The Blue Voyage

Turkey and the Turquoise Coast

September 27 - October 12, 2008 & October 18 - November 2, 2008

To the seasoned traveler, Turkey is one of the most inclusive destinations in the world. For classical history, for beauty, for an understanding of the world of Islam, Turkey is a traveler’s imperative. For many centuries, fabled Istanbul has been the great intersection of Europe and Asia and the meeting point between the Christian and the Muslim world. “If the world was a single state,” Napoleon once declared, “Istanbul would be its capital.” The country itself has been the crossroads of empires, from the ancient Greeks and Romans through the Ottomans. Today, Turkey continues to serve transactions between East and West as it awaits entry into the European Union and develops its own secular democracy.

Our journey begins in Istanbul, the city on the Bosphorus known by the Greeks as Byzantium and by the later Romans as Constantinople. Here in one of the world’s most historic and picturesque cities we’ll explore at leisure the former capital of the Eastern Roman and Ottoman empires.We’ll see the city’s magnificent edifices: the legendary Blue Mosque, Saint Sofia, and Topkapi Palace, one of the world’s richest museums. Traveling south from Istanbul, we’ll tour Gallipoli, the sacred World War I battlefield, then ferry across the Dardanelles for a visit to Troy. In Bergama, we’ll explore another of Turkey’s ancient sites, Pergamum, which boasts a wealth of Greco-Roman ruins. In Ephesus, founded in 1,000 B.C., we’ll tour one of the best-preserved and most accessible classical sites in the world, renowned for the Temple of Artemis, the Library of Celsus, and its 25,000- seat Roman amphitheater.

In Marmaris, we’ll board our privately chartered gulet yacht for a five-day cruise along the beautiful Turquoise Coast. Here we’ll find the highest concentration of ancient sites and some of the most imposing scenery in the entire Mediterranean. Odysseus and Aeneas knew this coastline. So did Alexander the Great, Cleopatra and Antony, and St. Paul. We’ll follow their route to hidden turquoise coves and ancient marble cities, some still clinging to cliffs, others just below the surface of the crystal-clear sea. Our cruise ends at the seaside resort of Antalya with visits to ancient Perge and Antalya’s Archaeological Museum. An optional five-day post-tour extension to Cappadocia, the Goreme Valley, and Ankara will be a popular choice.

Download the complete itinerary and registration form (.pdf)

Traveling With You

Wayne Thompson
Wayne C. Thompson, Ph.D., avid world traveler, teaches international politics with a specialty in European politics at Washington and Lee University. He has served as a Fulbright professor in Estonia and at the College of Europe, and has held visiting professorships in Germany, Bulgaria, Poland, and Belgium. Professor Thompson completed advanced graduate studies at the universities of Gottingen, Paris/Sorbonne and Freiburg in Breisgau, Germany, where he was honored with an Alexander von Humbolt Fellowship. Professor Thompson has also authored several history books and serves as Editor-in-Chief of Stryker-Post Publications, which produces the annually updated The World Today Series.More...