ISTANBUL, Turkey -- For the newest travel horizon in Turkey, travel
agents and their clients should go east.
Eastern Turkey is quite scenic and is particularly fascinating
for its remains of the Urartu and Assyrian empires as well as its
remarkable Seljuk works and Christian monuments.
In the southern reaches of Upper Mesopotamia are antique
Syro-Hittite cities as well as outposts of the first Arab tribes in
Turkey, a region then called Anatolia.
Because eastern Turkey's infrastructure is not well developed,
this is not a fly-drive area for independent travelers, but rather
one that clients will understand and enjoy best on an escorted
tour.
"Eastern Turkey is new-frontier country for U.S. visitors," said
Mazhar Pepemehmet, president of New York-based Pacha Tours.
"There is so much interest that for the first time in 10 years,
we have reintroduced our long itinerary that covers the Black Sea
coast and all of eastern Turkey, from Trabzon and Kars in the north
to Antakya in the south."
According to Pepemehmet, bookings this year to all of Turkey are
the strongest in a long time.
He cited several factors, including a basically stable political
climate in the region; the good impression that the country makes
on cruise passengers who want to return to see more than ports of
call, and word-of-mouth promotion from travelers who have been
there.
Pacha Tours merges the Black Sea Coast and eastern Turkey into a
12-night tour, starting in Trabzon for a two-night stay, with
visits to the Sumela Monastery and the Ayasofya Museum.
Travelers then drive to the Georgian church in Yusufeli en route
to Kars, where an ancient fortress dominates the city.
This is the departure point for the medieval city of Ani, called
the City of 1001 Churches.
The tour continues overland in the shadow of Mount Ararat to
Dogubayazit for an overnight stay and a visit to the palace of
Ishak Pasa.
Cruising on Lake Van is the next activity, with a stop on
Akdamar Island to see the 17th century Hosap Castle and Cavustepe
Citadel.
Tour members then drive overland to Diyarbakir following the
Tigris River. The 5,000-year-old city is used as a base to visit
some of the oldest universities in the world at Midyat and
Mardin.
Driving east, the tour continues to Harran, known for its
beehive-like dwellings, and then to Urfa for an overnight stay and
city visit.
After the city tour, participants will visit Mount Nemrut, on
whose hilltop funerary sanctuary stand stone statues commemorating
bygone kings.
When traveling along the Euphrates River, tour members will stop
in Zeugma, the site of an extensive archaeological effort to save
the city's Greco-Roman ruins from the rising waters of the
southeast Anatolia dam project.
The last stop in eastern Turkey is Antakya (Antioch), home to
the largest mosaic museum in Turkey and the Cave of St. Peter.
Tour members return by air to Istanbul for a day at leisure and
an overnight stay.
Departures of this tour are scheduled for May 3 and 10, June 7,
July 12, Aug. 19 and Sept. 13 and 20.
The land-only rate is $1,345, per person, double.
Air and land rates are available from New York, Los Angeles,
Chicago and Miami.
For more details, call Pacha Tours at (800) 722-4288, or visit
www.pachatours.com.