Turkey Tour

This is the second post by Matt, the guest blogger here.

One of the incredible advantages to living overseas are the opportunities we get for very cool vacations. Destinations that are normally too far or too expensive for Americans are now much more accessible, so we get to do some things we would normally never be able to afford. One such opportunity came up in January. We were going to a meeting in Turkey and went four days early to take a “Seven Churches” tour in Turkey.

The name refers to the seven churches mentioned in the opening chapters of the book of Revelation. These churches, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, were all rather important towns in the first century and sights of early congregations of Christians. They are also all in modern day Turkey, a country simply full of ancient historical sights, so we jumped on the chance to see what is left of each of these cities.

After all the excitement of coming down from the mountains (see previous story) and a rather long delay for our flight out of our country, we spent a very short night in Istanbul (Turkish Airlines gave us a great hotel room for free, even though it was a weather delay; good for them) we jumped off the plane in Antalya and got directly on a tour bus. We were tired, but really enjoyed seeing the history set in these cities. Since it was winter, we often had the sights almost entirely to ourselves, though it was often a bit cold and rainy, and were free to pretty much wander over two thousand year old ruins at our pleasure. This is something you simply can’t do in America, we don’t have many two thousand year old ruins, and even two hundred year old ruins are roped off and kept far from anyone who would want to touch them.

I will tell the story of our vacation in some pictures, since seeing is so much better than just hearing about it. Sorry some of the pictures look squished, the orientation got a bit weird while uploading them. You get the idea though. It does make us look rather thin, we have been eating better than that. 

The main street of Laodicea. The pillars have been put back up, but these are the early paving stones. 

Matt at one of the main Temples in Laodicea. It was really cold and drizzling that day, but it's our first stop so we had to hang out a while.

Matt and Cindy among ruins in Laodicea. The first of many piles of old rocks. 

The hot spring at Pammukale. It is a mineral spring that falls over the mountains and makes the cliffs all white. This is where the "hot or cold" lecture makes more sense. 

This is why Cindy loves turkey. Yes, it's a plate of cheese and olives for breakfast, pretty much every day. She even found curds, one of her favorites. 

All that's left of the old city of Philadelphia (huge Eagles fans here). Interesting to see the columns of a Byzantine church with a mosque in the background. This was the case in almost all the towns we stopped in.

The first thing you see in Sardis is the public latrine. Yep, that's seats made out of stone in the wall with a trench under them.

This is the floor of the synagogue in Sardis. It is one of the oldest in the world, though not functioning. 

They even had marble left on the wall that had inscriptions of which of the prominent citizens paid for them. 

This is the old Torah seat at the back of the synagogue where the scrolls were kept.

This is the main table, apparently dating from well in the BC period. The building itself was Byzantine, this table is much older. 

Us in front of the baths. Yep, that's a bath behind us, with the gymnasium grounds in front. Romans took their baths very seriously.

Pergamum. This is what is left of the Zeus temple, the "throne of Satan". 

Far and away the most impressive theatre we saw. It overlooks a cliff with the new town way down below. Not as big as the one in Ephesus, but almost all original. 

This is the theatre entrance.

Cindy leaving the theatre.

The underground tunnels in Pergamum.

Top of the city, the Domitian (I think) temple.

Matt with Domitian. I am sure he would be horrified to have a Christian leaning against him like this (he wasn't such a fan you know) but such is life. 

This is the underground mall in Smyrna. Seriously, their agora had a basement with the columns and arches still functioning. It was huge. 

The fountains in their mall are still working. 2,000 years later, you can still drink out of their fountains.  There is still some of the decorations on the walls even.

The shopping seems to have dropped off some though. Odd. 

This is the above ground part. 

Apparently Smyrna (now Izmir) is famed for their meatballs. Who knew? 

In Thyatira, another place with a Byzantine church and remains of a pagan temple in the center of town the only thing left to see. The ground is higher than it used to be, either that or they were really really short Byzantines. 

Nike in Ephesus. The left side of the picture, with her robe sort of swooshing out, is supposed to be where the Nike Swoosh comes from. 

Matt in Ephesus on the downtown street. 

Ephesus is the most impressive and rebuilt city of that period in Asia, lots left of it to see.

We are in front of Celsus' library, easily the most impressive building in town.

Greek statues in all their glory. Oh, wait, that's us, well, close enough.

It's hard to see, but it's actual 2nd century graffiti. Someone carved a menorah in the steps of the library. 

Cindy made a friend at the theatre. 

This is the theatre at Ephesus (yep, the "great is Artemis of the Ephesians for hours and hours" one). It is rather impressive, and you can hear the stage easily from any of the seats. Seriously, a Korean guy sang Ave Maria while we were there, you could hear him perfectly from anywhere I walked. 

Just outside Ephesus, this is supposed to be the tomb of John. Yes, that John, of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and the Gospel. 

An early baptismal at John's church.

This is all that is left of the Artemis temple the Ephesians were so riled up about. It used to be one of the seven wonders of the world, now it's a column. From the size of the column, I am sure it was pretty impressive at one time. Ironic that Cindy (whose first and middle name are both from Artemis') is there.

Cindy with Artemis' pose where her idol stood. We saw the actual idol in the museum, but we couldn't take a picture. You get the idea anyway.

So that is our Turkey vacation in pictures. I know Cindy doesn't ever put up this many, and I am sure not everyone is going to bother looking at all of them, but at least you get to see them if you want.