Ancient Crossroads

Journey through Ancient Syria & Jordan September 17, 2004 through October 2, 2004

Presented by Seven Wonders Travel 800.480.3395 SWTEgypt@aol.com

Friday, September 17, 2004 Depart US to Damascus via KLM. Saturday, September 18, 2004 Arrive Amsterdam early morning. De-part early evening for Damascus via KLM. (Meals in Flight)

Sunday, September 19, 2004 Damascus Arrive Damascus early morning, meeting and transfer to Cham Palace Hotel.

Today, you tour Syrias largest metropolis, Da-mascus, perhaps the old-est continuously inhab-ited city in the world. Visits include the peaceful Ommayad Mosque, the black-and-white Azem Palace, the National Mu-

seum, St. Pauls Chapel (where the dis-ciples lowered St. Paul from one of the windows in a basket, as he was fleeing the city) and the Chapel of St. Ananias. Lunch at Elissar House, an old Damas-cene House built in 1840 and recently restored with great care to preserve its original decoration and authenticity.

Cham Palace Hotel (B/L/D)

Monday, September 20, 2004 Damascus/Palmyra

After breakfast at the hotel, you drive to the ancient city of Palmyra. Found-ed by Assyrian mer-chants, enriched by

Greeks and Romans, and glorified by the ambition of Zenobia, her Century Queen, it offers extensive ruins. Visits include the museum, the Bel Temple, Baal Shamin and Nebo, the bath of Queen Zeno-bia, the Tetrapyle, Dio-cletians Camp and the Tombs Valley. Lunch at the Heliopolis Hotel. Fol-lowed by a late afternoon visit to the Arab Castle for sunset. Our final stop of the day will be at the Zenobia Hotel, one of Lawrence of Ara-bias haunts. Here you will enjoy a champagne reception, seated amidst the ruins of Palmyra as the sunsets on this exciting day.

Palmyra Cham (B/L/D)

Ancient Syria Syria is a country whose strategic geographic position has kept it at the center of events over the last four thousand years. All of the great early civilizations ex-plored, traded with, conquered or colonized the region now known as Syria. Travel-ers on the lookout for cultural traces left by the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks and Crusaders will find them at literally every turn, all set in beautiful desert landscapes, inhabited by hospitable people who still view visitors with an un-jaundiced eye. Unspoiled and friendly, it offers a spectacular range of historically important sights in combination with exotic shopping, comfortable hotels and street-corner scenes straight out of A Thousand and One Nights.

Tuesday, September 21, 2004 Krak Des Chevaliers - Aleppo

After breakfast, depart north to the magnificent Krak Des Chevaliers (the Castle of the Knights). This great Crusader for-tress still looks much as it did 800 years ago, when it was

garrisoned by as many as 4,000 Europeans. According to Lawrence of Arabia, the most wholly admirable castle in the world. After lunch at the Citadel Restaurant near the Krak, we continue to Aleppo.

Zamaria Merchant House or similar (B/L/D) Wednesday, September 22, 2004 Aleppo - St. Simeon - Aleppo Aleppo has a long history as a trading center between Asia and the Mediterra-nean. Todays tour includes the Islamic Citadel, the Museum of Antiquities, the Grand Mosque, and the caravan-saries (five mile-covered souk). Lunch at Kan Zaman Restaurant. Af-ternoon drive to St. Simeon Cathe-dral, where St. Simeon stayed atop a column for 40 years in the 5th cen-tury. Return to Aleppo in the evening for dinner in the Old City at Sissi.

Zamaria Merchant House (B/L/D)

Thursday, September 23, 2004 Ebla/Apamea/Hama Early morning departure north to Ebla. The discovery of this kingdom fills an important gap in the under-standing of the 3rd millennium BC. This ancient capital of Syria was dis-covered in 1977 by Paolo Matthiae, with its royal archives and 15,000 tablets.

