Highlights from the tour of Classical Turkey with Dr. Christine Downing

In a whirlwind 14 days, Dr. Downing brought the goddesses, the gods, and the intellectual passion of the Greco-Roman period to life with her lectures and discussions.  Mythic Travelers experienced the sites along the Turkish Aegean coast dedicated to Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis, and Dionysus as well as other deities with unparalleled immanency.  Of course, there was also ample time devoted to fun and relaxation along the way and everyone got to explore the nooks and crannies of Istanbul!  And the food. . .and the carpets. . .

Cappadocia, Catalhoyuk and Trabzon

Collected over several tours, the first group of these photos highlight Mythic Travel visits to the mountains close to the Georgian border to experience ancient worship of the Divine Feminine.  We visit the Byzantine Aya Sofia church in Trabzon and the Sumela monastery perched high on a cliff overlooking a verdant valley. Both sites, while eventually dedicated the the Virgin Mary were erected over places sacred to much earlier feminine energy.   From Trabzon, we travel  southwest to the lunar landscapes of Cappadocia.  Here amid the eery windswept sculpture of the volcanic rocks where Early Christian aesthetics first practiced monasticism, people still live in cave homes tending their flocks of sheep and weaving extraordinary carpets. Moving just bit further southwest, Mythic Travelers, have the opportunity to visit Catalhoyuk, the world's oldest city-sized settlement (9500 bce).


General Pictures

Mythic Travelers venture off the beaten path, but along the way, we certainly honor the oft-visited sites as well.  Troy, the legendary city of Hector; Ephesus, the Roman metropolis; and Hattusas, the seat of Hittite power, are "not to be missed" stops in Mythic Travels.  Wonderful serendipities also occur:  sitings of young boys on the way to their circumcision ceremony, dervish dancers and fold dancers, a flock of sheep blocking the modern road, the Istanbul sunset silhouetting a beautiful mosque, a  group of friendly children.   And did you know that Turkey borders upon Bulgaria to the north?  Mythic Travels can take you to the old capital of Edirne to relish the masterpiece of architecture there--a sublime mosque built by SInan.