Tour Start Dates:

* August 2 - August 12, 2025

*Optional extension tour before the Nomadic Adventure: July 29-August 1, 2025

GUARANTEED DEPARTURE: Minimum 4 people (these tours are guaranteed to depart with a minimum of 4 people.)

On the footsteps of ancient Anatolian Turkmens and Lycians

Textiles of Asia Minor & Taurus Mountains is an interactive tour of 12 days in which our guests will develop a deep understanding of Turkish culture, Turkish textiles, cuisine, and local history.

The history of Anatolian/Turkish textiles will be pursued in Istanbul with visits to the museums and some shops around the Grand Bazaar. Also, our guests will feel and experience the cosmopolitan infrastructure of the city while visiting religious and cultural centers such as the Jewish community center and the historical Kadikoy market. The diversity of cultures, races, ethnicities, and their impact on social life is strikingly harmonious altogether. We should not forget to mention the delicious examples of Turkish cuisine which will create a festive occasion at each meal.

The nomad way! This will be our real perception of the world for one week in the company of real nomads. We will stay in a black nomad tent, woven on a rug-weaving loom by carpet weavers, and we will migrate from one pasture to another. During this period, we will process wool from the fleece to the carpet, comb, spin, dye the wool, weave, understand, and implement the basics of textile weaving. We will walk through forests and plains to arrive at one of the biggest nomadic encampment areas of Southwest Anatolia. We will also learn how to make Anatolian Turkmen bread and cheese together.

THE ITINERARY

(Extension before the nomadic tour ) Wednesday, July 29, Day 1 – Arrival in Istanbul. Private Transfer to your hotel in the old town. Orientation and welcome dinner. D.

(Extension before the nomadic tour ) Thursday, July 31, Day 2 – We will begin our journey by visiting the Topkapi Museum, where Ottoman sultans ruled over a territory spread over three continents during four centuries. Sultans' garments and the treasury collections are two of the most interesting collections among similar collections in the world. After lunch, we will visit one of the most famous historical sites in the world, the Hagia Sophia Church, which is one of the earliest patriarchal church buildings in the world, with plenty of mysteries and legends. Then we will visit the Basilica cistern, one of the largest Roman cisterns, illuminated so that visitors can have a small walk inside. Overnight in old Istanbul. B.L.D.

(Extension before the nomadic tour ) Thursday, July 31, Day 2 – We will begin our journey by visiting the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum, one of the most famous museums in the world, with its unique and beautiful Turkish textiles and Antique Turkish Carpets collection. We will see carpets from the Seljuk era, early and classical period Ottoman workshops, and village carpets; we will observe them with a technical view and try to understand the sociocultural atmosphere in which these carpets were produced. After a short visit to the Spice Market, we will visit the Jewish center of Istanbul, observe the Jewish Heritage of the ancient capital of an immense empire, see the Galata tower, talk about Genovese and Levantine heritage of the city with a small excursion of the neighborhood. We will take the ferry to Kadıköy market for dinner, we will talk about the Bosphorus and its diverse culture during the ferry journey, and before dinner, a small excursion in the marketplace of two hundred years will be very enjoyable. Overnight in old Istanbul. B.L.D.

(Extension before the nomadic tour ) Friday, August 1, Day 3- We will drive one hour to explore the Sadberk Hanim Museum, which is one of the great Anatolian textile and ethnographic art museums of Turkey will be waiting for us. The museum contains over 20,000 artifacts, including great Ottoman textile weaving wonders, costumes, Iznik ceramics, and ethnographic art objects. Then, we will visit the Josephine Powell kilim collection in a 19th-century old mansion in the same neighborhood, where there are more than 30 kilims collected by the American Photographer Josephine Powell, who dedicated her life to documenting the vanishing life of Turkish nomads from the 1960s to the mid-2000s. Overnight in old Istanbul. B. L. DINNER on OWN.

Josephine Powell Kilim Collection

Kadikoy Traditional Market

Saturday, August 2, Day 1 – Morning flight to Dalaman, to the southwest of the country (on their own for the ones who didn't attend the optional extension tour). Our group leader Deniz will welcome you at Dalaman Airport, and we will drive for 3-3.5 hours to arrive at the Barbarossa Hotel, Kaş district/Antalya city, where our guests will find the opportunity to relax and rest a little bit before going to the mountains. Turquoise color Mediterranean Sea and an appealing beach will be waiting for you for one day.

