IMPORTANT INFORMATION
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY BEFORE BOOKING
Full Price: $4,500 USD
A $1,000 USD non-refundable deposit is required to secure your place and confirm your booking.
Ancient Wonders of Anatolia
13–23 September 2026 · Şanlıurfa, Mount Nemrut, Cappadocia and Hattuşa
Eleven days across the two ends of Anatolian history: the eleven-thousand-year-old stone hills around Şanlıurfa, where people first built monuments before they farmed, and the Bronze Age capital of an empire the world forgot existed. Led throughout by Ramazan Aygat, former Professor of Cinema at Harran University, with Pete Kelly of History Time, Kayleigh During of History With Kayleigh, and Dakota Wint of Dakota of Earth.
Day 1 · Sunday 13 September — Şanlıurfa
We meet at 09:30 in the lobby of the Ala Han and start where you should always start: the Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum, which holds everything the region has given up. Urfa Man is here — 1.80 m of limestone with obsidian still set in his eye sockets, about eleven thousand years old, and the oldest life-size human sculpture on Earth. So is a full-scale reconstruction of Göbekli Tepe's Enclosure D, which you can walk into. After lunch, the Haleplibahçe Mosaic Museum, where Roman floors were roofed exactly where they were found. Dinner at six.
Day 2 · Monday 14 September — Göbekli Tepe, Sayburç, Kızılkoyun
Out at ten for Göbekli Tepe: T-shaped pillars up to five and a half metres tall, carved with foxes, boars, cranes and scorpions, raised by hunter-gatherers around 9600 BCE — before pottery, before metal, before writing, before farming. Lunch, then Sayburç, an active excavation in a working village where a carved bench holds what may be the earliest narrative scene ever found. Then Kızılkoyun, a Roman necropolis of more than a hundred rock-cut tomb chambers, hidden for centuries beneath a neighbourhood built on its roof.
Day 3 · Tuesday 15 September — Harran, Şuayip Şehri, Bazda, Sefertepe
A nine o'clock start and about two hours out onto the plain. Harran — named in the archives of Ebla and Mari, home to the temple of the moon god Sin, and later to the Sabians, pagan astronomers who survived centuries under Islamic rule. Its beehive houses and the lone minaret of the Ulu Cami are visible from everywhere on the plain. Then Şuayip Şehri, a Roman city nobody has excavated, and the Bazda Caves, the quarry Harran was cut from, where you can still see channels scored for blocks that were never freed. Lunch out here is homemade dolma and sarma with vegetables, vegetarian included. We finish at Sefertepe, a Taş Tepeler site where the buildings turn rectangular — which is, more or less, the invention of the street.
Day 4 · Wednesday 16 September — Halfeti and Savaşan
The one stop where the archaeology is a quarter of a century old. The Birecik Dam filled in 1999 and took the lower town of Halfeti with it. We take a boat out onto the Euphrates over still green water with the old town continuing underneath — roofs, walls, the shapes of streets — and on to Savaşan, where the village minaret rises straight out of the reservoir with its balcony a few metres above the surface.
Day 5 · Thursday 17 September — Karahan Tepe and Soğmatar
Karahan Tepe, the site rewriting Göbekli Tepe. Its central chamber wasn't built — it was subtracted from the hill, eleven pillars left standing out of the living bedrock, with a human head carved from the rock face watching them. Lunch is dolma and sarma again, out on the ground. Then Soğmatar, the strangest place on the itinerary: a sanctuary of the moon god Sin in the empty Tektek hills, with busts cut straight into the rock and one of the largest concentrations of early Syriac anywhere — some of it dated to around 165 CE. Soğmatar is a living village as well as a sanctuary, and part of what you pay supports education here. You'll meet the families it reaches.
Day 6 · Friday 18 September — Mount Nemrut
Out at nine, about two hours north into Adıyaman, and a late lunch before we go up. Mount Nemrut is where Antiochus I of Commagene built a fifty-metre artificial mountain on top of a real one at 2,150 m, ringed by nine- and ten-metre gods. Their heads are on the ground now, propped in rows, staring out. We go in the afternoon rather than at dawn — the light on the West Terrace is better and the sunrise crowds are gone. The summit runs about ten degrees colder than the valley; bring a warm layer. Back in Şanlıurfa for dinner.
