We stopped and traveled along a lot of places that Paul visited on his missions to Asia. There were a lot of places that Paul was meaning to go somewhere else, and the Spirit told him that he couldn't and that he needed to go here. I hope that I can be in tune enough to the Spirit, so that I can follow his ways.
Monday, September 17th
So we started in Istanbul, we went to the Blue Mosque, The Hippodrome, the Basilica Cistern (An underground water Cistern that looks like a palace), and the Topkapi Palace. They were all Beautiful.
The Hippodrome only has 3 columns/monuments left. It used to be a big track that had seating for 100,000 people, and was used for chariot and horse races, as well as social and civil events. It was built by Constantine, and has since been turned into a park.
The Column in the front of this pic is taken from a temple in Egypt, the next one that you cant really see is 3 serpents that have been twined together, and then the last one they don't know where it came from, or the significance of it, but they do think that it was covered in bronze plates that were taken when one of the conquers (I think it was the Romans, but I could be wrong) used it to make money.
Next we went to the Blue Mosque. It is really but, but not the biggest in istanbul even. It was completed within 8 years, and has over 20,000 blue tiles decorating the inside. It has one main dome, and then 20 smaller partial domes that cascade down from the center.
The goal of the Sultan that built this (Ahmet I) in 1603, at the Age of 14, was to build something to remember him by, that surpassed the grandeur of the Hagia Sophia, that is located just across the street. One thing that is significant of this Mosque is that it has 6 minarets, which was the same amount of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, where Islam began. The Authorities didn't like this, and told him to take one down. Instead of changing his however, he sent money and builders to Mecca to add a 7th Minaret to the Grand Mosque. The tiles in the Interior (Over 20,000) were made in Iznik, (Ancient Nicaea), and because he wanted it done so fast, they exhausted the material there, and so it is the last of the tiles to come from that location.
Next we went to Topkapi Palace. This was built in 1459 by the Sultan Mehmet II and was the primary residence for Sultans for the next 400 years. It was huge, and included 4 courtyards. The set up was such that there was an outer courtyard that was open to the public, it has lots of buildings, including the Hagia Irene where one of he 7 Ecumenical Councils took place. The 2nd courtyard had the Royal Kitchens, the Tower of Justice, a Throne Room, and the connection to the Harem, where the women and children of the palace lived.
Below the Tower of Justice was the Imperial Council room, where the Council would meet to make decisions to pass to the Sultan. Sometimes the Sultan would come and listen behind a window that the council couldn't see through, so they would never know if he was there, thus they would always have to be careful of what they said, and make sure that they were always working.
Other rooms included the Treasury - home of an 86 carrot diamond. The holy Relics room has many relics, some that I am almost sure are not correct, but it was a good thought - including private things of Muhammad (a hair from his beard, his cloak, and footprint among other things), and some Christian collections.
The fourth courtyard was the gardens and included a view of the Bosporus strait. This picture includes Europe (closest) and Asia (farthest). It was a great view, although a little bit hazy.
Next we went to the Basilica Cistern before lunch. We didn't spend tons of time here, but we did walk through it. There is about 336 Columns in this room, that are decorated like a palace, even though it was usually full of water. It was found by some explorers in the 1400's I believe, after it had been closed up in the 5th century.
In the back, underneath 2 of the columns are bug Medusa Heads. They are tipped (one upside down, and the other on its side), there are lots of theories, including the fact the the columns are recycled from other places, and so they needed it to make them fit. However, others believe that it was because it was built during the Byzantine Period, where the country was turning Christian, so they were trying to show that God would turn the people's gods (and goddesses) on their heads in a way to show how much power He had.
After lunch we went to the Grand Bazaar. This picture (Of my friend Jaquel) doesn't show how busy it really was at times. There were some places, especially the places with every day stuff were packed to the max! Istanbul has a population of about 13 million registered people, with about a estimated total of 16 million. That is a lot of people, a lot of the places that we went to that were very packed. I didn't buy anything, but it was fun to go look:)
Next we went on a boat ride up the Bosporus Straight. Again, this has Europe on the right, and Asia on the left. It was really fun, and noce to realax for the 2 hours.
Tuesday, Sept 18th
We had a long bus drive this day, our first stop was Gallipoli.
This is the place where the ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corp) landed during WWI on April 25th, 1915 at 4:30 am. This started a very bloody war where about 250,000 troops died on both sides before the ANZAC withdrew. It was a very sobering place, but also very peaceful. Remember the troops that have died, and continue to give their lives to keep our country free.
This is just a picture of the cemetery. beautiful overlooking the coast.
Next we stopped at Troy. It was fun. We don't really know if the Trojan war was real, but we do know that this was a city called Troy. There were VII levels of Trojan cities, and if the Trojan war did happen it would have been between the VI and VII levels. We do know that Alexander the Great, from Greece came here and sacrificed before his major battles.
After Troy, we stayed at a resort on the Aegean Sea, which was beautiful. After swimming for a little while, we watched the sunset on the dock, it was gorgeous!
