TransAnatolie 0601

8 Day Cultural Tour in Turkey   

Ankara, Black See, Cappadocia Tour 

For Pricing Click Here or Contac Us

Cultural Heritage Tour to Turkey: Kubaba¹ &  Hittites, Amazones & Black See, St.  John Paul & Cappadocia

Day 1: Europe – Ankara

Arrival in Ankara. Transfer to the 4 or 5 star high QoS hotel for the welcome cocktail, dinner and overnight stay.

Day 2: Ankara

After breakfast at the buffet, our guide will lead us to the Anatolian Civilizations Museum, prize-winning museum of the best Worldwide Museums in 1995. This visit will be preceded by a conference on the Anatolian civilisations. We then visit the old part of Ankara, the citadel, the Konak Boyacizade, the Zenger Pacha Ethnografical Museum and the Spice Bazaar.

After lunch, we visit the Atatürk mausoleum and see his pictures exhibition recalling the main moments of his life and of the constitution of the Turkish Republic. We walk through the Atatürk Forest, tasting ice creams, a specialty of Atatürk Farm then go back to our 4 star hotel for dinner and overnight.

Day 3: Ankara – Hattusas – Amasya (376 km)

After breakfast we head towards the Kizilirmak Valley, up to the capital of the Hittite Empire Hattusas and his pantheon Yazilikaya, now registered as a National Historical Park. The main sites to be visited date back from the last period of the great Hittite Empire. On the way to the park, we can see the big temple at Asagi Sevir (temple n°1), the city walls with the colossal doors (Gate Arsanli with its lions, Gate Poterni and YER, Royal Gate Kral). In Yukari Sevir, we can admire the 31 temples built on the edge of Nisan Hill, and the Royal Palace, the Big Castle and other buildings.

The open-air Temple of Yazilikaya, last remaining of the Hittite Empire period is located at 5 km north-east of Bogazköy. It was made of two rooms: the small and the large gallery, and was built taking advantage of the natural placing of the local rocks. Goddesses cut from the living rock are depicted on the right wall of the large gallery, while an image of gods are shown on the left wall. Those two groups bring us to the rear wall, the most important one, that shows us the meeting of the God of Time Tesup and his wife Goddess Hepatu. In a local village, breakfast will enable us to appreciate an Hittite menu, regional meal prepared with spices dried by the wind of the High Hittite Plateau.

In the afternoon, we head up to Amasya, place of birth of the famous geograph Strabon (1^st century before JC) and centre of education for the Ottoman princes. Our charmed hotel in Amasya, Apple-Tusan Grubu **** is waiting for us. At sunset, hike trough Yesil Irmak Valley, taking pictures of wooden houses Yolboyu of Amasya, known for their Ottoman architecture. 

Dinner and overnight in our hotel.

Day 4: Amasya – Zile – Cekerek – Bogaziliyan – Cappadocia (330 km)

After the breakfast at the buffet, we explore the city of Ferhat and Sirin, also known under the name of ‘ City of the Crown’, Amasya.

We admire the old houses, Hazeranlar Konagi, the Ethnografical Museum, the royal rot-cut graves dig dating back from the Hellenistic period, without forgetting the Castle of Amasya, the Mosque with the turning minaret Burmali, the Bayezit II Mosque and its medrese Kulliye, and the Medrese Gök, the bridges (Caglayan, Alcak, Kus), Darussifa-Bimarhane (psychiatric hospital). The museum of Amasya, one of the richest in Turkey, displays more than 27,000 objects, remainings from 11 civilizations. 

Lunch in a local restaurant.

In the afternoon we drive across Turhal-Zile, visiting the Zile Castle, place of wars between the Roman and the Bridge inhabitants , also known for the famous quotation of Julius Caesar: "Veni, Vidi, Vinci". Then we head towards Cekerek, Sorgun and Bogaziliyan, and one of the most spectacular landscapes in the world: Cappadocia. 

Dinner and Overnight in our hotel ****: Burcu Kaya- Dinler- Tassaray- Kaymakli Prens.

Day 5: Cappadocia

After breakfast, we visit the old houses of Ürgüp. Start towards the Rose Valley, the Camels Valley, the Valley of the Virgin Mary. Then we enjoy a relaxing programme aiming at discovering different craft industries (weaving and knotting of carpets), the nomad culture and imperial palaces.

Lunch enables us to taste the Cömlek Kebab, specialty of the region in a restaurant offering a beautiful view on the Kizilirmak River. In the afternoon, we first visit the underground city of Ozkonak or Derinkuyu, and we contemplate the strange and beautiful landscape of Cappadocia with the old small village, so quiet and so pittoresk, of Mustafapasa, known previously under the name of Sinasos. We continue by the valley of Cemil-Taskinpasa-Soganli from the two regional architects, by the Hasan and Erciyes volcanoes.

Let’s admire the hand-made poppies with linen in Soganli, and especially the gloves and socks with Anatolian drawings. 

