EasternTurkeyTours Discover the Ancient Silk Road
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The Silk Road, or as the Turks referred to it, Uzun Yol (Long Road), is an ancient trade route connecting the occident and the orient; running between China and Europe it has been an important conduit of commerce and knowledge since Classical times. The expansion of the Macedonian Empire under Alexander the Great probably provided the impetus that created the early Silk Road and it was further developed by the Roman and Byzantine Empires. The Byzantines in particular, treasured the luxuries that came from the east and improved the roads in the western reaches of the route. Under the Mongols, who unified most of the lands of central Asia traversed by the road and who developed a sophisticated mail service the road improved yet again. But it was under the Seljuk Turks that the Ancient Silk Road really came into its own and most of the Hans and Caravanserais to be found across Turkey date from Seljuk times. Nearly one hundred Seljuk caravanserais along the Silk Road still exist in lands once controlled by the Seljuks. Accommodation and provisions at the Seljuk caravanserais were provided free of charge to travellers for up to three days at a time; this practice was an integral part of the caravanserais charitable status as they were always connected to a religious establishment funded by the state or local rulers. In fact, the Turkish language and its many regional variations can be heard all along the route from Western China, across central Asia and Anatolia, right into the Balkans
even today. In effect, the Silk Road is also a Turkish Road and it only began to decline with the opening up of maritime trade routes by western European powers and the discovery of the New World in the later Ottoman period. However, in many respects, the Silk Road was an idea that has a romance, mystery and resonance today even for those who know little about it; as much as a road, it has a conceptual meaning and importance that is gripping imaginations today as Turkey, the new nations of Central Asia, and China reach out to each other using the shared experience of the great Uzun Yol. The Silk Road had numerous spurs and branches but the route we shall follow is along the principal route from Constantinople, present day Istanbul, to Ankara, along Turkey's Great Salt Lake to Cappadocia and then on to Kayseri, Malatya, Diyarbakir, Bitlis, Tatvan and Van before finishing at the great border fortress of Hosap near the Iranian frontier. Like the Ancient Silk Road, we will make small detours from time to time to see points of historical interest along the way.
The Bosphorus and Rumelihisar
Day 1: Arrive in Istanbul Day 2: Istanbul Today we will visit the Egyptian Spice Bazaar before catching the Bosphorus ferry for an orientation cruise up the Bosphorus to Anadolu Kavagi at the opening of the channel to the Black Sea. This is the best way to get a good overview of this huge bustling city and the best way to view one of the world's great city skylines. The trip will take you out of old Istanbul past the numerous docks and then past the great 15th century fortification of Rumelihisar and under the massive Sultan Fatih and Ataturk suspension bridges all the way to the Black Sea.
Day 3: Istanbul We start our day with a visit to Aya Sofia, the great byzantine church that dominates this part of the old city. Dedicated in the year 536 by the Emperor Justinian this was the greatest of all Christian churches until the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453 when it was converted into the principal imperial mosque of the Ottoman Empire. It was turned into a museum by the order of Ataturk at the start of the Republican period. From Aya Sophia we will go next door to the Topkapi Palace, home of Ottoman Sultans and the centre of government of the Ottoman Empire; this palace houses an impressive treasury, Islamic relics of great importance and the Sultan's personal residence and Harem. After the Topkapi we will visit the Yerebetan Saray, an ancient Roman cistern which was a central part of Constantinople's water supply, before visiting the Hippodrome and the Blue Mosque.
Built in the 6th century AD- Aya Sophia
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
Anitkabir, the Tomb of Ataturk
Day 4 In the morning we will visit Istanbul's Kapili Carsi- Covered Bazaara massive complex of about 5000 shops and markets first built by Mehmet II in 1461. This is the most appropriate place to start our Silk Road tour- in a market selling goods from all over Turkey and the world. Drive to Ankara and overnight in Ankara.
Day 5 The tour of Ankara starts with a visit to the Tomb of AtaturkAnitkabir- on one of the hills overlooking Ankara. In the afternoon we will visit the ancient citadel and the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations. Housed in a beautifully renovated 15th century Bedesten (market) and Han, this museum is one of the finest museums in the world with fabulous collections of artefacts including exquisite gold jewellery from Hittite and Urartian Anatolia and earlier.
The Egyptian Bazaar, Istanbul
Day 6 To Cappadocia via Tuzgolu, Turkey's Great Salt Lake, stopping to visit the Agzikarahan and Tepesidelikhan caravanserais along the way. Overnight stay in Urgup.