Continue on to Apamea, a Hel-lenistic city of 1,000 columns, founded in the 3rd century BC, and set amid beautifully lush

farmland. Visit the cardo maximus, the Roman residences, the theater and the Mosaic Museum. Enjoy a picnic lunch in Apamea. Late afternoon arrival in Hama, fa-mous for its water wheels (Noria).

Apamea Cham Hotel (B/L/D)

Friday, September 24, 2004 Hama/Kadesh/Maaloula/Damascus

Tour of the rustic city, with its gigan-tic wooden water wheels turned by the Orontes River,

whose timelessness captures the imagination. Late morning visit to the Museum of Hama, housed in the Azzem Palace.

Daily Itinerary

Depart to Kadesh, where the Egyptian Pharaoh, Ramses II fought his famous battle against the Hittites. The mounds of Kadesh stand on the banks of the Orantes River. The battle of Kadesh was the last to be won by the Egyptian Empire and was celebrated by Ramses II on monuments all over Egypt. Final stop of the day will be at an-cient city of Maa-loula suspended from the moun-tainside. It is here that the ancient Aramaic language of Christ is still spoken (but never written). Time to visit the con-vent and Saint Serge Church. Return to Damascus for a late after-noon and evening at leisure.

Cham Palace Hotel (B/L/D)

Saturday, September 25, 2004 Damascus/Baalbek Today is a free day to explore ancient Damascus on your own. Revisit your favorite sites or shop in the souks. Optional over-day trip to Baalbek, Lebanon. Tonight, a farewell dinner for the Syria portion of your tour will be held at the Ommayad Palace restaurant with oriental music, food, and enter-tainment.

Cham Palace Hotel (B/D)

Daily Itinerary Sunday, September 26, 2004 Damascus - Shahba - Borsa - Amman Today we board our coach and head south towards Jordan driving through Druze settlements. You will arrive in Shahba and enter through the remains of a Roman arch, one of the original city gates. Here you will visit the Mosaic Museum built to cover the fine floor mosaics dating from the time of Constan-tinople. Your final stop before leaving Syria will be at Borsa, the black Basalt city. The settlement dates from the Early Bronze Age, but the town rose to prominence in the late 1st century AD when the last king of the Nabateans, Rabbel II, moved his capital from Petra to Borsa, to take advantage of the changing in-ternational trade routes.

The extensive and well-preserved ru-ins date from Na-batean, Roman, Byzantine and Is-lamic times. You need little imagi-nation to picture the living-walled city. The Roman Theater, the most impressive of sites

in Borsa, is completely hidden from view by the medieval citadel which for-tified and surrounded it. This afternoon, cross the Syrian border into Jordan.

Jordan, is a bridge: a country which connects - or sometimes separates - neighboring cultures, peoples and ideas. Geographically it joins the green lands of the Mediterranean with the great deserts of Arabia and Syria to the east. Historically, it couples the folkways of the desert nomad with the life of the city dweller. Religiously, it forms a frontier between Islam and Chris-tianity. For all of these reasons and many more, the territory now known as Jordan, has been the focus of complex cultural forces over centuries past. And for the traveler, the resulting monuments are marvelous to see. Though a relative secret to western visitors, friendly Jordan is a country of biblical battlefields, Roman ruins, Muslim mosques and Crusader castles - all crowned by the ancient trading city of Petra, carved from a mountain range

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Sunday, September 26, 2004 Damascus/Bosra/Jerash/Amman After crossing the border of Syria and

clearing the border crossing into Jordan we drive to Jerash, the Pompeii of the Middle East. Our Jordanian guide will meet us in Jerash. Once a flourish-ing 3rd century city, it was decimated by inva-

sions and earthquakes. Rediscovered in 1806, today it remains the best surviving example of a Roman provin-cial city and one of Jordans major at-tractions. Lunch at Lebanese House in Jerash. Drive from Jerash through the Jorda-nian Valley to Amman.

