I've seen the gardens of ancient Babylon, the statue of Olympian Zeus, the Colossus of Rhodes, the tall pyramids, and the tomb of the kings of Mausolus, but all these wonders were overshadowed when I saw the temple of Ephesus rise into the clouds
- Philo of Byzantium, 2nd century BC
Ionia, located in present-day southwestern Turkey, is a narrow strip of land backed by the Taurus Mountains and facing the Aegean Sea. In 1200 BC, Greece came to settle here and established a series of city-states. Thanks to its strategic location, Ionia became a maritime trade hub connecting East and West, and gradually became the commercial and cultural center of the Greece world.
The Trojan War took place here
Many scenes from Homer's epic poems also take place here
The Ionian Revolt that broke out in the 5th century BC was the direct trigger for the Greco-Persian Wars
It has profoundly influenced the historical trend of the Eastern Mediterranean region and the entire Western world......
In the 6th century BC, the famous Ionian school arose. It was in this environment that philosophers and scientists such as Thales of Miletus, Pythagoras of Samos, and Heraclitus of Ephesus put forward far-reaching theories of natural philosophy, which laid the ideological foundation for the later Golden Age of Athens and the foundation of Western science and philosophy in later generations.
Herodotus, the father of history, Anaximande, the father of maps, Araxagoras, the father of atomism, and Hippocrates, the father of medicine...... The greatest philosophers and scientists of the Greece world were born in Ionia. There is also the Ionic column style originating from the Ionian region, known for its elegant cartouche decoration, becoming one of the three major columns of classical architecture, and has a profound influence on Western architectural styles.
Eleven long vacations, with scholars of ancient Greece and Roman history
From the Aegean Sea to the Eastern Mediterranean
World Heritage + Niche Monuments
Retro cruise + cultural trail invincible sea view + food accommodation deep into Ionia, the center of ancient Greece and Roman civilization
【Traveling in History・Ancient Civilization Series】 Southwest Coast of Turkey|Ancient Greece-Roman City-State Between Mountains and Seas 2024.10.01 — 2024.10.08
Chapter 1土耳其游学｜专家授课
Xu Xiaoxu / Professor, School of History, Chinese University, Ph.D. supervisor
Changjiang Scholar Vice Chairman of the Chinese Society for the Study of Ancient World History
Research interests: ancient Greece and Roman history
He has been a visiting researcher at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and the Louis · Schieh Honet Center (formerly the "Center for the Study of Comparative Ancient Societies") at the Institut des Hautes Hautes Etudes des Sciences in Social Sciences in Paris, France. He is mainly engaged in the research of Greece Roman history, and his current research interests focus on the ethnic identity of ancient Greece peoples, Greece contact and exchange with non-Greece cultures. He has published many academic papers in journals such as "Chinese Social Sciences", "Historical Research" and "World History", and is the author of the monograph "Philip II: Hegemony and Pan-Greece".
【Lectures during the line】
1. Continuity and breakage
The diversity of ancient Anatolian history
2. Become a city-state
Cities of Asia Minor in classical culture
3. Temple and burial religion and ancient Asia Minor
Chapter 2土耳其游学 / 行程亮点
1 Experts in ancient Greece and Roman history led the whole process, a journey of classical civilization from a broad Eurasian perspective
This study tour of ancient Greece and Roman civilization on the southwest coast of Turkey was led by Xu Xiaoxu, a scholar of ancient Greece and Roman history at Chinese University. Professor Xu's research areas include the ethnic identity of ancient Greece, the contact and exchange between Greece and non-Greece cultures, etc., and has also visited and lectured on both sides of the Aegean Sea many times, leading students to deeply investigate the Greece people and Anatolian indigenous groups along the Aegean coast, and use 3 sharing sessions to understand the collision and exchange, religion and life of ancient Greece and other Eastern Mediterranean civilizations.
2 Complete and in-depth niche routes to find the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World + hard-to-reach beautiful monuments
By no means general, 8 days only on the southwest coast of Turkey! From Istanbul to Antalya, from the Bronze Age to the Roman Empire, take a complete and in-depth tour of the most typical city-state ruins, religious centers and ancient tombs of the classical era, including two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and many of the most inaccessible and beautiful monuments, 4 World Heritage Sites, 6 ancient city ruins, and 3 archaeological museums...... Truly understand what "classical civilization" is.
3 Experience the retro sailing cruise, wander the most beautiful cultural trails, encounter the magnificent scenery between the mountains and the sea at the best time of the year, specially arrange the retro sailing + light hiking, cruise the Eastern Mediterranean in the oldest way, and contact the thousand-year-old monuments on the shore + water with a new perspective and perception. Weather on the southwest coast of Turkey in October