Jerash, huge Roman site ● Famous mosaics of Madaba ● Two full days at ancient 'Rose Red City' of Petra ● Crusader Castles ● Relaxing at Dead Sea resort

Fabled Damascus, one of world’s oldest cities ● Water wheels of Hama ● The fluted columns of Apamea ● Ancient Palmyra, home of Queen Zenoubia ● The lively souqs of Aleppo ● Group dinner at Syrian family home featuring local specialities

UNESCO World Heritage Casbah of Algiers ● Roman cities of Timgad & Djemila in mountain settings ● Dramatic Constantine "City of Bridges" spanning spectacular gorges ● Ancient Phoenician & Roman coastal sites at Tipaza & Cherchell ● Traditional M'Zab Valley oasis towns & Sahara edge ● Mysterious pre-Roman Numidian royal tombs

Legendary Carthage ● Mosaics of Bardo Museum ● Roman sites Sufetula, Dougga, Bulla Regia ● Djerba island excursion ● El Djem Museum and Amphitheatre

Hattusas UNESCO site and Hittite Empire capital ● haunting medieval ruins of Ani with thousand church spires ● cliff-hanging Sumela Monastery in Pontic Mountains ● Lake Van boat excursion to Akdamar Island's Armenian church ● King Antiochus's audacious mountaintop monument at Nemrut Dag ● Göbeklitepe, the world's oldest temple complex predating Stonehenge by 6,000 years

The Grand Egyptian Museum's Tutankhamun immersive exhibition with digital projections into the boy king's golden world ● Giza's Great Pyramid built from two million stone blocks by 100,000 labourers ● Abu Simbel's colossal temple where Ramesses II's four 20-metre statues guard Nubia's threshold ● the Valley of the Kings where pharaohs carved elaborate underground palaces into pyramid-shaped cliffs ● Karnak Temple's hypostyle hall with 134 massive columns supporting three-millennia-old stone roofs ● camel trek across desert sands to St. Simeon's 6th-century monastery rising dramatically against limestone escarpments

Cappadocia's fairy chimneys and cave churches with underground city of Derinkuyu ● Rose Valley and Ihlara Gorge walks through volcanic formations ● Lycian Way coastal sections from Kayaköy ghost village to Butterfly Valley ● UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Xanthos and Letoon ● Patara's ancient Lycian capital and 18-kilometre beach ● Chimera's eternal flames and Phaselis's three harbours

The Great Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza ● the spectacular Grand Egyptian Museum with Tutankhamun's treasures ● pre-dawn excursion to Abu Simbel's colossal rock-cut temples ● three-night Nile cruise from Aswan to Luxor sailing past Kom Ombo and Edfu ● Luxor's magnificent Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings explored with private guides ● camel trek to St. Simeon Monastery and felucca sail on the Nile

Glitzy Riyadh ● Oasis towns ● Beautiful Shammar Mountain region ● Desert landscapes ● fascinating cultural immersion ● Historic forts & Mosques ● spectacular Wadi Al-Disah ● Nabatean ruins at Madain Saleh ● Historic Jeddah