Turkey - Springtime, Autumn and Christmas in Istanbul

Itinerary

Day One  
Fly London to Istanbul, drive to our hotel.

Day Two  
Byzantine Constantinople: start with the great basilica of Haghia Sophia, the church of the Holy Wisdom of God, built by Justinian in the early sixth century. Justinian’s contemporary, the historian and writer Procopius, (who was not a fan of the emperor), wrote that it was ‘distinguished by indescribable beauty, excelling both in its size, and in the harmony of its measures, . . . magnificent and elegant, full of light and sunshine.’ Mehmet the Conqueror turned the great church into the city’s imperial mosque. Today it is a museum. Some of Constantinople’s greatest engineering was concerned with its water supply. The Yerebatan Sarayi, a cavernous and palatial Byzantine underground water cistern, supplied the imperial palaces, until they fell into ruin and it was forgotten. After lunch, we stroll in what was the central spina of the Hippodrome - its soaring seating accommodated tens of thousands of spectators, or, on occasions, angry citizens taking noisy part in political meetings. We cannot leave this part of the city without visiting the mosque of Sultan Ahmet (the Blue Mosque), with its high dome and semi-domes, multiple minarets, and beautiful interior richly blue with the finest tiles from the imperial tile-makers of Iznik.

Day Three
Ottoman Istanbul: The Topkapi Palace was the rambling palace complex of the Ottoman sultans until they moved in the 19th century to a French-style palace on the Bosphorus waterfront. Now a museum, it is a veritable treasurehouse of architecture and applied arts. The archaeological museum was built by the sultans in the late 19th century to house their collections from across the Ottoman empire.

Day Four  
Free day in Istanbul - your Guide Lecturers will have lots of suggestions.

Day Five  
The Bosphorus: we travel on our private boat up the majestic waterway that separates Europe from Asia, and links the Black Sea ports of Russia and Ukraine to the Mediterranean. This really puts the city into its context. There is much to see on either side of the waterway as we make our way to the Sadberk Hanim Museum, a major private collection of archaeology, Turkish art and costumes.

Day Six  
Spend the morning close to the great walls of the city built by Theodosius II in the early 5th century. Just inside the walls lies the ruined Palace of the Porphyrogenitus, where some of the last Byzantine emperors preferred to live. Close by is Kariye Camii, formerly the church of St Saviour in Chora. We complete our tour with a visit to a masterpiece of Ottoman architecture, the Sülemaniye Camii, built by Sinan and magnificently situated on the old city’s third hill.

Day Seven  
Private coach to Istanbul airport for group flights to London.