Profanation of the work of the Ark!!!

I want to share with you an instructive story, that if there is any other possibility, then you don’t have to go anywhere with the pilgrimage center “ARK”.

In the fall of 2009, my friend and I stumbled upon the program "Turkey, ancient Byzantium" on the website of the Ark, and the timing of the trip, the program and the price were fine. We live in Samara. Long telephone conversations began about how and what documents we need for the trip. An employee of the center, Stanislav Sergeevich, assured us that the trip would definitely take place, don't worry! We issued vacations, sent money to Moscow, signed an agreement with the Ark, stating that we agree to all the conditions, and please note that if we refuse it in the last two weeks before the trip, then there will be fines ... We were sent program, I even began to collect information on our forum, who went on this pilgrimage ... ttp://kuraev.ru/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=63&topic=298996.0

and then the fun began!... Exactly two weeks before the trip (i.e.

when we can no longer pick up or change anything under the contract), my friend and I got a call and said that the dates of the trip are changing, but the whole program remains the same ... We send a fax to Moscow that we agree to reschedule the dates of the trip "Orthodox Byzantium", and they send us a program… I am quoting it in full, so that you can get acquainted with the fact that in the understanding of the pilgrimage center the Ark is a pilgrimage route, do not be lazy, read (moreover, earlier, until we signed the contract, another program was sent to us):

"Turkey tour" Istanbul - Ankara - Hattushash - Cappadocia - Konya - Pamukkale - Ephesus - Izmir - Pergamum - Troy1 day

(Sunday) MOSCOW-ISTANBUL

Evening flight from Moscow.

(Monday) ISTANBUL

Istanbul sightseeing tour: Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Yerebatan Underground Reservoir.

After moving to the Asian part of Istanbul, you drive to the capital of Turkey, Ankara.

(Tuesday) ANKARA - HATTUSHASH

After resting at the hotel and having breakfast, you will go to the huge Ataturk Museum - a place where everything related to the Republic of Turkey is collected: from the exclusive cars of its founder Ataturk, to huge panoramas recreating the events of the Turkish war for independence of the 20s of the last century. Then - the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, where for the first time in your life you will see objects made by people forty thousand years ago. Walk along the walls of the Ankara fortress and ... again on the road! You are visiting a unique area in the Bogazkoy region, where the capital of the Hittite civilization, the city of Hattushasha, was located. This is an insanely ancient place with indescribable energy – from here the whole civilization of Eurasia began. The city was recently found. In 1986, the excavations of Hattushash were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

And you will also visit the place of the famous Hittite worship, the Rock Sanctuary - Yazilikaya. This is one of the places of origin of monotheism in the world. After that you drive to Cappadocia. You arrive in Cappadocia not so late, so you will still have time to walk around the area.

(Wednesday) CAPPADOCIA

After breakfast, you will see the most beautiful view on Earth - a huge mountain plateau dotted with churches, monasteries and houses. carved into the rocks. You will visit the valleys with unique rock formations, the underground city of Derinkuyu (it has nine floors!), the Goreme monastery complex with its unique frescoes in dozens of churches carved right into the rocks, the Uchisar fortress. You will visit Avanos, the city of ceramics masters, where unique products will be created before your eyes.

(Thursday) KONYA - PAMUKKALE

Breakfast. Journey to Konya, after which - a walk through the religious complex of Mevlana.

Mevlana is an ancient eastern monastery, a haven for monks, poets and philosophers. Center of Sufi culture. It was founded by Mevlana Rumi himself - his role in the poetry of the East is as great as Pushkin's in Russian. Only Rumi is also the founder of the order of dervishes - dancing monks. You can digest the impressions of Mevlana while traveling to Pamukkale.

