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Saturday 28 March 2015
Friday 27 March 2015
Central Anatolia - Cappadocia & the civilizations at the heart of Turkey
- Endlessly fascinating journey through an extraordinary variety of landscapes and civilizations in Central Anatolia.
- From the ancient capital of the Hittites to Turkey’s modern capital, Ankara.
- Some of the finest examples of Seljuk architecture including the unesco listed complex at Divriği.
- Turkey is changing rapidly, but many aspects of traditional life continue.
INTRODUCTION
Uchisar in Cappadocia, lithograph by William J. Hamilton, 1842.
At the centre of Anatolia lies a limestone plateau, crumpled and eroded, with mountainous barriers at the rim. A land-bridge between Asia and Europe, this unpromising terrain has perhaps been traversed by a greater variety of peoples and cultures than any comparable part of the world.
Diversity is the hallmark of Central Anatolia. There is land blessed with exceptional fertility, emblazoned with a patchwork of greens and golds; and there are vast vistas of inhospitable rolling hills, parched and bereft of topsoil. Forests sprout around turbulent valley streams; elsewhere desolate, dead-flat, arid plains stretch to distant horizons. In Cappadocia the volcanic tufa has been whipped by wind and rain into clusters of billowing cones, cascades of frolicking rock and other bizarre geomorphic contortions.
Equally diverse are the civilizations which have made their mark. Here can be found the site of what is generally held to be the world’s oldest town, Çatal Höyük. Vast towns were built by the Hittites–a people strangely little-known in the English-speaking world but, for periods during the second millennium bc, second only to the Egyptians as a power in the lands around the eastern Mediterranean. They were succeeded by Phrygians, the people of King Midas. Greeks and Persians followed, and fought; the brief rule of Alexander and his Macedonians was continued under the Seleucids.
Invaded variously by migrants, conquerors, adventurers and traders, Anatolia was progressively part orientalised and part Hellenised, but indigenous characteristics remained. The Pontic kingdom was a native kingdom, which under Mithridates valiantly if cruelly resisted Roman might, but by 50 bc Central Anatolia was under Roman rule as the province of Asia Minor. When five centuries later Europe ceased to be Roman and the eastern half of the empire was ruled from Constantinople (formerly Byzantium), Anatolia found itself to be the home counties of the Roman world, a world which was now Christian. Monks and hermits cut dwellings and churches in the pliable rock of Cappadocia, and Christian communities continued there into the last century.
Islam encroached when the Seljuk Turks from the Central Asian steppes rapidly extended their empire and wrested part of Anatolia from the Byzantines after their victory of 1071. Among their legacy is the mosque and hospital in Divriği, a masterpiece of Islamic architecture. The Turkish advance continued under the Ottomans until Byzantium finally fell in 1453.
Traditional ways of life continue in central Turkey, seemingly oblivious to the encroachments of the modern world and the thoroughly westernised sectors of society–another instance of diversity.
The best finds from sites visited are now in the excellent Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. More than mere witnesses to lost civilizations, many of the objects are endowed with compelling sculptural force and decorative beauty; the museum is as much a collection of great art as of archaeology.
Few journeys in the Old World are as stimulating or as varied as this survey of the Turkish heartlands.
Diversity is the hallmark of Central Anatolia. There is land blessed with exceptional fertility, emblazoned with a patchwork of greens and golds; and there are vast vistas of inhospitable rolling hills, parched and bereft of topsoil. Forests sprout around turbulent valley streams; elsewhere desolate, dead-flat, arid plains stretch to distant horizons. In Cappadocia the volcanic tufa has been whipped by wind and rain into clusters of billowing cones, cascades of frolicking rock and other bizarre geomorphic contortions.
Equally diverse are the civilizations which have made their mark. Here can be found the site of what is generally held to be the world’s oldest town, Çatal Höyük. Vast towns were built by the Hittites–a people strangely little-known in the English-speaking world but, for periods during the second millennium bc, second only to the Egyptians as a power in the lands around the eastern Mediterranean. They were succeeded by Phrygians, the people of King Midas. Greeks and Persians followed, and fought; the brief rule of Alexander and his Macedonians was continued under the Seleucids.
