Please choose one of the following:  Video Clip  Tourist Information  Daily Tours and Transfers  Hotel Descriptions and Price Chart

Aegean shores are among the loveliest landscapes in the country. The magnificent coastline is lapped by clear water that abounds in vast and pristine beaches surrounded by olive groves, rocky crags and pine woods. The Aegean see is a mix of fishing harbors, popular holiday villages and the remains of ancient civilizations attesting to the inheritance of more than 5000 years of history, culture and mythology.

Please choose one of the cities to see further information:

Aphrodisias  Bodrum  Didim  Ephesus - Virgin Mary's House  Fethiye  Kusadasi

Lycia  Marmaris  Pamukkale - Hierapolis  Pergamum  The Seven Churches of the Apocalypse  Troy & Assos

The history of Aphrodisias stretches back in time. The city, which was dedicated to Aphrodite, goddess of love and fertility, rose to prominence in the 1st century BC. Some of the richest treasures of ancient times were uncovered in the excavations. The public buildings are adorned with marble with astonishing skill, producing remarkable temples, monuments, baths, a theater and a magnificent stadium. The reputation of the city's craftsmen for the finesse of their statuary and marble sculpting spread in the civilized world and Aphrodisias became the center of the greatest sculpting school of antiquity. The theater and bouleuterion are among the city's best preserved ruins.

Bodrum a charming Aegean port town, was the home town of Herodotus. It was known in ancient times as Halicarnassus (1200 B.C.) and it is situated on the bay where Aegean and Mediterranean sea meet. Alexander the Great conquered the city in 334 BC. In 353 B.C. after the death king Mausolus, his widow built him a majestic tomb known today as a mausoleum that was destroyed in an earthquake after the 12th century. Much of the mausoleum marble was used to build the Castle of St. Peter in 1402. It is worth to visit the Museum of Underwater Archaeology. Bodrum is located in a peninsula with beautiful bays which is an excellent choice to start the blue voyage by a regional style of yacht construction called "gullet". For sun and sea worshippers the best season is between  May and October.

 

The valley of Menderes river has witnessed the rise and falls of several great settlements such as Priene, Miletos, Hierapolis and Didyma. You can see only ruins of the Temple of Apollo and part of colonnades surrounding the temple. Priene was one of the most active ports of the Ionian Federation. The gridlock system odd streets introduced in the 4th century B.C. by Hippodamus of Miletos is a superb and early example of town planning. Miletos, like Priene, was a great Ionian port and the birthplace of several philosophers and sages. There you can also see the theater and well-preserved ruins of Faustina baths.

 Ephesus was once the commercial center of the ancient world, and it is one of the highlights of any visit to Turkey. The city whose wealth and patronage supported its splendid architectural program was dedicated to the Goddess Artemis. Her enormous temple was rebuilt several times and dates in its latest form from the 3rd century B.C. It was once considered to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The ruins also include the partially conserved parts of the city such as the Curetes Street, the temple of Hadrian, gymnasium, agora and scholastic baths, the marble road, the Arcadian way, the Celsius library and the theater that is still in use today. Nearby Ephesus there are inevitable places to visit: the basilica of St. John in town of Selcuk and the house where Virgin Mary spent her last days after the death of Christ on Mount Nightingale.

Fethiye

Kusadasi This international resort town has beautiful sandy beaches, an international marina and is also close to the ancient city of Ephesus.

The Lycians inhabited the rugged area between Fethiye and Antalya 2.000 years ago. They were a warrior society known for their bravery in life and their burial architecture at the end of it. The Lycians carved immense tombs in the shapes of homes to house their dead. The tombs are still scattered throughout the region. Some are carved into the side of cliffs, some a bit further off shore in the middle of water and some are now even in the center of town.