Day 7 · Saturday 19 September — to Cappadocia
Check out at 09:30 and drive west. It's a long day — roughly eight hours with a proper lunch stop — and it's the only way to feel the actual distance between these two worlds. We arrive in Avanos for dinner and stay at Kemerli House.
Day 8 · Sunday 20 September — Kaymaklı and Uçhisar
Nine o'clock start. Kaymaklı Underground City goes down through storerooms, stables, kitchens and ventilation shafts cut into soft volcanic tuff — with half-tonne millstone doors that could only be rolled shut from the inside. After lunch, Uçhisar Castle, a single rock riddled with rooms, and the best view there is over the eroded plateau and its fairy chimneys.
Day 9 · Monday 21 September — to Ankara
Check out at 09:30 and drive north to Ankara, roughly six hours with a lunch stop. We stay at the Holiday Inn Express by the airport.
Day 10 · Tuesday 22 September — Hattuşa
The last site, and the right one to end on. About three hours out to Hattuşa, capital of a Bronze Age superpower that existed only as a rumour in other people's books until 1906, when Hugo Winckler cut into a hillside here and found thirty thousand clay tablets — including the peace treaty between Ramesses II and the Hittite Great King. Around 1200 BCE the city was emptied and then burned. Lunch on the road, back to Ankara for dinner. The tour concludes this evening.
Day 11 · Wednesday 23 September — departures
Breakfast, a goodbye gathering, and onward travel from the Holiday Inn Express by Esenboğa airport.
Practical
Group size 10–20. All ground transport, site entry, guiding and every meal included, plus accommodation for the nights of 13–22 September, checking out on the 23rd. Rooms are shared and same-gender unless you're travelling as a couple; solo rooms available as an upgrade. Fly into Şanlıurfa GAP (GNY) and out of Ankara Esenboğa (ESB) — book it as a multi-city ticket, not a return. We recommend arriving on 12 September; that night isn't part of the tour. Flights, airport transfers and travel insurance are not included.
Questions: WhatsApp +1 313 699 4917, in Türkiye +90 545 344 82 77, or info@thecommunitygarden.org
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY BEFORE BOOKING
Full Price: $4,500 USD
A $1,000 USD non-refundable deposit is required to secure your place and confirm your booking.
Ancient Wonders of Anatolia
13–23 September 2026 · Şanlıurfa, Mount Nemrut, Cappadocia and Hattuşa
Eleven days across the two ends of Anatolian history: the eleven-thousand-year-old stone hills around Şanlıurfa, where people first built monuments before they farmed, and the Bronze Age capital of an empire the world forgot existed. Led throughout by Ramazan Aygat, former Professor of Cinema at Harran University, with Pete Kelly of History Time, Kayleigh During of History With Kayleigh, and Dakota Wint of Dakota of Earth.
Day 1 · Sunday 13 September — Şanlıurfa
We meet at 09:30 in the lobby of the Ala Han and start where you should always start: the Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum, which holds everything the region has given up. Urfa Man is here — 1.80 m of limestone with obsidian still set in his eye sockets, about eleven thousand years old, and the oldest life-size human sculpture on Earth. So is a full-scale reconstruction of Göbekli Tepe's Enclosure D, which you can walk into. After lunch, the Haleplibahçe Mosaic Museum, where Roman floors were roofed exactly where they were found. Dinner at six.
Day 2 · Monday 14 September — Göbekli Tepe, Sayburç, Kızılkoyun
Out at ten for Göbekli Tepe: T-shaped pillars up to five and a half metres tall, carved with foxes, boars, cranes and scorpions, raised by hunter-gatherers around 9600 BCE — before pottery, before metal, before writing, before farming. Lunch, then Sayburç, an active excavation in a working village where a carved bench holds what may be the earliest narrative scene ever found. Then Kızılkoyun, a Roman necropolis of more than a hundred rock-cut tomb chambers, hidden for centuries beneath a neighbourhood built on its roof.