Invaded variously by migrants, conquerors, adventurers and traders, Anatolia was progressively part orientalised and part Hellenised, but indigenous characteristics remained. The Pontic kingdom was a native kingdom, which under Mithridates valiantly if cruelly resisted Roman might, but by 50 bc Central Anatolia was under Roman rule as the province of Asia Minor. When five centuries later Europe ceased to be Roman and the eastern half of the empire was ruled from Constantinople (formerly Byzantium), Anatolia found itself to be the home counties of the Roman world, a world which was now Christian. Monks and hermits cut dwellings and churches in the pliable rock of Cappadocia, and Christian communities continued there into the last century.
Islam encroached when the Seljuk Turks from the Central Asian steppes rapidly extended their empire and wrested part of Anatolia from the Byzantines after their victory of 1071. Among their legacy is the mosque and hospital in Divriği, a masterpiece of Islamic architecture. The Turkish advance continued under the Ottomans until Byzantium finally fell in 1453.
Traditional ways of life continue in central Turkey, seemingly oblivious to the encroachments of the modern world and the thoroughly westernised sectors of society–another instance of diversity.
The best finds from sites visited are now in the excellent Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. More than mere witnesses to lost civilizations, many of the objects are endowed with compelling sculptural force and decorative beauty; the museum is as much a collection of great art as of archaeology.
Few journeys in the Old World are as stimulating or as varied as this survey of the Turkish heartlands.
ITINERARY
DAY 1
Fly at c. 11.35am (Turkish Airlines) from London Heathrow to Ankara (via Istanbul). First of three nights in Ankara.
DAY 2
Ankara. Installed in a 15th-century market hall and recently renovated, the Museum of Anatolian Civilization has a wonderful collection of art and artefacts from many of the sites on the tour. After lunch visit the Atatürk Mausoleum, a revered shrine to the creator of modern Turkey.
DAY 3
Gordion, Ankara. Morning drive to Gordion, site of the Phrygian capital where Alexander cut the knot and where Midas is reputedly buried. The afternoon is free to walk up to the massive Byzantine and Seljuk walls of the citadel; here survives a traditional village apparently oblivious to the seething modern city spread over the surrounding hills.
DAY 4
Boghazköy (Hattusas, Yazilikaya), Alaca Höyük. In remote hill country to the east of Ankara, commanding an immense landscape, lies the site of Hattusas, the Hittite capital of the 2nd millennium bc. Of staggering size (the perimeter wall is 7 km), it retains the main gateways and figurative carvings in a temple of Yazilikaya across a gorge just outside the city. The Bronze Age site (c. 2300 bc) of Alaca Höyük has an imposing Sphinx gateway and has yielded a collection of precious objects of highly accomplished workmanship. Overnight in Çorum.
DAY 5
Amasya, Sivas. Nestling in a deep valley and with old Ottoman houses overhanging the River Yesilirmak, Amasya is one of the loveliest towns in Anatolia. Capital of the Pontic kingdom, there are remains of the hilltop palace and rock-cut royal tombs in the cliffs overlooking the town. Continue to Sivas with traditional architecture, Seljuk and Ottoman monuments. First of two nights in Sivas.
DAY 6
Divriği. A beautiful drive through the Anatolian plains with snow capped mountains to the Great Mosque and Hospital at Divriği. Built in the early 13th cent. the building is famed for its three unique decorated doorways carved with vegetal, geometrical, star and knotted motifs, the quality of which are unrivalled in the region. Largely unknown to visitors to Turkey it is one of unesco’s least visited world heritage sites but one of Turkey’s most splendid.
DAY 7
Sivas, Kayseri. Sivas, which preceded Konya as the regional Seljuk capital, has some of the finest remaining architecture of the 13th century including a complex of colleges and minarets and an attractive old quarter and Ottoman structures. Drive through mountainous terrain to Kayseri. Overnight Kayseri.
DAY 8
Kayseri, Cappadocia. Kayseri (formerly Caesarea), was the capital of Roman Cappadocia and includes a Byzantine fortress, Islamic buildings including the Great Mosque with re-used Corinthian columns, and an intriguing ethnographic museum. The archaeological site of Kültepe was a settlement of 1800 bc with a colony of Assyrians. Continue to Cappadocia for the first of three nights in Uçhisar.
DAY 9
Soganli, Eski Gümüs. Drive through a gorge which in addition to geological oddities has tumble-down villages, orchards and small holdings. The Soganli valley has many dwellings and churches cut into the rock, the finest of all remnants of Byzantine Cappadocia is the monastery at Eski Gümüs.
