OTTOMAN CAPITALS: Istanbul, Bursa and Edirne
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5th October -14th November 2008
with John Osborne |
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PROVISIONAL COST: £1385: This will include return flights, accommodation and breakfast each day, transport everywhere in Turkey, services of a local English-speaking escort.
EXTRAS: The price does not include lunch and dinner each day, drinks, tips, entrance fees and insurance.
Single Room Supplement £225. There is a £10 entry visa to Turkey, payable in sterling at the airport on arrival.
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When the Ottoman Turks occupied ancient Byzantium in the 15th century they found wonderful buildings, including Orthodox Christian churches, which they adapted rather than destroyed. Of course, they added their new buildings, including mosques and palaces, and today Turkey has a wealth of remains from it Ottoman past, especially in the three cities where the Sultans resided and administered the Ottoman Empire. The Byzantine past is also very evident, and our tour gives due weight to this, too.
The tour begins in Bursa, the Ottoman dynasty’s first capital, on the Asiatic side of the Sea of Marmara, where we visit the beautifully tiled mosques and tombs of the early Sultans, and the fascinating old bazaar area. The tour includes the town of Iznik, famous for the exquisite tiles manufactured here, before we reach Istanbul, where we stay within a stone’s throw of Justinian’s wonderful cathedral of the ‘Holy Wisdom’, the ancient Hippodrome of Constantinople, the Blue Mosque and the Topkapi Palace, which was for four centuries the imperial court of the Ottoman Sultans. We shall take in some of the finest surviving Byzantine mosaics and frescoes, and the best of the impressive architecture and beautiful tilework from the Ottoman period; and there will be time for independent exploration of the city, too, with its busy bazaars, streets and waterways. We complete our tour with a trip inland through the rolling plains of Thrace to Edirne, where the amazingly prolific 16th century architect, Sinan, created his masterpiece, the mosque named after Sultan Selim II.
| Date |
Itinerary |
| Sunday 5 October |
arrive at Istanbul Airport; transfer by ferry to Mudanya and then by coach to the first Ottoman capital, Bursa, situated at the foot of the local Mt Olympus.
Accommodation at the spa hotel, the 5* Celik Palas, for three nights.
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| Monday 6 & Tuesday 7 October |
visits in Bursa to the fine imperial mosques and tombs of the 14th and 15th centuries and to the lively bazaar, centre of the traditional silk industry.
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| Wednesday 8 October |
transfer, via the late Roman town of Iznik, famous for its tiles in the Ottoman period, to Yalova, where we catch the ferry to Istanbul.
Accommodation for four nights at the Aya Sofiya Pensions, attractively restored Ottoman buildings ideally situated for visitors just outside the Topkapi Palace. |
| Thursday 9, Friday 10 & Saturday 11 October |
visits to the Justinian’s magnificent cathedral, Haghia Sophia, and the Byzantine Cistern; the Sultans’ Topkapi Palace, with its Seraglio and Treasury; the Blue Mosque of Sultan Ahmet; the great covered Bazaar; the mosque complex of Suleyman the Magnificent; the Church of St Saviour in Chora, known as the Kariye Mosque, with it stunning 14th century mosaics and frescoes; the Dolmabahce Palace, built by the Sultans in the latest European style in the 19th century, and much more.
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| Sunday 12 October |
drive inland, via Luleburgaz, to the other early Ottoman capital, Edirne. Two nights’ accommodation in a converted caravansaray, the Rustem Pasha Hotel.
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| Monday 13 October: |
a whole day in Edirne, to visit the Selimiye, the wonderful mosque complex designed by the great architect, Sinan, and other fine 15th and 16th century buildings. |
| Tuesday 14 October |
return drive to Istanbul Airport for our return flight to London. |
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