2-Day Pergamon, Troy & Gallipoli Tour from Kusadasi to Istanbul

Included: lunch, transfers and accommodation.

A late-morning pickup in Kusadasi or Selcuk, lunch in Bergama, a guided visit to Pergamon and a night in Canakkale.

10:30 – Hotel pickup. You are collected from your hotel in Kusadasi or Selcuk and leave the coast late in the morning, heading inland to Bergama for the first big visit (pickup time may vary by hotel location).

13:00 – Lunch. An included regional lunch in Bergama breaks up the drive and sets you up for the hilltop ruins.

14:00 – Guided Pergamon. From the plain you climb into one of the most important ancient centres of western Anatolia, where Hellenistic power, royal buildings and steep theatre views come together.

Pergamon route: the Acropolis of Pergamon, then the Altar of Zeus, the Library of Pergamon, the Theater of Pergamon and the Great Altar area.

• Acropolis of Pergamon – Rising steeply over the Caicus plain, the Acropolis shows at once how carefully the city was placed to control the region. At the top are the remains of a royal palace, a large temple and one of the steepest ancient theatres anywhere. The views across the valley make the climb well worth it.
• Altar of Zeus – Ancient writers praised this altar as one of the most famous monuments of the Greek world, vast and richly decorated. Today the platform and lower parts survive, enough to show the ceremonial ambition behind it. Its friezes showed the war between gods and giants, a myth the kings of Pergamon used to justify their rule.
• Library of Pergamon – At its height the library is said to have held about 200,000 volumes, making it one of the great centres of learning in antiquity and a rival to Alexandria. The main reading room survives, with the stone shelves for scrolls and gaps in the walls meant to keep out damp. Parchment, named after Pergamon, is thought to have been developed here as a substitute for Egyptian papyrus.
• Theater of Pergamon – Cut into the hillside at about 80 degrees, it ranks among the steepest theatres of the ancient world. It once held around 10,000 people and had a long colonnaded terrace in front, used as a promenade and a lookout over the plain. The sharp rake of the seats and the open views make it one of the most striking features of the site.
• Great Altar area – This is where one of the best-known monuments of antiquity stood, within a large sanctuary of temples and civic buildings. The altar itself was taken apart and moved to Berlin, where it has its own museum, but the base and surrounding ruins keep the spot's commanding presence. It completes the picture of how religion, royal power and town planning worked together in Pergamon.

21:30 – Overnight in Canakkale. After Pergamon you drive north to Canakkale and check in. The evening is free to rest before Troy and Gallipoli the next day. One night's accommodation is included.

Included: breakfast, lunch, entrance fees and transfers.

Breakfast in Canakkale, Troy, lunch in Eceabat, the full Gallipoli route and an evening drop-off at your hotel in Istanbul.

08:00 – Breakfast and check-out. Breakfast at the hotel is included, and you move on to Troy soon after.

08:45 – Troy, then Eceabat. The morning is spent at the archaeological site of Troy, after which you cross toward Eceabat for lunch ahead of the afternoon's memorial landscape.

13:15 – Gallipoli tour. After lunch the tone of the day shifts as your guide takes you across ANZAC and Turkish memorial ground on the peninsula.

Troy route: Troy Ancient City, the Trojan Horse (Movie Replica), the Sacrificial Altars, the 3700-Year-Old City Walls, the Houses of Troy I (3000-2500 B.C.) and finally the Agora of Troy.

• Troy Ancient City – Settled around 3000 BC, Troy occupied the same hill for four thousand years, with each new culture building over the remains of the last.
• Trojan Horse (Movie Replica) – Made of timber and several metres high, the replica is the most photographed object at the site.
• Sacrificial Altars – Ritual was central to Bronze Age Troy, and these stone altars mark where offerings were made to the gods of the city.
• 3700-Year-Old City Walls – These walls belong to Troy VI, a rich and powerful city that controlled Dardanelles trade in the Bronze Age.
• Houses of Troy I (3000-2500 B.C.) – The excavated foundations reveal an early Bronze Age settlement of mud-brick houses planned around a central courtyard.
• The Agora of Troy – Like every major Greek city, Troy centred its civic life on an agora during its Hellenistic and Roman periods.

Gallipoli route: the battlefield areas, then Brighton Beach, Beach Cemetery, ANZAC Cove and Ari Burnu, followed by Lone Pine Cemetery, Johnston's Jolly and Shrapnel Valley.

• Gallipoli Battlefield Areas – Few places in Europe carry such weight; the 1915 ANZAC campaign here cost more than 100,000 lives.
• Brighton Beach – Australian and New Zealand soldiers landed on this narrow beach, then climbed the cliffs toward an enemy they could not see.
• Beach Cemetery – Small and moving, it lies almost at the waterline, where many of its 391 soldiers were first treated.
• ANZAC Cove – Narrow, pebbly and walled in by steep cliffs, the cove looks too small for the history it holds.
• Ari Burnu – A Turkish memorial here bears the well-known words of reconciliation from Ataturk to the mothers of the Allied soldiers who fell.
• Lone Pine Cemetery – Australians took the Lone Pine trenches in one of the fiercest close-range fights of the campaign and held them against constant counterattacks.
• Johnston's Jolly – ANZAC and Ottoman troops here were near enough to hear each other talking through thin earth walls.
• Shrapnel Valley – Every ration, water bottle and ammunition box bound for the front passed through this valley, usually under fire.
• Turkish Memorial – Words from Ataturk turn this battlefield into a place of real respect across nations.
• The Nek – On August 7, 1915, four waves of Australian Light Horsemen went over the top here despite clear signs the charge would fail.
• Chunuk Bair – From the summit you look over the Dardanelles, the Aegean and the whole Gallipoli peninsula.

22:00 – Drop-off in Istanbul. After Gallipoli you drive back to Istanbul and are dropped off at central hotels in Sultanahmet, Besiktas or Beyoglu. Hotel accommodation in Istanbul is not included.