DAY 10
Goreme. Morning visit of the spectacular Goreme open-air museum. The rest of the afternoon is free to explore the landscape on foot (there are several walking trails).
DAY 11
Ihlara Valley, Sultanhani. Whole morning walking through the deep Ihlara Gorge with abundant flora, fauna and rock-cut Byzantine churches including Güzelyurt, birthplace of St Gregory. Drive westwards across a plain to Sultanhani, a splendid 13th-cent. caravanserai, with a cathedral-like five-aisled main hall. Continue to Konya, where two nights are spent.
DAY 12
Konya, Çatal Höyük. The capital of the 13th-cent. Seljuk empire and home of Sufism, Konya remains the religious centre of Turkey. Visit the Mevlana Tekke, monastery of the Whirling Dervishes, with its turquoise dome and collection of Islamic art. The Karatay Madrasa with its marvellous Seljuk tiles is now a museum of ceramics. Afternoon excursion to Çatal Höyük, the most important Neolithic site in Turkey and probably the earliest town in the world (c. 6000 bc).
DAY 13
Free morning in Konya before flying from Konya to Istanbul, and on to London Heathrow, arriving at c. 9.15pm.
Monday 23 March 2015
MOORISH SPAIN: AL-ANDALUS & ITS LEGACY
ITINERARY
DAY
1
Depart Gatwick 0945 on British Airways, arriving Málaga 1330. Continue to Córdoba for three nights at the NH Amistad Hotel. Introductory lecture.
DAY
2
Córdoba: Great Mosque/cathedral, archaeological museum and Roman theatre, followed by an optional walking tour including the ruins of the Roman temple.
DAY
3
Córdoba: the synagogue, Madinat al-Zahra and the Alcázar with its gardens.
DAY
4
Depart via Parador de Carmona (Mudéjar castle) and Roman site followed by the Roman town of Itálica (birthplace of the Emperor Trajan): Roman amphitheatre and mosaics. Transfer to Seville for three nights at Hotel Las Casas de los Mercaderes. Evening lecture: Seville from the Almohads to Pedro the Cruel.
DAY
5
Morning: La Giralda (12th century minaret), Puerta del Perdón (gateway to the Patio de los Naranjos courtyard), Gothic and Renaissance cathedral and walk through the Santa Cruz quarter (former Jewish quarter). Afternoon: Casa de Pilatos (16th century town house with fine azulejos and a blend of Renaissance and Mudéjar work).
DAY
6
Morning: Alcázar (14th century Mudéjar palace of Pedro I). Afternoon: Archaeological Museum (important collection of mosaics, and statues from Itálica), and the Bellas Artes Museum.
DAY
7
Ronda (astride the El Tajo gorge), Ronda la Vieja (Roman theatre), and Alcaudete (castle built by the Knights of Calatrava on the site of an Almohad fortess). Continue to Granada for three nights at Hotel Inglaterra.
DAY
8
Granada: Corral del Carbón (Islamic caravanserai), Alcaicería (recreation of the silk bazaar), madrassah (surviving oratory from the 14th century university), 11th century Islamic baths, Casas del Chapiz (16th century Morisco houses). Afternoon: St Nicholas Terrace (views of the Alhambra and Sierra Nevada). Evening lecture: The Alhambra, an ideal Andalusian palace?
DAY
9
Morning: the Alhambra palaces, the Generalife with its gardens, and Museo de la Alhambra. Afternoon: Fundación Rodríguez-Acosta (modern painting and sculpture), and the citadel of the Alcazaba.
DAY
10
Morning: Renaissance cathedral, royal chapel (tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella, with the Queen’s collection of Flemish paintings). Depart Málaga 1415, arriving Gatwick 1600.
VIA DE LA PLATA: MERIDA TO SALAMANCA
ITINERARY
DAY
1
Depart Stansted 1240 on Ryanair, arriving Seville 1630. Transfer to Mérida for three nights at the Parador de Mérida. Evening introductory lecture: The Vía de la Plata.
DAY
2
Roman Mérida: theatre, amphitheatre, Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, the ‘Temple of Diana’, Los Columbarios (Roman funeral site), Mithraeum House (including the Cosmological mosaic). Afternoon: aqueduct, the Circus, Basílica of Santa Eulalia, and Basilica de Casa Herrera. Evening lecture: Mérida, capital of Hispania.
DAY
3
Late Antique and Islamic Mérida: Museum of Visigothic Art (housed in the church of the Santa Clara convent), Morería (archaeological remains of the Islamic quarter), Islamic Alcazaba and Guadiana bridge.
