Day+8

=Pamukkale, Catalhoyuk, Konya July 6, 2009=

8:00 AM After breakfast, we will drive to the delightful ¨frozen waterfalls¨ and the healing hot mineral springs of Pamukkale, the main cotton growing area of Turkey and an ancient health resort for the Roman. We will visit Hierapolis and see distinctive limestone travertines created over the milennia and the large Roman bath which later became a church, theater, main streets, gates and Necropolis. Then, we will drive to Konya.

PM Lunch will be taken at Kosk Restaurant in Konya. In the 12th and 13th centuries Konya was the capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, one of the most enlightened and tolerant states of the entire medieval period. It was also home to the great Sufi mystic and poet Rumi, who founded the Mevlevi Order of the Whirling Dervishes. We will visit the Museum and Tomb of Rumi, which is one of the supreme achievements of Turkish Art. Its dome is completely covered with an amazingly intricate faience mosaic.

Our next stop will be the Neolithic site of Catalhoyuk where humans first congregated in villages. We will be given a private tour of this Neolithic Anatolian site, excavated by an international team, by Dr. Ian Hodder of Stanford University, who leads the excavation project.

Dinner and overnight at the Hotel in Konya.  

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