Day 3 · Tuesday 15 September — Harran, Şuayip Şehri, Bazda, Sefertepe
A nine o'clock start and about two hours out onto the plain. Harran — named in the archives of Ebla and Mari, home to the temple of the moon god Sin, and later to the Sabians, pagan astronomers who survived centuries under Islamic rule. Its beehive houses and the lone minaret of the Ulu Cami are visible from everywhere on the plain. Then Şuayip Şehri, a Roman city nobody has excavated, and the Bazda Caves, the quarry Harran was cut from, where you can still see channels scored for blocks that were never freed. Lunch out here is homemade dolma and sarma with vegetables, vegetarian included. We finish at Sefertepe, a Taş Tepeler site where the buildings turn rectangular — which is, more or less, the invention of the street.
Day 4 · Wednesday 16 September — Halfeti and Savaşan
The one stop where the archaeology is a quarter of a century old. The Birecik Dam filled in 1999 and took the lower town of Halfeti with it. We take a boat out onto the Euphrates over still green water with the old town continuing underneath — roofs, walls, the shapes of streets — and on to Savaşan, where the village minaret rises straight out of the reservoir with its balcony a few metres above the surface.
Day 5 · Thursday 17 September — Karahan Tepe and Soğmatar
Karahan Tepe, the site rewriting Göbekli Tepe. Its central chamber wasn't built — it was subtracted from the hill, eleven pillars left standing out of the living bedrock, with a human head carved from the rock face watching them. Lunch is dolma and sarma again, out on the ground. Then Soğmatar, the strangest place on the itinerary: a sanctuary of the moon god Sin in the empty Tektek hills, with busts cut straight into the rock and one of the largest concentrations of early Syriac anywhere — some of it dated to around 165 CE. Soğmatar is a living village as well as a sanctuary, and part of what you pay supports education here. You'll meet the families it reaches.
Day 6 · Friday 18 September — Mount Nemrut
Out at nine, about two hours north into Adıyaman, and a late lunch before we go up. Mount Nemrut is where Antiochus I of Commagene built a fifty-metre artificial mountain on top of a real one at 2,150 m, ringed by nine- and ten-metre gods. Their heads are on the ground now, propped in rows, staring out. We go in the afternoon rather than at dawn — the light on the West Terrace is better and the sunrise crowds are gone. The summit runs about ten degrees colder than the valley; bring a warm layer. Back in Şanlıurfa for dinner.
Day 7 · Saturday 19 September — to Cappadocia
Check out at 09:30 and drive west. It's a long day — roughly eight hours with a proper lunch stop — and it's the only way to feel the actual distance between these two worlds. We arrive in Avanos for dinner and stay at Kemerli House.
Day 8 · Sunday 20 September — Kaymaklı and Uçhisar
Nine o'clock start. Kaymaklı Underground City goes down through storerooms, stables, kitchens and ventilation shafts cut into soft volcanic tuff — with half-tonne millstone doors that could only be rolled shut from the inside. After lunch, Uçhisar Castle, a single rock riddled with rooms, and the best view there is over the eroded plateau and its fairy chimneys.
Day 9 · Monday 21 September — to Ankara
Check out at 09:30 and drive north to Ankara, roughly six hours with a lunch stop. We stay at the Holiday Inn Express by the airport.
Day 10 · Tuesday 22 September — Hattuşa
The last site, and the right one to end on. About three hours out to Hattuşa, capital of a Bronze Age superpower that existed only as a rumour in other people's books until 1906, when Hugo Winckler cut into a hillside here and found thirty thousand clay tablets — including the peace treaty between Ramesses II and the Hittite Great King. Around 1200 BCE the city was emptied and then burned. Lunch on the road, back to Ankara for dinner. The tour concludes this evening.
Day 11 · Wednesday 23 September — departures
Breakfast, a goodbye gathering, and onward travel from the Holiday Inn Express by Esenboğa airport.
Practical
Group size 10–20. All ground transport, site entry, guiding and every meal included, plus accommodation for the nights of 13–22 September, checking out on the 23rd. Rooms are shared and same-gender unless you're travelling as a couple; solo rooms available as an upgrade. Fly into Şanlıurfa GAP (GNY) and out of Ankara Esenboğa (ESB) — book it as a multi-city ticket, not a return. We recommend arriving on 12 September; that night isn't part of the tour. Flights, airport transfers and travel insurance are not included.
Questions: WhatsApp +1 313 699 4917, in Türkiye +90 545 344 82 77, or info@thecommunitygarden.org
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