Afternoon in Badajoz: alcazaba, and Roman baths. Free evening.
DAY
4
Depart for Cáceres via Santa Lucia del Trampal (Mozarabic church), Montánchez (local jamón ibérico tasting), and Los Barruecos (nature reserve). Transfer to Cáceres for two nights at Hotel Casa Don Fernando. Walking tour of Cáceres old town, including Palacio de los Golfines de Abajo (Gothic and Renaissance façade) and the Co-Cathedral of Santa María.
DAY
5
Morning in Cáceres: Museo de Cáceres and Aljibe (Islamic cistern). Afternoon: Trujillo (alcazaba) and walking tour of Guadalupe (renowned pilgrimage monastery).
DAY
6
Depart vía Cáparra (Roman market town) to Plasencia (mediaeval walled market city) for Roman aqueduct, old and new cathedrals, and Convent of Santo Domingo. Transfer to Salamanca for two nights at Hotel Petit Palace Las Torres. Evening lecture: Reconquest and Renaissance architecture in Salamanca.
DAY
7
Morning: old and new cathedrals, Casa de las Conchas, and the Convent of Santa Clara with a Mudéjar ceiling. Free afternoon.
DAY
8
Transfer to Madrid for 1330 departure, arriving Stansted 1505.
Central Anatolia - Cappadocia & the civilizations at the heart of Turkey
- Endlessly fascinating journey through an extraordinary variety of landscapes and civilizations in Central Anatolia.
- From the ancient capital of the Hittites to Turkey’s modern capital, Ankara.
- Some of the finest examples of Seljuk architecture including the unesco listed complex at Divriği.
- Turkey is changing rapidly, but many aspects of traditional life continue.
INTRODUCTION
Uchisar in Cappadocia, lithograph by William J. Hamilton, 1842.
At the centre of Anatolia lies a limestone plateau, crumpled and eroded, with mountainous barriers at the rim. A land-bridge between Asia and Europe, this unpromising terrain has perhaps been traversed by a greater variety of peoples and cultures than any comparable part of the world.
Diversity is the hallmark of Central Anatolia. There is land blessed with exceptional fertility, emblazoned with a patchwork of greens and golds; and there are vast vistas of inhospitable rolling hills, parched and bereft of topsoil. Forests sprout around turbulent valley streams; elsewhere desolate, dead-flat, arid plains stretch to distant horizons. In Cappadocia the volcanic tufa has been whipped by wind and rain into clusters of billowing cones, cascades of frolicking rock and other bizarre geomorphic contortions.
Equally diverse are the civilizations which have made their mark. Here can be found the site of what is generally held to be the world’s oldest town, Çatal Höyük. Vast towns were built by the Hittites–a people strangely little-known in the English-speaking world but, for periods during the second millennium bc, second only to the Egyptians as a power in the lands around the eastern Mediterranean. They were succeeded by Phrygians, the people of King Midas. Greeks and Persians followed, and fought; the brief rule of Alexander and his Macedonians was continued under the Seleucids.
Invaded variously by migrants, conquerors, adventurers and traders, Anatolia was progressively part orientalised and part Hellenised, but indigenous characteristics remained. The Pontic kingdom was a native kingdom, which under Mithridates valiantly if cruelly resisted Roman might, but by 50 bc Central Anatolia was under Roman rule as the province of Asia Minor. When five centuries later Europe ceased to be Roman and the eastern half of the empire was ruled from Constantinople (formerly Byzantium), Anatolia found itself to be the home counties of the Roman world, a world which was now Christian. Monks and hermits cut dwellings and churches in the pliable rock of Cappadocia, and Christian communities continued there into the last century.
Islam encroached when the Seljuk Turks from the Central Asian steppes rapidly extended their empire and wrested part of Anatolia from the Byzantines after their victory of 1071. Among their legacy is the mosque and hospital in Divriği, a masterpiece of Islamic architecture. The Turkish advance continued under the Ottomans until Byzantium finally fell in 1453.
Traditional ways of life continue in central Turkey, seemingly oblivious to the encroachments of the modern world and the thoroughly westernised sectors of society–another instance of diversity.
The best finds from sites visited are now in the excellent Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. More than mere witnesses to lost civilizations, many of the objects are endowed with compelling sculptural force and decorative beauty; the museum is as much a collection of great art as of archaeology.