Sunday, August 3, Day 2 – Our guests will enjoy the chilly atmosphere of the Mediterranean Sea in the hotel till lunchtime. Deniz will take the group to lunch.  After lunch, we will drive one hour to arrive at our encampment in the center of the Western Taurus Mountains, at 1.000 meters / 3000 feet of altitude. We will meet with our team and settle in under our big black nomad tent woven on handlooms by Turkish carpet weavers. Each guest will be given a chuval – a nomadic sack, hand-woven on a rug-weaving loom to keep his/her belongings in during the walking part of the tour. We will talk about the technical infrastructure of the tent and how to use it as a living room during the day and as a bedroom during the night. The dinner will be held in the company of a real nomad family living with their couple of hundred goats and sheep, and we will have the chance to see their authentic lifestyle. Overnight at the Camp. B.L.D.

Tuesday, August 5, Day 4 –Pasture day. We will wake up at 09:00, have breakfast, walk from the forest road, and talk about the harmony of the human being with the nature surrounding him. Lunch in our tent will be waiting for us. After lunch, we will see a demonstration on how to comb and spin wool. This will be the very beginning of the process of textile weaving. Moreover, we will begin to dye yarn for our small textile production, which will take place in the following days. Your leader, Deniz, will talk about the technique of wool processing and dyeing. We will also have the chance to make our Anatolian Turkmen bread together. We will make and taste nomadic bread in our meals and make it again when we need it. Dinner and overnight in the black tent. B.L.D.

Wednesday, August 6, Day 5 –Pasture day. We will wake up at 09:00, have breakfast, walk from the forest road to visit a nomad family living nearby, chat with them about their lifestyle, witness their wise and generous perception of life, and talk about the good old days. Lunch in our tent. After lunch, we will process the milk to make a nomadic cheese. We will eat this cheese during the following days.  Dinner and overnight in the black tent. B.L.D.

Thursday, August 7, Day 6 – Half-day migration. We will wake up at 07:00, have our coffee and breakfast made of walnut and molasses, upload animals with our personal sacks, and walk along old nomadic migration trails for 2.5 hours. We arrive in a beautiful spot at 10:30. We will visit a nearby village, drink tea in the village teashop, and after lunch there, we will be transferred to the night camp at 1700 meters through beautiful and fertile apple gardens. This afternoon will be the time for wool dyeing. We will dye wool together, and talk about chemistry in nature. We will move around and benefit from extremely beautiful nature, collect some herbs, and use them in our tea, cheese, meal, or dye process. Dinner and overnight in the black tent. B.L.D.

Red Yarns Dyed with Madder Root

Nomad Bread Making

Wool Combing

The nomadic adventure will begin in minutes, the black tent will be packed, and the hand-crafted bags that we use as luggage will be loaded to horses. We will migrate like real nomads and experience the wisdom of the nomadic lifestyle and the beauty of nature during our journey. Come and join us.

Saturday, August 9, Day 8– Pasture day. After morning coffee and a late breakfast, we will set up our loom and begin to weave our textiles, the slit tapestry kilim, the sumac, the jijim and the pile carpet techniques will be woven and enjoyed by our guests. Lunch, dinner, and overnight in the black tent. B.L.D.

Sunday, August 10, Day 9 – Pasture day. After morning coffee and a late breakfast, we will get the chance to see Anatolian Turkmen nomads coming from the Fethiye region in their black tents. We will hike a bit to discover a snow well, which Anatolian nomad Turkmens use as a fridge to preserve their cheese produced in the pasture. There, we will make our “frozen drink” from natural snow and molasses in the old way. Return to the camp, and work on the small loom to weave together some different kinds of flat weavings with the yarns we dyed. Lunch, dinner, and overnight in the black tent. B.L.D.

Monday, August 11, Day 10 – After breakfast, we will say goodbye to the black tent and its crew and will drive to Barbarossa Hotel, Kaş, for a second relaxation and beach day. 

Tuesday, August 12, Day 11 – After breakfast, we will drive to Dalaman for the flight to Istanbul or the country of Origin. (The flight from Dalaman to Istanbul is not included in the tour for the ones who don't attend the extension Istanbul tour prior to the nomadic tour.) 

Anatolian Turkmens from Fethiye

Anatolian Turkmens from Fethiye Region

Tour details:

Tour type: Cultural & Textile adventure

Activity rating: Moderate, walking on countryside pathways and trails and visiting important museums with easy walks in old parts of towns.

Tour length:

• 4 days for the optional extension tour.
• 11 days for the nomadic tour.

IMPORTANT  :

All the images, diagrams, and text presented on this site are copyright © of The Black Tent Project inc. and are protected under Turkish, International, and United States copyright laws and Berne Convention provisions. They cannot be reproduced, copied, used, altered, or printed in any way, single or combined with any other images, by use of a computer or other electronic means, without specific permission and payment of a fee or arrangement thereof. By entering this website you are agreeing to be bound by the terms and conditions of this agreement. All electronic entries are logged and kept under documents.

Write Us