Tuzgolu, Turkey's Great Salt Lake
Uchisar
Day 7 Morning in Cappadocia: We visit the Goreme Open Air Museum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Goreme was once a Christian religious community and has numerous rock- cut churches and monasteries many of which still contain magnificent frescos of great age. From Goreme we go to Derinkuyu Underground City and Gaziemir Rock Caravanserai. Derinkuyu is one of the many subterranean cities of Cappadocia; going underground as deep as eight storeys the city was capable of hiding thousands of people for many months during times of conflict and invasion. The cities were self contained and were equipped with olive presses, mills, communal halls and churches. Many of Cappadocia's underground cities were connected to one another by an extensive system of tunnels that covered some considerable distance.
The Landscape around Goreme
Just a few kilometres away, Gaziemir's rock cut caravanserai continues this Cappadocian tradition of using the soft volcanic rock to carve out homes, churches and places of refuge; in this instance a traveller's rest stop on the Silk Road. To Kayseri; overnight in Kayseri.
Derinkuyu, underground city
Karatay Han
Day 8 Morning tour of Kayseri, an important Silk Road destination and a centre of Islamic learning where there are a number of historically significant Medreses (Islamic schools), from the Seljuk period. The Cifte Medrese was the first Seljuk school of anatomy and is today the Gevhir Nesibe Medical History Museum. It is among Turkey's most impressive buildings, not just for its architecture, but for its concept and function. Ecologically and technically advanced for its time, it housed a medical centre with a surgical operating theatre. Sound ducts conveyed music into patients' sick rooms and a thick sod roof provided insulation, a rain barrier, and a garden plot in which to grow many of the vegetables and herbs used for patients' care. Built (1206) by Seljuk Sultan Giyaseddin Keyh端srev I in memory of his sister Gevher Nesibe Hatun (whose tomb is here), it served the entire population of Kayseri-Muslim, Christian or Jewish, regardless of race, religion or ability to pay. Near the city's Bedesten- or marketlies the 12th century Ulu Cami: Great Mosque. At the centre of the city is the Hisar, or citadel, built by the Roman Emperor Justinian during the 6th century AD; it remains today a formidable reminder of the glory of ancient Rome and Byzantium.
Kayseri, old and new
Ulu Cami: Great Mosque, Diyarbakir
The Tohma river canyon
Day 9 Morning in Darende and a chance to explore the canyon on purpose built walkways. We will also visit the shrine of Somuncu Baba, a beautiful and simple mosque and tomb set on the edge of the Tohma canyon. Much frequented by Turkish travellers this lovely shrine is not on the tourist trail- it is our secret. Hamidüddin Aksarayî (1331-1412), better known by the name Somuncu Baba, was an ascetic teacher of Islam in Bursa, who exerted extensive influence and is known as a Muslim saint. He taught at the Great Mosque in Bursa where he was installed by Sultan Bayezid I after it was completed. The wooden ceiling of Somuncu Baba's mosque
Somuncu Baba taught many great Islamic scholars but was a man known for his humility and saintliness. He spent his last years in Darende where he ministered to the poor using skills from his youth; he was a baker early in life. His name “Somuncu Baba” literally means Father Bread because he not only ministered to the spiritual needs of his community but fed the poor as well. His mosque and tomb is a building of simple elegance in a beautiful setting. The mosque complex also houses a museum dedicated to Somuncu Baba and the community of Darende.
The mosque of Somuncu Baba, Darende
The Statues at the summit of Mt. Nemrut
Day 9 Afternoon Diversion off the Silk Road route to visit the Mountain Top Tomb of Nemrut. We will travel to Mt Nemrut to watch the sunset. Lost for nearly 2000 years, the monument was only rediscovered in the 1890s by a government surveyor. At a little over 2234 metres (7000 feet) in elevation the monument at Nemrut is one of the most enigmatic sites in Turkey and is emblematic of the country's diverse and rich historical legacy. At the very peak of the mountain is a tumulus of loose stones in which, it is believed, lie the remains of King Antiochus I. Flanking the monument to face the rising and the setting sun is a series of statues, cast down by time and the elements, representing ancient deities including the king himself. Of little historical or earthly importance, the King has achieved his goal of immortality on the summit of Nemrut.
The Defensive walls of Diyarbakir
Day 10 Depart Nemrut for Diyarbakir. Diyarbakir is a predominantly Kurdish city and is located on the highest navigable point on the River Tigris. It is richly endowed with significant buildings and has more historic mosques, churches and other principal buildings than any city in Turkey except Istanbul. It has Armenian, Syriac, Kurdish and Arab quarters each with its own distinctive style and ambiance. Surrounding Diyarbakir is a massive defensive wall built of black basalt; the city walls of Diyarbakir are more than five kilometres long, among the longest defensive walls in the world second only to the Great Wall of China.