Few journeys in the Old World are as stimulating or as varied as this survey of the Turkish heartlands.
Diversity is the hallmark of Central Anatolia. There is land blessed with exceptional fertility, emblazoned with a patchwork of greens and golds; and there are vast vistas of inhospitable rolling hills, parched and bereft of topsoil. Forests sprout around turbulent valley streams; elsewhere desolate, dead-flat, arid plains stretch to distant horizons. In Cappadocia the volcanic tufa has been whipped by wind and rain into clusters of billowing cones, cascades of frolicking rock and other bizarre geomorphic contortions.
Equally diverse are the civilizations which have made their mark. Here can be found the site of what is generally held to be the world’s oldest town, Çatal Höyük. Vast towns were built by the Hittites–a people strangely little-known in the English-speaking world but, for periods during the second millennium bc, second only to the Egyptians as a power in the lands around the eastern Mediterranean. They were succeeded by Phrygians, the people of King Midas. Greeks and Persians followed, and fought; the brief rule of Alexander and his Macedonians was continued under the Seleucids.
Invaded variously by migrants, conquerors, adventurers and traders, Anatolia was progressively part orientalised and part Hellenised, but indigenous characteristics remained. The Pontic kingdom was a native kingdom, which under Mithridates valiantly if cruelly resisted Roman might, but by 50 bc Central Anatolia was under Roman rule as the province of Asia Minor. When five centuries later Europe ceased to be Roman and the eastern half of the empire was ruled from Constantinople (formerly Byzantium), Anatolia found itself to be the home counties of the Roman world, a world which was now Christian. Monks and hermits cut dwellings and churches in the pliable rock of Cappadocia, and Christian communities continued there into the last century.
Islam encroached when the Seljuk Turks from the Central Asian steppes rapidly extended their empire and wrested part of Anatolia from the Byzantines after their victory of 1071. Among their legacy is the mosque and hospital in Divriği, a masterpiece of Islamic architecture. The Turkish advance continued under the Ottomans until Byzantium finally fell in 1453.
Traditional ways of life continue in central Turkey, seemingly oblivious to the encroachments of the modern world and the thoroughly westernised sectors of society–another instance of diversity.
The best finds from sites visited are now in the excellent Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. More than mere witnesses to lost civilizations, many of the objects are endowed with compelling sculptural force and decorative beauty; the museum is as much a collection of great art as of archaeology.
Few journeys in the Old World are as stimulating or as varied as this survey of the Turkish heartlands.
ITINERARY
DAY 1
Fly at c. 11.35am (Turkish Airlines) from London Heathrow to Ankara (via Istanbul). First of three nights in Ankara.
DAY 2
Ankara. Installed in a 15th-century market hall and recently renovated, the Museum of Anatolian Civilization has a wonderful collection of art and artefacts from many of the sites on the tour. After lunch visit the Atatürk Mausoleum, a revered shrine to the creator of modern Turkey.
DAY 3
Gordion, Ankara. Morning drive to Gordion, site of the Phrygian capital where Alexander cut the knot and where Midas is reputedly buried. The afternoon is free to walk up to the massive Byzantine and Seljuk walls of the citadel; here survives a traditional village apparently oblivious to the seething modern city spread over the surrounding hills.
DAY 4
Boghazköy (Hattusas, Yazilikaya), Alaca Höyük. In remote hill country to the east of Ankara, commanding an immense landscape, lies the site of Hattusas, the Hittite capital of the 2nd millennium bc. Of staggering size (the perimeter wall is 7 km), it retains the main gateways and figurative carvings in a temple of Yazilikaya across a gorge just outside the city. The Bronze Age site (c. 2300 bc) of Alaca Höyük has an imposing Sphinx gateway and has yielded a collection of precious objects of highly accomplished workmanship. Overnight in Çorum.
DAY 5
Amasya, Sivas. Nestling in a deep valley and with old Ottoman houses overhanging the River Yesilirmak, Amasya is one of the loveliest towns in Anatolia. Capital of the Pontic kingdom, there are remains of the hilltop palace and rock-cut royal tombs in the cliffs overlooking the town. Continue to Sivas with traditional architecture, Seljuk and Ottoman monuments. First of two nights in Sivas.
