For about one thousand years Constantinople was the wealthiest and most spectacular city in the Christian world. Founded by Greek colonists from Athens and Megara in the 7th century BC, its strategic position facing south into Asia across the Bosphorous and controlling communications between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, caused Constantine to make it his New Rome, from which, in the 6th century Justinian precariously reconquered the lost Empire of the West. Constantine brought to his city all the wealth of the

old Roman Empire, Justinian endowed it with the boldest and most prodigious building in the history of Christian architecture. But where such grace abounded, there also did sin abound. Lust, greed, envy - the usual suspects - undid it. Crippled by the events of 1204, when the council of Florence failed in 1439 to heal the schism which had sundered Christendom for nearly 400 years, it was only a matter of time before Byzantium dissolved like a sand-castle in the rising tide of Islam, and Constantinople became Istanbul.

We fly to Istanbul and transfer to our Hotel in the centre of the city. Once we have settled into our rooms, we will take a turn about the Hippodrome, now a public garden strewn with the storied relics of its Imperial past, and visit the former church of St Sergius and St Bacchus, a precursor and model for St Sophia's. Dinner this evening is included and will be taken in a local restaurant.

Throughout our visit we will be conscious of the logistics of supplying a city of 400,000 souls with food and water in the 4th and 5th centuries. We begin our day with a visit to the one of several astonishing cisterns which regulated the water supply in the ancient city. After a stroll through the bazaar and an independent lunch, we spend the afternoon in the Ottoman palace complex of Topkapi, whose courts and pavilions overlook the Bosphorous and the Golden Horn.

Today is devoted to St Sophia and her offspring. This extraordinary structure, so solid from without, is a prodigy from within of space surrounded rather than enclosed, its margins dissolving into ambiguous apses and arcades, its vaults peopled originally by a mosaic host floating in a glittering firmament of gilded glass tesserae, of which a few tantalising witnesses remain. Once we have absorbed this spectacular original, we will cross the intervening gardens to the Blue Mosque, where the empirical lessons learnt by the successors of Anthemios and Isidoros have been more regularly applied by Mehmet Aga. Between the two, we will take in the mosaic floors of part of the Byzantine Imperial palace which sprawled over this entire quarter of the city.

Today's visits take us out of the political and religious centre to form an impression of the scale of the ancient city manifested in such monuments as Valens' aqueduct and the city walls of Theodosius. We also visit the nineteenth century Beylerbeyi Palace on the shores of the Bosphorous. The artistic highlights of the day, however, are the mosaics on the walls and vaults of St Saviour's in Chora and the Alexander sarcophagus in the Archaeological museum.

We transfer from our hotel to Istanbul's Attaturk airport for our flight home.

• Accommodation -
  • 4 Nights Bed and Breakfast in a 4 Star hotel in the city centre
  • One dinner in a local restaurant
• Transport

Excursions as outlined in the itinerary.

Entrance fees to all places mentioned in the itinerary

Services of an experienced lecturer/tour leader -

Local guide where required by local legislation

All tips and gratuities

• Insurance
  • It is a condition of booking that you have adequate travel insurance to cover your needs when you travel with us. This will need to cover a missed departure, any emergency that may arise while you are travelling with us, and should also enable you to claim back from the insurance company any monies already paid to us or due to us in the event of your having to cancel the tour after booking and before the departure date.
    
    If you have difficulty finding cover due to your age, it may be of help to know that there are at least two companies who provide Travel Insurance to those over retirement age:-
    • Age Concern - Tel 0845 601 2234 Click here for Website
    • Saga - Tel 0800 559 3231 Click here for Website
  
  
• Walking - Most of our tours involve a good deal of walking.
• Sites and Museums - Archaeological sites in some countries can be rough and uneven underfoot and do not always conform to western standards of health and safety.

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ACCOMMODATION:                 Single Rooms: 0 1 2 3 4          Double Rooms: 0 1 2 3 4          Twin Rooms: 0 1 2 3 4

FLIGHTS:             Economy Class    Club Class (if available and at supplementary cost)    None