Dinner and overnight in our hotel.

Day 6: Cappadocia-The Holy Land of Christianism; following the Apocalypse of St. J. Paul

Hikes through the Valleys of the Three Cappadocian Graces, Üc Güzeller, the Pigeon Valley, Uchisar, Avcilar. Stop in an Onyx fabrique. Lunch at the hotel or at the buffet of the restaurant Koru.

In the afternoon, we visit the Göreme Valley, the open-air museum surroundered by churches, admiring quietly at sunset the early Christian art, the Byzantine Imperial art of those churches:Tokali-Elmali-St Basilius, Yilanli-Sandal along with the monasteries of priests and priestesses, a unique religious campus, the place where the apostles, the first Christians, the fourty Cappadocian Great Fathers, Saint Paul, Saint John, Saint Timothy, Saint Barnabe, Saint Naziane and Saint Basilius were welcomed, took refuge and prayed.

Diner and overnight at the hotel.

Day 7: Cappadocia – Ankara (320 km)

After breakfast we take advantage of free time to walk over Pasabag, a part of the famous Zelve Valley. We are in the country of ‘Moutons retournés’. On the way to Kayseri, also known as Caesarea during the Roman time, those who wish it can visit the leather factory.

Lunch enroute. Next to the Byzantine fortress, we can admire the Huant Medrese, and its Archaeological Museum and the Mosque Honat Hatun. In the south of this complex, we find Döner Kümbet, the very simple and classic Seljukian Mausoleum ((1276), the first Seljukian school of Anatomy and the Museum of Medical History Gevher Nesibe.

Let’s also admire the delicate Sahabiye Medrese and by walking across the Central Place and Bedesten, the Large Mosque Ulu, overlooked by a high minaret. We leave for Ankara, going through the High Plateau of Central Anatolia. 

Dinner and overnight in our hotel.

Day 8: Ankara

After breakfast, some free time given to enjoy the city at your own pace. Transfer to airport for return flight for a nostalgic departure but eager to live again this experience.

Pricing

• For Pricing Click Here or Contac Us

Options

• During the Cappadocia tour, a Turkish evening with traditional dances and Mevlevi performance
• Discovery of Cappadocia in hot air balloons

Inclusive

• 8 days/7 nights full pension 
• Transportation in Turkey
• Lunches in traditional Turkish restaurants, one of the best cuisines in the world.
• All admission fees to the museums and sites mentioned
• Guide

Exculisive

• Europe/Istanbul/Europe Flights
• Insurance, Airport Tax
• Drinks & Tips

Acemhoyuk

Top| Further Information| Reservation |For Pricing Click Here

¹Kubaba

Kubaba is the chief goddess of the Neo-Hittites, she became Cybebe to the Phrygians and Cybele to the Romans. She was known as Kybele in Anatolia
 

Kubaba (in the Weidner "Chronicle"), also known as Kug-Baba or Kubau, is the only queen on the Sumerian king list. Before overthrowing the rule of En-Shakansha-Ana of the 2nd Uruk Dynasty and becoming monarch, the king list says she was a tavern-keeper.

"The house of Kubaba" is mentioned "in the reign of Puzur-Nirah, king of Akshak" (line 38) in the Weidner "Chronicle", a propagandistic letter attempting to predate the shrine of Marduk to an early period: "Kubaba gave bread to the fisherman and gave water, she made him offer the fish to Esagila" (line 43). Her reign as the only "king" of the 3rd Dynasty of Kish was one of peace and prosperity. Her reign is contemporary with the "Early Dynastic III" period of Sumer. Her reign is listed to have lasted for 100 years. If she is a historical ruler, she probably lived in the 23rd to 25th century BC.

Shrines in her honour spread throughout Mesopotamia.^[1][2] In the Hurrian area she may be identified with Kebat, or Hepat, one title of the Hurrian Mother Goddess Hannahannah (from Hurrian hannah, "mother"). Abdi-Kheba (= the servant of Kheba), was the palace mayor, ruling Jerusalem at the time of the Amarna letters (1350 BC).

Kubaba became the tutelary goddess who protected the ancient Syrian city of Carchemish on the upper Euphrates, in the late Hurrian – Early Hittite period. Relief carvings, now at the Museum of Anatolian Antiquities, Ankara, show her seated, wearing a cylindrical headdress like the polos and holding a circular mirror in one hand and the poppy capsule or pomegranate in the other. She plays a role in Luwian texts, and a minor role in Hittite texts, mainly in Hurrian religious rituals. According to Mark Munn (Munn 2004), her cult later spread and her name was adapted for the main goddess of the Hittite successor-kingdoms in Anatolia, which later developed into the Phrygian matar (mother) or matar kubileya^[3] whose image with inscriptions appear in rock-cut sculptures.^[4] The Phrygian goddess otherwise bears little resemblance to Kubaba, who was a sovereign deity at Sardis, known to Greeks as Kybebe.^[5]