Intercontinental Amman (B/L)

Monday, September 27, 2004 Amman Tour of Amman, an an-cient city built like Rome, on seven hills. Visits include the Cita-del, site of the ruined Temple of Hercules, the Archaeological Museum of Jordan and the Roman Theater, which was built to seat more than 6,000 people. A special oriental luncheon in Am-mans old quarter at Reem Al Bawadi restaurant. A late afternoon visit to ACOR (American Center of Oriental Re-search) has been arranged with a special viewing of the restoration working being done on the scrolls res-cued from Petra. We will be escorted through the center by Pierre Biaka, Director.

A brief shopping excursion to the Jor-danian Center for Traditional Crafts (established by Queen Norr) and Sel-sal (excellent ceramics) can be ar-ranged for those wishing to visits.

Intercontinental Hotel (B/L) Tuesday, September 28, 2004 Amman/Madaba/Mount Nebo/Kerak/Petra Early departure to travel the Kings Highway, famed for its scenic beauty and used over the centuries by the Nabateans, the Edomites, and the Hellenistic and Roman worlds.

Just south of Amman, we arrive at Madaba, the fa-mous City of Mosaics, home to one of the worlds largest collections of mosaics, many of them still in situ, and

most at least 1,400 years old. Star among the mosaics is the magnificent map of ancient Palestine with a fully vivid depiction of the 6th century Holy Land. Nearby is the most re-vered site in Jordan: Mount Nebo, the me-morial of Moses and the presumed site of the prophets death and burial place. From the church, take in a breathtak-ing view across the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea to the rooftops of Jeru-salem and Bethlehem.

Traveling further south, we visit Kerak Castle, built on a craggy plateau

4,300 feet above sea level, it is a ma-jestic fortress which was built to pro-tect the approach to Jerusalem. The Crusaders managed to hold it for 50 years until 1189, when Salah Al Din defeated the foreigners and took the fortification into the fold of the Arab world. This elaborate crusader for-tress, once the stronghold of the infa-mous Reynaud de Chatillon, with its sub-terranean chambers is in an excellent state of preservation. After lunch we continue to Petra. Overnight at the Taybet Zaman Vil-lage an old Nabatean village built on a hillside and recently turned into a tourist village. This village recently won the British Airways Global Award for achievement in cultural heritage and environmental preservation.

Taybet Zaman (B/L/D)

Daily Itinerary

Wednesday, September 29, 2004 Petra Early breakfast at the hotel. A full day to explore Jordans chief national treasure, the soul-stirring Rose Red city of Petra.

We begin our tour of Jordans most illustrious archaeo-logical site on horseback, travel-ing through the nar-row gorge of 100-foot cliffs called the Siq. Petra is the legacy of the Na-bateans, who set-tled in southern Jor-dan more than 2,000 years ago. Petras most fa-mous monument,

the Treasury, appears dramatically at the end of the Siq. Various walks and climbs reveal literally hundreds of buildings including the el-Khazneh (the Treasury), el Deir (the Mon-astery), shrine of Aaron, a 3,000 seat Roman Theater, as well as the Triumphal Arch and Colon-naded Street. Lunch at the Basin Restaurant within the park.

Overnight Taybet Zaman (D/L/B)

Thursday, September 30, 2004 Petra/Amman Morning re-visit, without horse ride, to Lit-tle Petra. Return to Amman late after-noon. Tonight a farewell dinner as we bid these ancient cultures good-bye at Kan Zaman Restaurant.

Intercontinental Hotel (B/L/D) Friday, October 1, 2004 Amman Free day to explore Amman and do last minute shopping.

Intercontinental Hotel (B) Saturday, October 2, 2004 Amman/USA Early morning transfer to Queen Ayla Air-port for your return flight to the US.

(B/Meals in Flight)

Return to the US with a greater under-standing of the warm and friendly peo-ple of the re-gion and their rich heritage.

