Human origins: Neolithic and Bronze age Turkey

12 September 2024 - Sold out

14 September 2024 - 11 days for £3,999

Register for 2025 now at tours@newscientist.com and we will contact you later this year with confirmed tour details.

Discover the dawn of civilisation where our Neolithic and Bronze age ancestors changed from hunter-gatherers to organised societies with agriculture, ritual and an understanding of the wider world. Visiting multiple excavations, UNESCO World Heritage sites, museums and cities across the several different regions of Turkey. 

Discover a country where the east meets the west, offering a wonderful culture clash of Istanbul and it’s impressive biblical-scale architecture, the Turkish capital Ankara, the geologically stunning Cappadocia with its underground city of Kaymakli.

You will be accompanied throughout by archaeologist, who will help you explore important archaeological sites including Göbekli Tepe, Çatalhöyük, Aşıklı Höyük, Hattusa and Mount Nemrut. Along with the museums that curate the extensive collections found at these sites.On the 12th September, Çiler Çilingiroğlu will accompany the group. On the 14th September, Dr. Sinan Ünlüsoy will accompany the group. 

In partnership with Intrepid Travel.

DAY 1: ARRIVE INTO ISTANBUL

Merhaba! Welcome to Turkey. Check in to the Operla Hotel, located near the airport,Istanbul, the continent-straddling metropolis that the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Ottomans have previously all called home. 

In the evening, meet your fellow guests, tour leader and accompanying expert, who will give an introductory lecture on the tour ahead. The tour expert will give both evening lectures and walking commentary throughout the tour.

Afterward, you will head out to enjoy dinner together. 

DAY 2: KONYA AND ÇATALHÖYÜK

This morning, you will catch a short flight to Konya in the Anatolia region. On arrival, you will drive to Çatalhöyük. Founded 9,000 years ago, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is the first known city in the world. The first place where surrounding villages came together and formed a central location and began the sort of urban civilization that dominates the modern world. Research of 226 skeletons buried there found that the inhabitants weren’t organised into family groups, so there is still much to be understood about the site.

DAY 3: AŞIKLI HÖYÜK, CAPPADOCIA AND RED VALLEY

This morning , you will stop at Asikli Hoyuk. Another village that harbors many firsts. It is the first settlement on the Central Anatolian Plateau where copper was mined. It was also the site where the earliest-known brain surgery and first autopsy were performed, as the skulls of two individuals recovered from the site provide crucial information about the history of medicine.

Continue to Cappadocia. Over millions of years, rain and wind have shaped the soft white volcanic rock of the plain into an otherworldly landscape of dripping cones, pillars, pinnacles, and fairy chimneys soaring more than a hundred feet into the sky.

Finish the day with a walk at Red Valley. 

DAY 4: GOREME AND KAYMAKLI

Early birds will have an option to take a hot air balloon over the otherworldly Cappadocian landscape (not included in tour cost). The scene at sunrise is sure to take your breath away.

Today, you will visit the Goreme Open Air Museum that resembles a vast monastic complex composed of scores of refectory monasteries placed side-by-side, each with its own fantastic church. It contains the nest of the rock-cut churches, with beautiful frescoes (wall paintings) whose colors still retain all their original freshness. It also presents unique examples of rock hewn architecture and fresco technique. The Goreme Open Air Museum has been a member of UNESCO World Heritage List since 1984 and was one of the two UNESCO sites in Turkey.

Then, you will visit Kaymakli, an underground city that was built under the hill known as the Citadel of Kaymakli and was opened to visitors in 1964. The people of Kaymakli (Enegup in Greek) village have constructed their houses around nearly one hundred tunnels of the underground city. The inhabitants of the region still use the most convenient places in the tunnels as cellars, storage areas and stables, which they access through their courtyards. The Kaymakli Underground City has low, narrow and sloping passages. While the underground city consists of 8 oors below ground, only 4 of them are open to the public today, in which the spaces are organized around ventilation shafts.

DAY 5: HATTUSA AND ANKARA

Leave Cappadocia and drive north, heading towards Ankara. On the way, visit Hattusa - The Ancient Capital of The Hittites. The remnants of the Hittite Capital date back to the Bronze Age, around 2000 BC. The site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1986. The Hittites were a remarkable civilization. The kingdom stretched from the Aegean across Anatolia, northern Syria and to the Euphrates River.

Next, explore the ancient Hittite sanctuary of Yazilikaya is an open air, carved rock monument.

In the evening, enjoy a nice dinner with the group in this cosmopolitan city.

DAY 6: MUSEUM OF ANATOLIAN CIVILIZATIONS AND ANKARA CASTLE

Today, you will visit the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations is one of the most significant museums in the world with its unique extensive collections and works exhibited in chronological order from the Paleolithic Age until today. The collection takes you out of this world to the back.

Next, you will visit Ankara Castle which, has hosted many different civilizations such as Hittite, Phrygia, Persian, Byzantine, Arab and Ottoman. 

Tonight, enjoy a nice dinner with the group.

DAY 7: SANLIURFA MUSEUM

After an early breakfast, you will transfer to the airport for your flight to Gaziantep. From here, drive to Sanlıurfa city where you will visit the Şanlıurfa Museum which exhibits works from Şanlıurfa and its surroundings with a rich history, is of international importance in terms of "Neolithic period”. You will also, have a tour of the city.

DAY 8: GÖBEKLI TEPE AND KARAHAN TEPE

Today, you will visit Karahan Tepe and UNESCO listed Göbekli Tepe, one of the world’s oldest and most impressive archaeological sites. The history of Göbekli Tepe goes back to thousands of years, before major sites such as Stonehenge, the Pyramids and the Ggantija temples. It is considered the world’s first temples and also had significant astronomical use for monitoring the night sky. There is so much still to be discovered and radar-mapping of the site shows several more megalithic ring structures still to be excavated.

Then, visit Karahan Tepe, which, along with Göbekli Tepe, is part of a cluster of Neolithic settlements spread over 125 miles of southeastern Turkey between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Karahan Tepe is believed to be considerably larger than Göbekli Tepe, covering an area of about 33 acres. Recent archaeological work suggests that Karahantepe might be even earlier than Gobeklitepe and this places the site to be the earlier known Neolithic site in the world. Continue onto Adiyaman where you will spend the evening.

From here, there will be a scenic three-hour drive to the Adiyaman, where you will spend the night

DAY 9: MOUNT NEMRUT AND ISTANBUL

In the morning, drive to Mount Nemrut. Here you will trek up to the 2,000-metre summit where 2000-year-old giant statues of gods are placed around what is assumed to be a royal tomb. This one of the most atmospheric and iconic of UNESCO listed sites in Turkey.

You will be transferred to the local airport to fly back to Istanbul, arriving mid-afternoon. After checking into your hotel in the heart of the city, you will have some free time to explore the city before having a group dinner together.

DAY 10: BLUE MOSQUE, HAGHIA SOPHIA, HIPPODROME AND THE GRAND BAZAAR

After an early breakfast you will enjoy a tour of the most important and visually enthralling sites of the old city. This will include the Blue Mosque and Justinian the Great’s 1,500-year-old Haghia Sophia. Both monumental and awe-inspiring buildings next to each other in the heart of the city. Then onto the Hippodrome where chariot races once took place. Finally, the famed Grand Bazaar to explore the 3,000 local and independent stalls and shops.

In the evening there will be a farewell dinner with your fellow guests to toast your homeward journey.

DAY 11: DEPART ISTANBUL

After breakfast, you will be transferred back to the airport for your return flight. However, if you wish to spend some additional days in Istanbul, we can extend your stay.