17 Days 16 Nights
10
1
THROUGH ANATOLIA: THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION TOUR: 1 — 17, March, 2024
The Great Homecoming
Slowly Meandering through Anatolian: 1 — 17, March, 2024
Option 1 Touring the Tepes
Option 2 From Sanliufra to Konya
Option 3 From Konya to Ephesus
Option 4 Ephesus and Surroundings
Can’t you hear the echoes of a far distant past? Ancient reverberations from the Orient, the Morning Land, they are beckoning us home?
So I am calling the poets, musicians, artists, philosophers, mystics, healers, the battered and the bruised, saints and the sinners, the vaccinated and unvaccinated?, to a pilgrimage home to our ancestral lands in Anatolia.
This promises to be an epic sojourn back to our oldest roots, followed by a slow, meandering travel through cultures, epochs, and very ourselves, ending in Ephesus and the birth of the modern Western world.
It is time to excavate, out of the deep recesses of our cell-memory and even deeper dimensions of our D.N.A. Therein lies the life-giving, life-serving powers of the Divine Mother, the Goddesses venerated in Asia Minor over the many millennia.
Our journey begins where time began. Some call the area of the Taş Tepeler (Turkish, literally ‘Stone Hills’), on the outer edge of ancient Mesopotamia, the ‘womb of the creation‘. For others it is the mythological location of the Garden of Eden, the original paradise. It is, above all, the true ‘cradle of civilisation’.
Since the discovery of Göbeklitepe some 25 years ago, as many as 28 other such sites have been identified in the area. They are spell-binding both in their ages – all over 10,000 years old, but as well in their utter enormity. As little as 5% has been uncovered Göbeklitepe and Karahantepe, and both are far larger than any temple complex known to man. The architects and the belief system of the folk who created these sophisticated and mesmerising structures remain a mystery. And yet they may hold a vital message for our troubled times?
1st — 6th of March, 2024: In and around Şanlıurfa
- Göbeklitepe, a 12,800-year-old temple complex that shook the world.
- Karahantepe, another amazing c. 13,500 year old site recently opened to the public.
- Harbetsuvan Tepe: the 11,000-year-old Neolithic Acropolis
- Sefer Tepe: A New Pre-Pottery Neolithic Site
- Kurt Tepesi
- Sanliufra Archaeological Museum: an exceptional collection of artifacts dating back thousands of years.
- Birthplace of Abraham: the father of the Judeo-Christian faith.
- Tomb of Job: A man whose faith was tested to the core.
- Gaziantep Mosaic Museum: the largest mosaic museum in the world with wonderful illustrations.
- Harran: the world’s first university.
- Soğmatar: Known for their worship of the primeval sun and moon gods.
07. March
Zeugma Mosaic Museum in Gaziantep: https://anadoluevleri.com/
08. March
Arsemia Roman Bridge of Cendere
Hierothesion of Mithridates
Mount Nemrut: an ancient burial mound
09/10 March
In and around Konya:
Asikli Höyük: The Oldest Village of Central Anatolia
Boncuklu Höyük is the site of a 10,500 year old village
Çatalhöyük: a 9000 year old town
Konya’s Archaeological Museum
Mausoleum of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
Sultanhan caravanserai
Sagalassos
Pamukkale
Hierapolis
Laodicea
Aphrodisias
Onto Ephesus
Overview
Overview
Can’t you hear the echoes of a far distant past? Ancient reverberations from the Orient, the Morning Land, they are
beckoning us home?
So I am calling the poets, musicians, artists, philosophers, mystics, healers, the battered and the bruised, saints and the
sinners, the vaccinated and unvaccinated, to a pilgrimage home to our ancestral lands in Anatolia.
This promises to be an epic sojourn back to our oldest roots, followed by a slow, meandering travel through cultures,
epochs, and very ourselves, ending in Ephesus and the birth of the modern Western world.
It is time to excavate, out of the deep recesses of our cell-memory and even deeper dimensions of our D.N.A. Therein lies
the life-giving, life-serving powers of the Divine Mother, the Goddesses venerated in Asia Minor over the many millennia.
Our journey begins where time began. Some call the area of the Ta Tepeler (Turkish, literally ‘Stone Hills’), on the outer
edge of ancient Mesopotamia, the ‘womb of the creation‘. For others it is the mythological location of the Garden of
Eden, the original paradise. It is, above all, the true ‘cradle of civilization’.
Since the discovery of Göbeklitepe some 26 years ago, as many as 18 other such sites have been identified in the area.
They are spell-binding both in their ages – all over 10,000 years old, but as well in their utter enormity. As little as 5% has
been uncovered Göbeklitepe and Karahantepe, and both are far larger than any temple complex known to man. The
architects and the belief system of the folk who created these sophisticated and mesmerising structures remain a mystery.
And yet they may hold a vital message for our troubled times