Daily Itinerary

4 nights Cham Palace HotelDamascus 1 night Palmyra Cham HotelPalmyra 2 nights Zamaria Merchant HouseAleppo 1 night Apamea Cham HotelHama 4 nights Intercontinental HotelAmman 2 nights Taybet Zaman VillagePetra

Services of an English Speaking Guide in both Syria and Jordan

Fully escorted from arrival in Damascus through departure in Amman

All land transportation as outlined in itiner-ary, by private van/coach

Meals as indicated in itinerary Bottled water on bus and at meals Entrance fees to sites listed in itinerary Airport transfers upon arrival and departure Luggage portage at airports and hotels for

two pieces of luggage carrying SWT tag Group Visa at Damascus airport Group Visa at border of Syria and Jordan Travel Documents and Luggage Tags

Beverages other than water Optional gratuity to guide in each country Visa fees in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon Photographs Passport procurement Landry and person items Airport departure tax in Jordan International Air Note: Pace is moderate - days are full. Itinerary is subject to change due to circumstances beyond our con-trol.

Cancellation & Refunds: All cancellations must be made in writing to Seven Wonders Travel. Penalties for cancellations received from 75 to 60 days prior to depar-ture are subject to a $750.00 fee. No refunds will be is-sued for cancellations received 59 days or less prior to de-parture. For cancellations received 59 days or less prior to departure and with a remaining balance due invoices will be sent to cover balance and individuals will be held re-sponsible for the amount still owed.

Trip Cancellation Insurance: Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance is available to cover the cost of both the land and individual air. Trip Cancellation and Insurance is offered by Seven Wonders Travel to each person regis-tering for this tour and is issued through TravelEx. It is required that each tour member purchase insurance or sign a waiver of insurance. No passenger without insurance or a signed waiver will be allowed to travel on this tour.

Air Transportation: There will be no group fare air itineraries for this group as the size of the group is not large enough to qualify for group rates. We will be happy to work with you and a local consolidator to assist you with your international ticketing.

Baggage: Two checked pieces of luggage (each weigh-ing 70#) plus a carry-on are free on most airlines. Trans-fers are provided for these pieces when carrying luggage tags provided by Seven Wonders Travel.

Pace: This program requires that participants be able to stand for extended periods of time, walk reasonable dis-tances on uneven ground, climb into small tombs, and climb on and off buses without difficulty.

Circumstances Beyond Our Control: Every effort will be made by Seven Wonders Travel and its agents and staffs to execute this itinerary as outlined. Seven Wonders Travel and its agents and staff cannot be held responsible for changes made necessary by circumstances beyond our control. In addition, we reserve the right to make any al-terations, additions, or omissions in the program when in our opinion they are necessary for the comfort and well being of the group.

Responsibility: Seven Wonders Travel and their agents act only in the capacity of agent for the passengers in all matters relating to transportation by airplane, motorcoach, taxi, cruise ship, or other means of transportation and as such agents hold themselves free of any responsibility for loss or damage of personal effects, for inconvenience caused by strikes, wars, Acts of God, or due to the fault or negligence of any company or person entrusted with any of the above services from any cause whatsoever. Hotels in Syria and Jordan may not have facilities for the handicapped as stated in the Americans with Disabil-ity Act.

I have read the above terms and conditions and by signing below acknowledge that I agree with them in full.

Signed 1st Passenger ____________________________________

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Accommodations

Included Features

Excluded Features

Tour Features & Registration

Terms & Conditions

Registration

Ancient Crossroads Jordan and Syria

September 17, 2004 October 2, 2004

16 days - $3,695 + International Air

Registration Form Submission of this form and a deposit of $1,500.00 per person constitutes acceptance of my registration. I understand that I am responsible for payment in full by July 17, 2004. 1st Person Last Name ______________________________________ First ____________________________________

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Tour Cost Double Occupancy

Land Only Package $3,695.00 Request Air Quote Single Occupancy

Land Only Package $ 600.00 Price Based Upon a 10 Passenger Minimum Trip Cancellation and Medical Insurance is highly recommended for this program. SWT has worked with Travelex Insurance for many years and will be

Deposit and Payments

Initial Deposit $1000.00 Final Invoice Payment Due July 26, 2004 Checks should be made payable and mailed to: Seven Wonders Travel 671 US Hwy 6Suite 1-A La Salle, IL 61301 Phone: 800.480.3395 pr 3385

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