About Peter Sommer

Peter Sommer studied Ancient History & Archaeology at Birmingham University in England before completing a Masters on the archaeology of Central Asia. He fell in love with Turkey in 1994 while walking 2,000 miles from Troy to the battle of Issus, retracing the route of Alexander the Great. For this epic journey he received The Explorers Club of America Young Expeditioners’ award.

He has taught at Birmingham University and Bogazici University, in Istanbul, Turkey. Two years into a PhD. at University College London, on the archaeology of northwest Turkey, he was seduced into television to work on In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great (BBC/PBS).

Documentary filmmaking

Peter during his Alexander walk ‘94

An award winning producer/director, Peter has shot around the world for films like Millennium: A thousand years of history (BBC/CNN), and Commanding Heights: the Battle for the World Economy (PBS/BBC). As a development producer he has turned books like Guns, Germs and Steel, and 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, into TV documentaries.

Other credits include Britain’s Finest Castles, Britain’s Finest Ancient Monuments (Channel Five) and Weapons that Made Britain (Channel 4).

His most recent TV series, Tales from the Green Valley, 12 x 1/2 hrs about life on a farm in the year 1620, was shown on BBC2 in the UK in the autumn of 2005, to large audiences and wide critical acclaim.

Travel writing & documentary features

Peter also works as a freelance writer and photographer, and has written on a range of subjects, from travel to history, farming to film-making

Public speaking: talks and lectures
Peter enjoys giving talks to societies and groups large and small about Turkey, travel, and his various documentaries. If you’d like Peter to come and speak, do please get in touch.

Travel and Tour guide

Peter has led and organised numerous historical cruises and archaeological tours in Turkey and beyond and still regularly leads some of our Turkey tours each year. He is passionate about leading cultural tours and delivering the very finest escorted tours. He has worked with his Turkish travel parters, Almira Yachting, since 1996.

Best Guide Nomination

For the tours he leads in Turkey, Peter was nominated for the 2006 Wanderlust Magazine’s best guide award and received a wonderful official nomination award certificate as a result of all the glowing testimonies (Wanderlust’s words) that previous customers sent in.

Planning archaeological tours

If you’d like to know how Peter goes about creating our escorted tours in Turkey, Greece and Italy, you can read an article he’s written about it : How to design an archaeological tour