DAY 6
Divriği. A beautiful drive through the Anatolian plains with snow capped mountains to the Great Mosque and Hospital at Divriği. Built in the early 13th cent. the building is famed for its three unique decorated doorways carved with vegetal, geometrical, star and knotted motifs, the quality of which are unrivalled in the region. Largely unknown to visitors to Turkey it is one of unesco’s least visited world heritage sites but one of Turkey’s most splendid.
DAY 7
Sivas, Kayseri. Sivas, which preceded Konya as the regional Seljuk capital, has some of the finest remaining architecture of the 13th century including a complex of colleges and minarets and an attractive old quarter and Ottoman structures. Drive through mountainous terrain to Kayseri. Overnight Kayseri.
DAY 8
Kayseri, Cappadocia. Kayseri (formerly Caesarea), was the capital of Roman Cappadocia and includes a Byzantine fortress, Islamic buildings including the Great Mosque with re-used Corinthian columns, and an intriguing ethnographic museum. The archaeological site of Kültepe was a settlement of 1800 bc with a colony of Assyrians. Continue to Cappadocia for the first of three nights in Uçhisar.
DAY 9
Soganli, Eski Gümüs. Drive through a gorge which in addition to geological oddities has tumble-down villages, orchards and small holdings. The Soganli valley has many dwellings and churches cut into the rock, the finest of all remnants of Byzantine Cappadocia is the monastery at Eski Gümüs.
DAY 10
Goreme. Morning visit of the spectacular Goreme open-air museum. The rest of the afternoon is free to explore the landscape on foot (there are several walking trails).
DAY 11
Ihlara Valley, Sultanhani. Whole morning walking through the deep Ihlara Gorge with abundant flora, fauna and rock-cut Byzantine churches including Güzelyurt, birthplace of St Gregory. Drive westwards across a plain to Sultanhani, a splendid 13th-cent. caravanserai, with a cathedral-like five-aisled main hall. Continue to Konya, where two nights are spent.
DAY 12
Konya, Çatal Höyük. The capital of the 13th-cent. Seljuk empire and home of Sufism, Konya remains the religious centre of Turkey. Visit the Mevlana Tekke, monastery of the Whirling Dervishes, with its turquoise dome and collection of Islamic art. The Karatay Madrasa with its marvellous Seljuk tiles is now a museum of ceramics. Afternoon excursion to Çatal Höyük, the most important Neolithic site in Turkey and probably the earliest town in the world (c. 6000 bc).
DAY 13
Free morning in Konya before flying from Konya to Istanbul, and on to London Heathrow, arriving at c. 9.15pm.
Monday 16 March 2015
Spanish Rome
ITINERARY
DAY
1
Depart Stansted 1240 on Ryanair, arriving Seville 1630. Transfer to Mérida for three nights at the Parador de Mérida. Evening introductory lecture: The Vía de la Plata.
DAY
2
Roman Mérida: theatre, amphitheatre, Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, the ‘Temple of Diana’, Los Columbarios (Roman funeral site), Mithraeum House (including the Cosmological mosaic). Afternoon: aqueduct, the Circus, Basílica of Santa Eulalia, and Basilica de Casa Herrera. Evening lecture: Mérida, capital of Hispania.
DAY
3
Late Antique and Islamic Mérida: Museum of Visigothic Art (housed in the church of the Santa Clara convent), Morería (archaeological remains of the Islamic quarter), Islamic Alcazaba and Guadiana bridge.
Afternoon in Badajoz: alcazaba, and Roman baths. Free evening.
DAY
4
Depart for Cáceres via Santa Lucia del Trampal (Mozarabic church), Montánchez (local jamón ibérico tasting), and Los Barruecos (nature reserve). Transfer to Cáceres for two nights at Hotel Casa Don Fernando. Walking tour of Cáceres old town, including Palacio de los Golfines de Abajo (Gothic and Renaissance façade) and the Co-Cathedral of Santa María.
DAY
5
Morning in Cáceres: Museo de Cáceres and Aljibe (Islamic cistern). Afternoon: Trujillo (alcazaba) and walking tour of Guadalupe (renowned pilgrimage monastery).
DAY
6
Depart vía Cáparra (Roman market town) to Plasencia (mediaeval walled market city) for Roman aqueduct, old and new cathedrals, and Convent of Santo Domingo. Transfer to Salamanca for two nights at Hotel Petit Palace Las Torres. Evening lecture: Reconquest and Renaissance architecture in Salamanca.
DAY
7
Morning: old and new cathedrals, Casa de las Conchas, and the Convent of Santa Clara with a Mudéjar ceiling. Free afternoon.
