20 Day Tour Includes Christmas In Bethlehem And New Year’s Eve In Petra
MIDNIGHT High Mass on Christmas Eve in St Catherine’s Church adjacent to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, is a highlight of Far Horizon’s 20-day fully escorted tour to many of the most important Christian sites in Turkey, Israel/The Holyland and Jordan departing Australia this December 15th.
Included are visits to Konya – reputedly the first town to emerge from the Flood, the annual Meviana Festival’s Whirling Dervishes, visits to some of the earliest Christian, Greek Orthodox and Islamic churches, abbeys, 
monasteries and mosques, and in the Cappadocia Valley the remains of the 20 storey deep underground city of Derinkuyu that once housed 20,000 Christians escaping persecution.
There’re also visits to the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Western Wall, on Christmas Day the Church of the Nativity, St Jerome’s Caves and the Shepherds’ Fields, followed later in the tour by a cruise on a “Jesus Boat” on the Sea of Galilee, Cana that was the scene of Jesus’ first miracle, and a lunch cruise on the Bosphorus.
Prices start from $19,940pp twin-share from mainland capitals including return airfare, best available accommodation, all meals, extensive sightseeing by private vehicles, a Far Horizons escort and local guides throughout, taxes and gratuities. Details 1800 083 141, (02) 9955 0444 or info@farhorizons.com.au
ADDITIONAL DETAILS: Other highlights include Istanbul’s Roman Hippodrome, Underground Cistern, Blue Mosque, St Sophia Basilica, Topkapi Palace Museum and the Treasury’s priceless porcelains and relics of Islam.
Participants will also experience (if they wish) floating on the Dead Sea that’s the lowest point on the earth’s surface, there’s a trip along the King’s Highway through the ancient lands of Ammon, Moab and Edom, New Year’s Eve celebrations in Petra – a Nabataean city which dates back to the 3rd century BC, and a jeep ride into the Wadi Rum desert, headquarters of British officer T.E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) during the Arab Revolt of 1917-18.
