8 Days Seven Churches of Revelation Tour from Izmir: Ephesus, Pergamon & Pamukkale Private Tour

On arrival at Izmir Airport, or at the cruise port of Kusadasi or Cesme, you are met and taken to your hotel in Izmir, your base for the first two nights. The rest of the day is free to stroll along the seafront promenade, explore the neighbourhood on your own or relax at the hotel. Dinner is served in the evening. Overnight in Izmir.

After breakfast you set out to discover Izmir, today the third largest city of Turkey and in antiquity Smyrna, the second of the seven churches to receive a letter in Revelation. The congregation is thought to have been founded during Paul's third missionary journey. Because the modern city has grown over the ancient one, only parts have been excavated, and your guide shows you the agora, the theatre area and sections of the Roman aqueduct before a visit to the Church of St. Polycarp in the city centre. Lunch and dinner are included. Overnight in Izmir.

Today you drive north to Pergamon, whose ruins crown a hilltop some 300 metres above the modern town and dominate the landscape in every direction. A leading Hellenistic centre of learning, the city rivalled Ephesus in trade and Alexandria and Antioch in culture. You visit the Asclepion, the healing sanctuary dedicated to the god of medicine, then climb to the acropolis with its library, the sanctuary of Athena and a dramatic hillside theatre of 80 rows for about 10,000 spectators. After lunch you continue south to Kusadasi for dinner and overnight.

A short 30-minute drive brings you to Selcuk and the vast archaeological site of Ephesus, whose origins reach back to the 13th century BC while most visible ruins date from the Roman imperial era. Walk past the restored Library of Celsus to the great theatre with room for 24,000 people, then pause at the site of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, with views towards the Isa Bey Mosque, the citadel and the Basilica of St. John. Lunch is served at a local restaurant in Selcuk. In the afternoon you visit the basilica built over the traditional tomb of the apostle John and the House of the Virgin Mary, where Mary is believed to have lived in her later years. Overnight in Kusadasi.

A day without an alarm clock. Enjoy the sunshine, the beaches and the clear water of the Aegean, wander the town and its markets, or simply relax at your hotel. Your tour team can help you arrange an optional excursion within Turkey if you would like to see more of the region. Dinner is included in the evening. Overnight in Kusadasi.

After an early breakfast you travel inland to Laodicea, the wealthy city whose church Revelation calls neither hot nor cold. Following lunch you reach Pamukkale, the cotton castle, where calcium-rich hot springs have built a shimmering cascade of white terraces and pools; there is time to walk barefoot in the warm water. Above the travertines lies Hierapolis, founded by Eumenes II of Pergamon, destroyed by an earthquake in AD 17 and rebuilt to flourish in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, its ruins stretching for more than a kilometre. Dinner and overnight at your hotel in Pamukkale.

Heading back towards Izmir, you first stop at Philadelphia in today's Alasehir, the church praised in Revelation for its faithfulness. You then reach Sardis near Salihli, capital of the Lydian kingdom, where coins were first minted in electrum, an alloy of gold and silver, before gold and silver issues followed under Croesus; its well-preserved ruins give a vivid sense of the ancient city. After lunch at a local restaurant you visit Thyatira in Akhisar, the last of the seven churches on the route. Dinner and overnight in Izmir.

After breakfast you are transferred to Izmir Airport for your flight home, carrying with you the stories of the seven churches and the places where early Christianity took root.