DAY
8
Trans
Sunday 15 March 2015
Bengal by River - Calcutta and a week’s cruise along the Hooghly
- Four days in Calcutta, Bengal’s capital, and a week visiting places along the River Hooghly on an exclusively chartered cruiser.
- Bengal, an outpost of the Mughal Empire and the first region to come under the control of the East India Company.
- Islamic architecture in Murshidabad and Gaur, Hindu temples in Baranagar and Kalna, Georgian and Victorian buildings of the Raj.
- Sailing along the banks of the Hooghly gives a unique insight into unspoilt village life.
- Led by Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, an authority on colonial India.
INTRODUCTION
Calcutta
When George V announced in 1911 that the capital of British India was to be transferred from Calcutta to Delhi, there was disbelief and horror in Bengal. It seemed to overturn the natural order of things. Founded by Job Charnock in 1690 on the banks of the mighty Hooghly River, Calcutta (now Kolkata) had been the headquarters of British rule in India ever since. Today the city is home to over fifteen million, but the central district remains largely as it was during the Raj.
Buildings of all sorts – political, economic, educational, religious, residential – formed the British city. Their styles, Classical and Gothic, are bizarrely familiar, and their size is startling, often exceeding their equivalents in Britain. A walk through the South Park Street Cemetery shows the high price that many Britons paid for coming to Calcutta in search of wealth. ‘Power on silt!’ wrote Kipling of the city. ‘Death in my hands, but Gold!’
West Bengal is the land of lost capitals and fading grandeur. Calcutta was only the latest city whose power was snatched away by changing political events. Hindus, Muslims, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish and French all founded settlements on the dreamy, fertile banks of the Hooghly.
For a time Bengal was the richest province in India, not only because everything seemed to grow in its lush soil but from the industry of its people too. Indigo, opium and rice were cash crops, but textiles first attracted European traders in the seventeenth century. Beautiful silk and muslin fabrics were known as ‘woven wind’ because they were so fine. The river was a natural highway. Apart from the Grand Trunk Road of the Mughals, there was no other way to travel.
Steeped in history but still very much off the conventional tourist route, this tour adds a new dimension to India for those who already know it, and for those who are yet to encounter it.
Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, and Christianity are all practised in Bengal and each faith has built buildings to its gods and goddesses. The town of Kalna is named after a manifestation of the dreaded goddess Kali, the destroyer who lives in cremation grounds and wears a necklace of skulls. By contrast the Jain temples in the village of Baranagar are a peaceful anthem in carved brick to non-violence and harmony. Bengal contains the largest imambaras in India, buildings associated with the Shi’a strand of Islam, not quite mausolea, although burials are frequently found in them, more gathering places for the devout. Serampore, the Danish settlement, is known for its eighteenth-century church.
Had the British under Clive not defeated the Nawab Siraj-ud-daula at the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the history of India would have been very different. The French, established at Chandernagore and allies of the Nawab, would have seized their opportunity, supported by Francophone rulers elsewhere in India who wanted to counterbalance the pervasive British presence. But it was from their base in Bengal that the British steadily extended their rule through the subcontinent.
The cruiser chartered for this tour is fairly new (built in Calcutta in 2006), on board it feels far removed from modern India and quite close to the India of the Raj. By the standards of vessels on European rivers it is not luxurious, but it is comfortable, has great charm and the crew are welcoming and efficient.
Lounging on the top deck after a fulfilling day of sightseeing with a gin & tonic (of which a quota is included in the price), watching rural life on the banks as dusk falls, comes pretty close to a perfect Indian experience.
ITINERARY
DAY 1
Days 1 & 2: London to Calcutta (Kolkata), via Dubai. Fly at c. 1.30pm from London Heathrow to Calcutta via Dubai (Emirates) where there is a 2-hour stop. Reach the hotel c. 9.00am (time difference from UK is 5½ hours.) The rest of the morning is free. In the afternoon visit the South Park Street Cemetery, where tombs of the early British settlers are of a monumental classicism without parallel in Britain. First of four nights in Calcutta.
DAY 2
As above.
DAY 3
Calcutta. The Anglican cathedral of St Paul, completed in 1847 in Gothic style, has many fine memorials and a window by Burne-Jones, one of his best. Completed in 1921, the Victoria Memorial is the most imposing building in Calcutta. It houses a collection of European paintings and a display on the history of the city. The Indian Museum, built by Granville to house the collection from the Asiatic Society, is India’s most important collection of sculpture. Overnight Calcutta.