(Friday) EPHES

In the morning after breakfast you will see the huge ancient cemetery of Hierapolis. Huge crypts that have kept cool and dark for twenty centuries will amaze you with their size. And after them you will get to the travertines! Beautiful white mountains, through which hot mineral water flows, with a huge number of natural pools. Finally, Ephesus awaits you - one of the centers of early Christianity - and the House of the Virgin. You will be accommodated in a cozy hotel on the seafront in the city of Kusadasi.

After dinner, you can walk around the city and breathe in the smell of the Aegean Sea.

(Saturday) PERGAM

Breakfast. After a rest at the hotel, you will visit the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamon, from the name of which the word "parchment" comes from. And touch the walls of the ancient library, where for the first time (!) in the world a book appeared in its current form. From there you will get to the luxurious temple of Emperor Trajan, see the foot of the altar of Zeus and the magnificent mountain theater, the visual rows of which are located on a steep mountainside ... Today you will spend the night and dine in a cozy hotel on the seashore in Ayvalik.

(Sunday) TROY

In the morning breakfast and transfer to the legendary Troy. You will visit the same Troy, which was captured thanks to the cunning Odysseus. See the field where Achilles dragged the body of Hector behind his chariot. Cross the Dardanelles. And you will be in Istanbul. Hotel accommodation.

In the evening you will have the opportunity to relax and dine in the cozy hotel restaurant.

(Monday) ISTANBUL - MOSCOW

Early in the morning - transfer to the airport, departure to Moscow by morning flight.

We were especially touched by the program of the third day of our stay! Of course, the route is interesting, but not what we wanted to visit in Turkey, and for which we paid 37 thousand rubles !!!

Arriving in Moscow and having come to the office for documents on the eve of our departure, I asked where the visit to the Orthodox places of Istanbul had gone from the program, or your visit to Hagia Sophia (to which I was told that Hagia Sophia is generally a Muslim shrine and we do not plan it at all to visit, as we see ORTHODOX PILGRIMNS), nor a visit to the Blachernae temple, nor the World of Lycians ... and everything else. To which the worker of the center Raina, with a shifty look, began to assure me that this is what we wanted!

And what in general, we do not have the right to refuse, and we will pay a 50% penalty, because we refuse through no fault of the company! When I presented a contract for another program, she could not object to me, she only said, “I'm sorry, there was a discrepancy.”! “There is no one to work for us” ... and we should have felt sorry for her poor woman that she was working in the sweat of her brow !!! Represent!!! In short, you will not visit Shrines, nor an Orthodox group .... a vacation "down the drain." When asked how many churched people will be in the group, the answer is “well, 20 percent.” Which hotels - "we do not know." How many additional expenses - “we don’t know” .... We don't know for everything. And then, as a favor, the phrase of Stanislav Sergeevich sounded that they would return us $ 100 as a penalty. Thanks for that too!

In the end: of course we went, there was nowhere to go!

In Istanbul, we took an individual tour "Orthodox Istanbul" paying $ 150 per person (although in the Ark we were told that it would cost a maximum of $ 70). In a group of 42 pilgrims were only my friend and I. We were lucky that we got into a small bus, where there were only 15 people, two of whom also traveled through the Ark, and told our sad story of their relationship with this company!

Finally, I want to share the phrase of the Ark employee Raina…. I didn’t want to leave their office with a sad heart, and I asked: “Well, all right, we are all people, what happened has happened. Maybe it's really not your fault. Tell me, how often do you have such overlays? Answer: "no, not often ... well, once every two months" ....

No comments!

Draw your own conclusions!

After arriving home, it was nice to see on the website of the Ark that they nevertheless removed the compromising “Orthodox pilgrimage center” expressions of the third day of the stay of Orthodox tourists in Turkey “This is an insanely ancient place with indescribable energy – the whole civilization of Eurasia began from here. The city was recently found. In 1986, the excavations of Hattushash were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. And you will also visit the place of the famous Hittite worship, the Rock Sanctuary - Yazylykaya.

There is also a lot of useful information here: http://kuraev.ru/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=63&topic=114883.40

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