Turkey has for thousands of years been the gateway between Europe and the Middle East and Africa. Here early man assembled for religious rituals and to build his first cities. Great kingdoms grew up and left their monuments strewn across the landscape – the Hittite empire was succeeded by the Phrygians, the Persians conquered from the East and were driven back by Alexander the Great from the west. The Romans ruled as far as the Euphrates and many of their cities still occupy impressive coastal sites. They were succeeded by the Byzantines, then the Selçuk Turks. Violent but short -lived incursions by the Mongols were followed by the rise of the Ottoman Empire. At its heyday it stretched from Mecca to Hungary, but by the First World War had shrunk back to its heartlands.  Turkey emerged from the ashes of war as a struggling but independent, secular republic and gradually built itself into the vibrant, modern society you see today.

Many of our routes represent periods of our history. They thread their way between ancient sites and historical cities, using old roads, sometimes marked by caravansarays. The coastal routes dip down to harbours from which forgotten fleets ruled the seas.