DAY 4
Calcutta. This morning’s walk provides a survey of the civic buildings from the late 18th century. St John’s Church, which dates back to 1784, is loosely modelled on St Martin-in-the-Fields in London (like hundreds throughout the globe). In the grounds, the mausoleum of Job Charnock, the founder of Calcutta, is the earliest British building in India. We also visit the antiquarian collections of the Marble Palace (by special arrangement). Overnight Calcutta.
DAY 5
Calcutta. The Maghen David Synagogue (1884) and the Armenian Church (1707) are reminders of the variety of religions which thrived in Calcutta prior to Independence. The Home of Rabindranath Tagore, the Bengali poet and philosopher who received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913, provides an insight into the Bengali Intellectual Renaissance which in turn led to the Independentist movement. Overnight Calcutta.
DAY 6
Barrackpore, Serampore. Board the MV Sukapha in Calcutta. Sail to the former British garrison town of Barrackpore. Many 19th-cent. buildings remain, including the riverside Government House (1813) with its Semaphore Tower, part of a river signalling system, and the elegant neo-Greek Temple of Fame. The gardens of Flagstaff House now serve as repository for colonial statuary removed from Calcutta. The Danish colony of Serampore is across the river. First of seven nights on board the RV Sukapha.
DAY 7
Chandernagore, Chinsura, Hooghly. In the morning, sail upstream to the former French colony of Chandernagore, established in 1673. Visit the remaining churches and cemeteries as well as Governor Joseph François Dupleix’s House. Sail to Chinsura to visit the 17th-cent. Dutch cemetery before continuing by cycle-rickshaw to Hooghly where the 19th-cent. Shi’a Imambara of Hazi Mohammed Mohasin contains fine marble inlay. Overnight RV Sukapha.
DAY 8
Kalna, Nabadwip, Mayapur. At Kalna, visit the series of fine 18th-cent. terracotta temples and the unique Shiva temple with concentric rings comprising 108 double-vaulted shrines. Sail to the pilgrimage centre of Nabadwip, where the river ghats are lined with active temples. The skyline of Mayapur on the opposite bank is dominated by a vast new temple. Overnight RV Sukapha.
DAY 9
Matiari, Plassey. Visit the village of Matiari where brass is worked using traditional methods. After sailing further, there is an excursion to the site of the battle of Plassey, where Robert Clive’s 1757 victory over the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah was the prelude to consolidation and extension of the East India Company’s power in Bengal and beyond. Overnight RV Sukapha at Murshidabad.
DAY 10
Murshidabad. The Mughal Khushbagh is a peaceful walled pleasure-garden containing the Tomb of Siraj-ud-Daulah and family. A magnificent example of Greek Revival architecture, the Hazarduari Palace was built by Duncan McLeod in 1837 as a guest house for the Nawab. The museum holds a respectable collection of European paintings, sculpture and arms. The imposing Katra Mosque (1724) is modelled on the great mosque at Mecca. Visit the Nashipara and Katgola palaces, 18th-cent. homes of rich Jain merchants in classical Georgian style. Overnight RV Sukapha.
DAY 11
Baranagar. Sail to the village of Baranagar and walk through fields to visit three miniature carved-brick Jain temples. Sail in the afternoon through a stretch of charming waterway that weaves past banks lush with mango groves and mustard crops. Overnight RV Sukapha at Jangipur.
DAY 12
Gaur, Farakka. Drive from Jangipur to the quiet city of Gaur, the ancient capital of Bengal. Situated within easy reach of the black basalt Rajmahal hills, Gaur is filled with elegant Muslim ruins. The many mosques, palaces and gateways stand as testament to a prosperous past and gifted stonemasons. Overnight RV Sukapha.
DAY 13
Disembark Farakka. Calcutta. At Farakka, disembark the RV Sukupha in the early morning and transfer to the station to board a train for Calcutta (a journey of c. 4 hours). The rest of the day is at leisure. One more night in Calcutta.
DAY 14
Calcutta. After a 2-hour stopover in Dubai, the flight arrives Heathrow c. 6.00pm.
Changes to the itinerary: circumstances might arise which prevent us operating the tour as advertised. On the river, circumstances such as the ebb and flow of the tide and shifting silt levels might necessitate omission of one or more ports of call. We would try and devise a satisfactory alternative.
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