East Turkey Tour: The Mediterranean to the Black Sea October 19, 2012

Tour dates 20 October to 10 November 2012. While many of us have perhaps visited the western seaboard of Turkey and some may have ventured into the interior to visit Cappadocia, few have gone further east into the vast expanse of the high Anatolian Plateau. This tour can help remedy that by tracing a path from ancient Antioch on the Mediterranean to Trabzon on the Black Sea. During this journey we will visit many special places such as Sanliurfa, the reputed birthplace of Abraham and the first Christian kingdom in the world, Diyarbakir whose black basalt walls date to the Byzantine period, Ahlat on the shores of Lake Van where a sprawling necropolis reminds us of the coming of the influential Seljuk Turks and Ani, a ruin-field of Armenian churches set against the modern border with Armenia. Like the Greek general Xenophon who he led his army of 10,000 to safety through Persian occupied Turkey in the 4th century BCE, we too will end in Trabzon; a lively, cosmopolitan town at the gateway to Russia. Turkey has a deserved reputation as a delightful place to visit and this, too, holds for the east. For those of us who wish to see Turkey far from the beaten path, this tour will be both an education and a joy as we travel through impressive landscapes and visit a rich variety of ancient sites and modern towns. Details of this event may be subject to change. Please visit http://www.cce.usyd.edu.au/course/ettm for more information or to register.

Official Website: http://www.cce.usyd.edu.au/course/ettm