This episode of Pilot Guides follows Estelle Bingham's exploration of the ancient city of Istanbul, starting at the famous Topkapi Palace, former home of sultans and their concubines. From there she visits the former seat of Christendom, the beautiful Aya Sophia church. She interrupts her sight-seeing for a day trip to Gallipoli, the site of an infamous World War I battlefield in which thousands of Allied soldiers died. She makes time to visit the...

Lonely Planet's Istanbul is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Shop in the colourful bazaars, visit the majestic Aya Sofya basilica, or take a ferry to the Black Sea; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Istanbul and begin your journey now! Inside Lonely Planet's Istanbul Travel Guide: Up-to-date information - all businesses were rechecked before...

Where Europe comes face to face with Asia, we'll explore the fascinating, multilayered city of Istanbul. Take a special guided tour away from tourist-trampled routes with European travel expert, TV host, and best-selling author, Rick Steves. We'll lose our way in the Grand Bazaar and munch our way through the famously fragrant Spice Market. We'll follow the fall of the ancient capital of Byzantium and the rise of Islam at the city's ancient wall,...

Darius Arya uses 3D scans to reveal the historical secrets of Cairo and Ancient Egypt, from the Great Pyramid of Giza to the first pyramid ever built. And explore a hidden Roman fortress and a well far below the Arabic citadel of Saladin.

With neighboring Syria in ruins and stricken by a civil war, Turkey keeps its borders closed in exchange for billions of euros from the European Union. Many Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans have managed to cross the porous borders and are now in Istanbul, the gateway to Europe. Will they stay there or is crossing to Europe too irresistible? Last year, thousands drowned during the sea crossing to Europe. After the agreement between Turkey and the EU, checkpoints...

The Colosseum is a monument to Roman imperial power and cruelty. Its graceful lines and harmonious proportions concealed a highly efficient design and advanced construction methods that made hundreds of arches out of 100,000 tons of stone. In its elliptical arena, tens of thousands of gladiators, slaves, prisoners and wild animals met their deaths. Ancient texts report lions and elephants emerging from beneath the floor, as if by magic, to ravage...

The Imperial War Museum tells the story of Britain at war, from World War One to the present, through a collection of 10 million items - from guns to planes to medals to cyanide pills - at five locations in England visited by over 2 million people every year. In this episode, we descend into Churchill's top-secret underground bunker to discover why he was an irreplaceable leader. We find out how a London housewife became a spy who withstood horrific...

"After her historian father makes a clandestine journey abroad, Jane and the dapper Mr. Redvers trace his footsteps while signs of danger loom back home in the United States. They're greeted at their destination by Aunt Millie and unsettling news: Professor Wunderly was on a mission to locate the lost heart of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent--a legendary relic from the Ottoman Empire said to possess potent mystical powers--then vanished completely,...

Qal’at al-Bahrain is a typical tell: an artificial mound created by many successive layers of human occupation. The strata of the roughly 1,000-by-2,000-foot tell testify to continuous human presence from about 2300 B.C. to the 16th century A.D. About 25% of the site has been excavated, revealing structures of different types: residential, public, commercial, religious and military. They testify to the importance of the site, a trading port, over...