Our visit encompasses sites from the 3rd millennium onwards. The gigantic mudbrick mound at Mari was the centre of one of the world’s earliest true cities, located on the banks of the Euphrates River, a highway of civilisations. Ugarit on the coast, birthplace of the alphabet as we know it today, was a great sea-going trading centre in the Late Bronze Age. Amrit, in a beautiful coastal plain, is a rare surviving Phoenician shrine.

We will spend a memorable time with the breathtaking, Palmyra, a fulcrum for the exchange of goods from China to the lands of the west. And we steam in original Ottoman train carriages of the Hejaz railway (in our own privately commissioned train!) through the volcanic landscape towards the ancient basalt city of Bosra.

Breaking news...

Due to the success of this tour, the original dates are filling fast. Therefore we are offering a new Spring departure between 22nd October and !st November 2008. Please call 01722 713800 for more information.