bring you back to your hotel in Sutanahmet or Taksim.
DAY 3: (B, L,D)
In the early morning, we will pick you up from your hotel and we will bring you to the airport from Istanbul
for your flight to Izmir. In Izmir, our other driver is waiting to ring you
from the airport. After the pickup, We will start the tour. We start with the House of the Virgin Mary is the place where Mary may have spent her
last days. Indeed, she may have come to this area together with Saint John.
This place was officially declared a shrine of the Roman Catholic Church in
1986, and since then it has become a popular place of pilgrimage. Pope Paul VI
visited the shrine in 1967. The visit to the House (church) takes about 45 minutes
and after our visit; there will be a 5 min drive to Ephesus.
Ephesus is an exceptional testimony to the cultural
traditions of the Hellenistic, Roman Imperial, and early Christian periods.
Ephesus is an important site for Christianity; being one of the seven Churches
of RevelationApostle Paul probably spent two and half years in Ephesus during
his third missionary journey. In two hours, you will be exploring the city by
walking on the marble streets, accompanied by our professional English-speaking
tour guide.
On our tour, we will
be seeing the Odeon, State Agora, Prytaneion, Memmius
Monument, Domatian Temple, Hercules Gate, Curetes Street,
Hadrian Temple, and theatres. The visit to Private Houses (So-called Terrace
Houses’) is an optional visit for an extra 170 ₺/ per person and your guide
should be informed before the tour. After the Terrace Houses, we will carry on
with our exploration with Celsus Library, Marble Road, Commercial
Agora, Great Theather,andArcadiane (Harbour Road).
After lunch; we will
move on with the visit to the Temple of Artemis; which is one of the
'Seven Wonders' of antiquity. From this point, you have the best chance to take
very nice pictures of the church of St.John and the Isa Bey mosque.
Sirince is an old village of ‘Rum’ (Byzantine Greeks)
situated on the hills of Selcuk and 7 km from Ephesus. As part of the peace pact after the Turkish National War (1919-1922), there was a formal exchange of
Turkish and Greeks people. So the Greeks left and Sirince is inhabited by
Turkish now. The village is popular for its beautiful traditional houses and
fruit-flavored wine productions, and here you will have some free time to taste
the wines or to buy some nice handmade souvenirs.
We will finish this
daily tour around 4:30 pm and you will be transferred back to your
hotels. Overnight in Kusadasi
DAY 4: (B,L, D)
After breakfast we
will pick you up from your hotel and start our day by driving to Laodicea,
here we will visit The rejected church-church of the final adiposity, and from here on we will go to Pamukkale and Hierapolis. Pamukkale / Hierapolis is
listed in Unesco's World Heritage List as a 'Natural Site' and 'Ancient City';
and is famous for her hot springs which are believed to be having healing
powers. The travertines are formed by a multifaceted chemical reaction and
subsequent precipitation of various causes and environments. Water springs from the ground with a high level of Calcium Hydrocarbonate at a temperature of 35.6
degrees C; and this causes carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide to evaporate and
leave calcium carbonate to precipitate and form the travertine.
Hierapolis has been a settlement of different cults and
cultures throughout history; and the city is believed to be founded by Eumenies
II, the Attalid king of Pergamon at the end of the 2nd Century BC; and to has been
named after Hiera, the beautiful wife of Telephos, the legendary founder of
Pergamon. However, ancient historians like Strabon and Ptolemaios state that
Hierapolis was a Phrygian settlement.
Hierapolis played an
important role in spreading Christianity in Anatolia, and it was the place
where Phillip, one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, died. For this
reason, Hierapolis became an important religious center in the 4th century AD.
Later it assumed the title of the ‘Guide of the East’; and the city came under the control of the Roman Empire in 395 AD, and became a metropolitan bishopric.
Our tour in Hierapolis
includes the Necropolis, Domitian Gate, Frontinus Street, the Agora,
the North Byzantine Gate, the Gymnasium, the Foundation with
Triton, Apollon Temple, the Martyrium of St Philip and Bridge,
the Column Church, the ruins of Basilica, Plutonium, Latrina
and the Romans Baths. Our guide will show you Pamukkale and it will take
about one and a half hours, after that, you have free time to look around, if
you bring your swimming clothes you can also visit the Cleopatra pool but they
charge an entrance from 50 lira extra this is not included our tour program.
After our Hierapolis
and Travertine tour, you will be transferred to your hotel in Pamukkale
DAY 5:(B,L,D)
After breakfast we
will go to Sardes first: The reformation church-sixteenth and seventeenth
century’s om here on we will go to
Philadelphia - The missionary
church-puritan movement and after that we will drive to Bergama where we will
spend the night.
DAY 6 : (B,L)
Today we will visit the ancient city of Bergama, and we will
see the Red Basilica. Bergama’s name comes directly from its ancient name
Pergamum, it was a great city and the center of the Pergamon kingdom based high in the mountains. Its location made it
strategic and during the time of Attalos I and his son Eumenes II, the city had
golden times, in this time they completed the acropolis, theatre, and other
important projects. It was an important city in the Roman period. The city
developed during the Hadrian period 117-138 AD and the city was adored by its
Roman works of art and had many fountains which made it exclusive at his times. In the Byzantine period, Christianity was spread in the city. Pergamon was
first under influence of the bishopric of Ephesus and then became a metropolis.
After Bergama, we will bring you to Izmir airport for your
flight to Istanbul, in Istanbul our other driver is waiting for you at the
airport and will bring you to your hotel in Istanbul.
DAY 7: (B)
Free day
DAY 8: (B)
Today we will pick you up from your hotel in Istanbul and
bring you back to the airport for your flight back home.
info@apasastravel.com
0232 892 9547
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