This lovely resort town is located on a peninsula southern of Bodrum and is surrounded by a pine wooded landscape. It has a harbor sheltered with lush foothills and long beaches surround its bay. Known in ancient times as Physcos, this Carian city played an important rule on the Anatolia - Rhodes - Egypt trade route. The modern town grew up around a citadel constructed by the Ionians in 3000 B.C. repaired by Alexander the Great in the 4th century and expanded by the Ottomans in the 16th century.

 

A magical and spectacular natural site, unique in the world, Pamukkale is a fairyland of dazzling white petrified castles. Thermal spring waters laden with calcareous salts running off the plateau's edge have created this fantastic formation of stalactites, cataracts and basins. The calcareous deposits come from a warm spring that has large quantities of calcium bicarbonate in solution. When it reaches the surface, the calcium bicarbonate, already partly dissociated in the water, breaks down into carbonate and is deposited as a hard grayish-white layer, creating a series of fan-like formations.

 

This ancient Hellenistic city is known for its wealth of Greco-Roman remains and it also has one of the seven churches of the Bible. Pergamum was the rival of Ephesus in the field of commerce and of Alexandria in the fields of learning and arts. The ruins date back to the Attalids who ruled during the height of artistic and scientific discoveries in the 3rd and 2nd century B.C.

 The Seven churches of the Asia Minor that are mentioned by Saint John in the Book of Revelations,  formed a separate and distinct community and are all situated in Turkey. The part of the book of revelation was written to warn against spiritual indifference and to elicit courage under persecution. The Roman persecution is by some interpreters seen as a prophecy depicting events that were to take place at the end of the age. The seven Asian churches where St. Paul preached according to Revelations and the Bible are :
 

Ephesus	Ephesus the Greco-Roman and Christian city, also home of St. Paul between 54 and 57 A.D. has one of the seven churches that is  located right outside the city of Selcuk. St. Paul not only preached in Ephesus, but also at the theater that is still used today and at the Basilica of St. John in Selcuk. Another important place at this area is the House of Virgin Mary built on the Mount Nightingale where she lived her last days after the Christ's death.
Smyrna	Located in Izmir, Smyrna was the city which St. Paul sent a letter praising the believers for their faithfulness.
Pergamum	St. John sent letters to Pergamum- another important Greco-Roman city, warning them of the errors of their ways and telling he was not pleased with the behavior of its inhabitants. The city's behavior improved enough to be a bisphoric during the Byzantine Empire.
Thyatira	Thyatira is to be found on the way to Pergamum and it is located today at Akhisar. It has the least important of the churches and it is known for its guilds of artists in the time of St. Paul. Today you may find only a few remains of this ancient city.
Sardis	Sardis was the Lydian capital and the place where King Alyattes, the father of Croesus made the first coins. The Temple of Artemis, a restored gymnasium and an important third century synagogues testify the city's past splendor.
Philadelphia	Located at Alasehir, Philadelphia is the most recent of the churches though some remains of an early church still remain.
Laodikea	Located at the city of  Denizli, Laodikea has a recently excavated theater and a church.
Lystra	The ancient city of Lystra was the birthplace of St. Paul and it is located at Tarsus. St. Paul also  preached on this Anatolia plateau.

Note: Tours including visits of the seven churches can be arranged on private basis depending on the clients stay in Turkey.

Troy is immortalized with the stories of Homer, King Priam, Hector, Paris and the beautiful Helen. The famous Trojan war took place in 1200 B.C. with the Greeks invasion. Archaeological excavations have revealed nine separate periods of settlements dated from the Bronze Age 3000-1800 B.C. to the last residences in 1300 A.D. They have found city walls, house foundations, a temple, and a theater. Today you can see  a symbolic wooden Trojan horse in the entrance commemorating the famed war. In a distance of an hour from Troy a tiny fishing village called Behramkale surrounds the site of the ancient Assos. There you can see ruins of the famous Temple of Athena, built in 6th century and also from there  you may enjoy the magnificent view of the Gulf of Edremit.