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Today is a special day in Turkey. 18 March is known in Turkey as Canakkale Victory and Martyr’s Day. It’s an important day, and this year it is the 101st anniversary of Turkey’s defeat of Allied battleships who tried to take control of the Dardanelles, shelling...

Silk Road caravanserais and the road known as the old Silk Road on which they are built, are still shrouded in mystery and romance today.  In Turkish, the Silk Road is known as the Uzun Yol (Long Road).  This ancient trade route of caravan trails once connected Turkey, Persia...

Zeugma is an ancient city of the Commagene Kingdom, located in what is today the province of Gaziantep in Turkey and dates back to the 3-4th century B.C..  It was established by Seleucus Nicator I, one of Alexander the Great’s commanding generals. Back then it was called...

In ancient times, citizens passed through the streets on foot or on an animal, and so they passed through much more slowly than we pass through our streets today.  And, most likely for this reason, streets of most ancient cities were full of signs and symbols, something that we...

The name “Ephesus” is the Roman version of its former Hittite name of “Apasas”.  It is believed that the city was named after the Amazon queen Apasas, derived from the word ‘Apis’ which meant “bee”.  While the exact origin of the...

The Mother Goddess Artemis was extremely popular in the ancient world, and was recognised in many Greek cities as a secondary deity.  However, for the Ephesians, she was a prominent deity, and so they built a Temple of Artemis in her honour.  Its size and beauty were such that it...

Greek mythology tells us that Ephesus was established by Androklos, the son of Kodros, the King of Athens. He and his friends were on the move to Anatolia, and were having a hard time deciding exactly where they should establish a new city.  As the story goes, an Apollo...

As you walk through Ephesus, you are walking in the footsteps of some of history’s greatest characters – Alexander the Great walked these streets as did St Paul and St John and Cleopatra and Mark Anthony. That’s right, the most famous lovers in history walked...

Discovery of an Ephesus gladiator graveyard has rocked the archaeological world.  We all know gladiators right? They were the sporting heroes of the ancient world who battled condemned criminals, animals or each other for the amusement of the masses. The graveyard,...

Undoubtedly one of the most influential contributors to early Christianity, and the ultimate traveller, carrying the word of Christianity to lands such as Cyprus, Asia Minor (modern Turkey), mainland Greece, Crete and Rome, St Paul was born to a Jewish family in Tarsus in what is...