A new Great Courses Series will be available starting the weekend of November 28-29, on Channel 970.
It will feature 24 lectures “The Great Tours: Greece and Turkey, from Athens to Istanbul.” Two 30-minute lectures will be shown on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons, starting at 3 pm.
The great cities of Athens and Istanbul serve as bookends for this journey around the Aegean. Athens was the great intellectual center of ancient Greece, the center of a mighty military league, and the birthplace of democratic government.
Istanbul, at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, has long been the place where cultures have met, in conflict and in harmony.
The tour will also cover some of the Aegean islands as well as the interior of the land once known as Anatolia. Each destination is part of the wonderful mosaic that makes the Aegean a must-see destination for any history lover.
The course will be led by Professor John R. Hale, Director of Liberal Studies, University of Louisville, an archaeologist with more than 30 years of fieldwork and research experience in Greece, Turkey, and numerous other countries. His undergraduate work was done at Yale, his Ph.D. is from the University of Cambridge.