Day 11 From Diyarbakir we continue to Tatvan through the flood plain of the Tigris, up the Bitlis Gorge and past Bitlis, an important gateway to the east and a vital junction on the Silk Road. We will overnight in Tatvan. Bitlis Gorge
The Tigris
Ahlat
Day 12: Ahlat Ahlat where there are significant Seljuk monuments and cemeteries that mark the first presence of the Seljuk Turks in Anatolia and then on along the southern shores of Lake Van to the Island of Akdamar with its 10th century Armenian church. This is one of the best know examples of Armenian religious architecture anywhere in the region. In the evening we will visit the ancient Citadel of Van. Built upon a massive rock outcrop the Citadel of Van has been at the heart of Van (Urartian Tushpa) since Urartian times and possibly earlier. Added on by empires that followed, it has inscriptions on it from the Persian Emperor Xerxes, fortifications added by both Seljuks and Ottomans and a mosque. It commands a stunning 360 degree view of the city of Van and its hinterland, of Lake Van itself and the dormant volcanoes of Nemrut Crater to the west and Suphan to the northwest.
Akdamar
The 3000 year old Citadel overlooking Van
Ishak Pasha Saray
Day 13 Today we will take a detour along one of the Silk Road branches to visit Dogubeyazit, Ishak Pasha Saray and the legendary Mt. Ararat. We approach Dogubeyazit along a road that skirts the Iranian border and traverses an incredible alien volcanic landscape of stark and hostile beauty to catch our first glimpse of Biblical Mt Ararat, the place where the Bible tells us Noah's Ark came to rest after the Great Flood. In Dogubeayzit, we visit the spectacular Ishak Pasha Palace 1685 1784 with unique fusion of architecture from Seljuk, Ottoman, Georgian, and Armenian/Persian styles. Even in its ruined state the opulence and originality of art and impeccable taste coupled with the ambition of its owner instantly grasp the imagination. Out on the remotest reaches of the empire, far from central authority in Istanbul its creators produced provincial palace that could rival any in the empire. Built as the seat of the government in the province of Mount Ararat in Eastern Anatolia and as his residence in about 1784 by the semi independent Kurdish Pasha, Ishak, and his son, the complex is an example of Seljuk revival with many Turkish Baroque elements. Situated on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Ararat plateau, the palace is divided in the traditional Ottoman manner into three sections: the first is the service court; the second is the selamlik (or greeting) court; and the third is the haramlik (private) court. The superb decoration is an eighteenth century interpretation of the twelfth-thirteenth centuries' Seljuk styles, and is all executed in exquisite stone carving. The building was looted by Russian forces on a number of occasions in the 19th
century and during the First World War; the huge gilded gold gates that adorned the palace were stolen by Russian forces in 1917 and are now at the entrance of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The extraordinary thing about Ishak Pasha's Palace is that in this remote region of the empire one man had the vision to build such a masterpiece; it is one of the iconic buildings of Turkey.
The Ancient Silk Road
Day 14: (Optional if airport transfer times and flight connections permit) From Van we travel south for the last leg of our journey along the Silk Road (Uzun Yol) in Turkey and a visit to Hosap Castle. The present and main castle structure of Hosap was built straddling the Silk Road and served as both a means of protecting the road and as a point of charging tolls on travellers. Constructed in 1643 by a local Kurdish chieftain called Mahmudi Sari Suleyman (or Blond Suleyman) the castle is built on a rocky outcrop on the north bank of the Hosap River.
Hosap Castle
Although there are substantial Urartian remains to be seen in the form of defensive walls, the main castle structure that we see today dates mostly from 1643 when Sari Suleyman Bey rebuilt the castle and added a new entrance tower. A castle was built at this location as early as the Urartian Kingdom (9th- 6th c. B.C.); it is certain, however, that the structure was built early on and modified numerous times until the seventeenth century. The Mahmudi castle was damaged in two sieges by the Ottoman Beylerbeyi or Governor General of Van in the 1650s and in 1839. It was restored in the 1970s and 80s by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and again in 2011. Return to Van for flight to Istanbul and connections for home. 2500 years old, The Urartian walls of Hosap
The Silk Roads through Turkey
EasternTurkeyTours Silk Road Tour
Exceed your expectations Email: info@easternturkeytour.org