While we were here Skylor found a Sea Slug, and then Brad found a Sea Snail. It was an interesting experience when we put then together! pretty nasty. Brother Jackson wanted a picture of Skylor eating the snail (While it was drooling all over), while Rachel, who was holding the slug got inked on, with purple all over! I don't have the pictures currently, but I will get them.
Wednesday, Sept 19th
This was probably my favorite day. We started really early, and drove to Assos. I loved this spot, we got there at like 8:30 am, and we were the only ones there. Walking up to the city, we walked through a little village that reminded me a little bit about walking through the Peru or Indian Reservation villages, only all the sites were in stone instead of mud-brick.
The ancient city of Assos is on the top of a hill, and used to be a harbor city. We had a view of the Sea, land, a beautiful sky, and we were the only ones there. We also had a view (Across the sea, you could just see the outlines) of Greece. It was Gorgeous! This was our view from where we were sitting having our devotional. It was overcast, and the sun was just peaking through.
This is the main thing that we looked at, although there were other ruins on site. This is the Temple of Artimos. There are lots of them, and this is the one in Assos.
Switching from Assos to the Pergamon acropolis, which is were we went next. This was another favorite of the greeks, and had a Trajan temple, pictured above. It was cool, but my favorite was the Theater.
The Greeks built this one, and they build them like Tuachan, where they want to see the scenery as well as the show. Later the Romans added a removable stage since they wanted to focus more on what was happening on the stage. But this picture shows the view from the top.
Thursday, Sept 20
Wednesday night we drove to Ephesus, so on Thursday we went around Ephesus and Miletus. We started at St. John's Basilica, and it was really pretty. This was a big church where some people believe that John lived, they are just not sure which John it was, although many believe that it was John the Theologist.
The picture above is a picture of what was another Temple of Artemus. This one was the biggest, and was one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world. The people rioted, and in the process of the next years, it was almost all destroyed. Many of the pieces were recycled and used in 3 other buildings. This was all that is left.
After those quick stops, we went around the corner to the Third city of Ephesus. You find that there are lots of cities that either built on top of each other, or located really close to each other. We spent a long time at this stop, but it was also one of the busiest stops as well. This was the Library, but there is a whole city worth of buildings that have been restored by Archeologists from America. This city was pretty cool, mostly for its ruins. There were lots of bath houses, a theater, library, temple, small theater, government buildings, and more.
This picture is cool, it is godess Nike. I don't remember much about her, I think she was over Victory. The athletic store Nike was named after her, and you can't see it very well, but this is how she appears in all of the statues of her, and she is in kind of the swoosh position.
Our next stop was Miletus, and as you can tell, its main thing was a theater. These benches were really cool, I like the lion's leg at the end. Miletus was also a Harbor city, but there is one river that has filled in most of these harbor cities with silt, pushing the sea 5K plus away, so it isn't very big anymore. This was the last place that Paul visited before heading back to Jerusalem after his last mission.
Friday, Sept 21st
Our first stop this day was Sardis. The main structure here was a Gym, that had a really cool Jewish Synagogue attached to it. The gym was huge, and had a bath area in the back that had a big pool. It was pretty cool as well.
Next was Thyatira, we only spent a little time here, and it was raining, so I didn't take any pictures, and we really didn't look around any. We did talk about Lydia, who was one of the first to accept the Gospel in Macedonia, and was a shopkeeper, selling purple stuff from the dye of a specific sea Snail. She had church in her house for a while, and was from Thyatira.
Our last stop this night was Bursa, and the grand mosque there. We got there right as they were going to pray, so we did wonder around the shops for a little bit, and ate some Chewy Ice Cream:) It was a weird texture. Anyway, I really liked this Mosque, it was simpilar, but it was peaceful. I liked it. I tried to talk to Sara on her birthday, but we didn't connect, mostly my fault.
Saturday, Sept 22
This was our last day in Turkey, we started in Nicaea, It was cool, we didn't spend a ton of time here, but it was cool, it was on a beautiful Freshwater lake, and the pier that you can see poking out is the wall to Constantine's palace where they tried to define the nature of Christ, and emerged with the Nicaea Creed.
Our last stop was Hagia Sophia, back in Istanbul. It was the biggest church for almost 1000 years, I think now it is like number 3 or 4, but it is really big. It was beautiful inside, but also really crowded. I really liked it. It was peaceful, and a great way to finish off our day.
After going to the Hagia Sophia, we ate dinner (Our only fish... that was whole) and then went to the Airport. Our plane didn't leave until 12:55, and got in about 3 am. Then we had a 45 minute drive back to Jerusalem. I was so tired, I slept most of the bus ride, and all of the plane ride.
Over all it was a great week, but I am grateful to be back to where I know that I won't get sick off the food (There were a lot of people that got sick, I'm grateful it wasn't me), to know that there will be toilet paper in the bathrooms, and that it doesn't cost to get in to use them, and to stop living out of my suitcase:)
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