Booking information
September 2027 – 7 days
Register for 2027 and we will contact you when confirmed details including finalised dates and prices are available.
Journey through western Turkey to explore the deep archaeological history of Anatolia, where some of the earliest complex societies in the Mediterranean emerged. From the multi-layered remains of Troy to the remarkably preserved streets of Ephesus, trace how settlement, urban life and technology evolved from prehistory through the Bronze Age and into the classical world.
The tour focuses on the long development of human society in Anatolia, where some of the earliest complex settlements and urban centres emerged. Key sites include Troy, where layered occupation reveals millennia of rebuilding and destruction, and Ephesus, one of the best-preserved Roman cities in the world. Additional visits to sites such as Pergamon and key coastal and inland archaeological landscapes provide insight into Hellenistic, Roman and earlier Anatolian cultures, illustrating how geography, trade and empire shaped civilisation over time.
You will be accompanied by a specialist archaeologist with extensive field experience in Anatolia and the wider eastern Mediterranean. They will provide on-site interpretation of architecture and artefacts, helping to connect visible remains with broader historical and cultural narratives. Their commentary bridges academic research and accessible storytelling, bringing each site into clearer focus.
This trip is designed for curious travellers with a passion for archaeology, ancient history and the origins of early civilisations. It is ideal for those who enjoy exploring sites on foot, standing among real excavations and seeing how everyday objects, ruins and landscapes are used to reconstruct lost worlds. No specialist knowledge is needed – just a sense of curiosity and enthusiasm for discovering how human history is depicted across some of the Mediterranean’s most remarkable archaeological landscapes.
This tour has can be combined with our Human origins, Neolithic and Bronze Age Turkey travelling through eastern Turkey departing in September 2027.
In partnership with Intrepid Travel.
Day 1: Arrive in Istanbul and meet the group
Merhaba! Welcome to Turkey. Check in to the Legacy Ottoman Hotel, located in the heart of Istanbul, the continent-straddling metropolis that the Ancient Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Ottomans have previously all called home.
In the evening, meet your fellow guests, tour leader and accompanying expert, who will give an introductory lecture on the tour ahead. The tour expert will give both evening lectures and walking commentary throughout the tour.
Afterwards, you will head out to enjoy dinner together.
Day 2: Istanbul to Pamukkale and on to Troy
Travel south-west from Istanbul into the layered landscapes of western Anatolia, where the geological and archaeological record begins to unfold in tandem. Continue to Pamukkale, where mineral-rich thermal waters have created vast white travertine terraces. Above them lies the ancient city of Hierapolis, where baths, temples and a vast necropolis reveal how ancient societies built ritual and urban life around this extraordinary natural setting, turning geothermal activity into a cultural landscape.
From Pamukkale, journey north-west toward the Dardanelles and the site of Troy. Here, the multi-layered mound of Hisarlik preserves over 4,000 years of continuous and episodic settlement, with successive cities built directly atop earlier ones. Excavations expose a dense stratigraphy of fortifications, domestic spaces and artefacts, allowing archaeologists to reconstruct changing patterns of occupation, trade and conflict across the Bronze Age and beyond – transforming a legendary city into a deeply tangible archaeological archive.
Day 3: Gallipoli Peninsula
Travel north to the Gallipoli Peninsula where the archaeology of the landscape extends beyond antiquity into the modern era. Here, battlefield archaeology reveals how material traces – trenches, fortifications, shell craters and recovered artefacts – preserve a detailed physical record of 20th-century conflict layered onto a far older cultural terrain. The peninsula sits within the wider Dardanelles corridor, a strategic maritime passage that has shaped human movement, trade and military control for millennia.
Continue to Çanakkale.
Day 4: Çanakkale to Pergamon
Travel south to Pergamon, once a major Hellenistic centre of learning and power. Explore the steeply terraced acropolis, including the theatre, Temple of Trajan and the remains of the famous library rivalled only by Alexandria. The site offers an exceptional example of urban planning adapted to dramatic topography.
Day 5: Full day at Ephesus
Continue south through the Aegean landscape to Ephesus, one of the most complete and vividly preserved classical cities in the Mediterranean. As you enter the site, the scale and organisation of Roman urban planning becomes immediately apparent, with its long marble-paved streets, colonnaded avenues and carefully structured civic spaces laid out on a monumental grid adapted to the surrounding valley.
Spend the afternoon moving through the heart of the city, from the monumental façade of the Library of Celsus – once a repository of thousands of scrolls and a symbol of elite knowledge – to the vast Great Theatre, capable of holding tens of thousands of spectators and still echoing with the acoustics of public assembly and performance. Beyond the civic core, explore the finely preserved terrace houses, where mosaics, frescoes and domestic architecture offer a rare, intimate glimpse into elite Roman household life. Together, these remains provide an unusually detailed archaeological snapshot of urbanism, economy and daily life in a thriving imperial city at the crossroads of trade routes linking the Aegean and the wider Mediterranean world.
Day 6: Istanbul city tour including the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and the Hippodrome
After an early breakfast, you will enjoy a tour of the most important and visually enthralling sites of the old city. This will include the Blue Mosque and Justinian the Great’s 1500-year-old Hagia Sophia. These monumental and awe-inspiring buildings sit next to each other in the heart of the city.
Next, we head on to the Hippodrome, where chariot races once took place. Finally, we visit the famed Grand Bazaar to explore the 3000 local and independent stalls and shops.
Day 7: Depart Istanbul
After breakfast, you will be transferred back to the airport for your return flight. You can also combine this tour with our Human origins, Neolithic and Bronze Age Turkey travelling through western Turkey departing in September 2027.
