Day 9 Revisit Part 1 - Laodicea

Day Nine Revisit Part 1 - Monday June 14th - Laodicea

On the bus at 7:30. Today is the hottest and longest of the trip. We drove for a couple of hours and got some sleep/rest/catch-up on notes time. Stopped at a rest stop and then back on. Pastor Wayne teaching: 

Laodecia was known for the hot and cold waters in the area. When John writes in Revelation that they are lukewarm, it is with this in mind.

Antikus the third, one of Alexendar the Great's generals was given the area around (will have to get later), and he moved several hundred Jewish families into the Lyodician region. Many of them came to faith in Jesus. Later they brought in Synchronisim, blending in three parts of other religions that don't make sense in Christianity:

1. Jewish legalism of Hebrews
2. Sophistry - arguing not for truth but to win the argument
3. Oriental mysticism

Colossians Chapter 3 refutes these arguments by pointing back to Jesus:

• v 9-10: Christ is all sufficient and at peace
• v 11-17: Jesus (and those in Him) are exalted over legalism- we are better than that
• v 18-19: Jesus is exalted over mysticism
• v 20-21: Jesus is exalted over sophistry / aecestism (stoics)

Synchronized religions are like fancy cars with no tires. The rubber doesn't meet the road. 

Don't do things and sprinkle a little Jesus on top.

We visited the ruins at Laodicea. This is a large site, and they are actively restoring even more of the site. There are a lot of excavations, a lot of work in process. There is a large theater. One item of special note is one of the pieces of marble has a Jewish menorah with a Christian cross filling the middle candle position.

Prev: Day 8 Part 3 <=> Next: Day 9 Part 2

Dale's Pics for Day 9 - Laodicea: here

Day 8 Revisit Part 3 - Bergama Asklepieion

Day Eight Revisit Part 3 - Sunday June 13th - Bergama Asklepieion

After visiting the site of Pergamon, we got back in the bus and went a short distance to the Bergama Asklepieion. This was an area that was dedicated to Asclepius, the god of healing. There were various interesting places and ruins at this site, but for me, I think "ruin fatigue" is setting in!

Back to the bus, stopped at a jewelry place, and then to the Kaya Prestige Hotel in Izmir for dinner. Tomorrow is an early day with wake-up call at 6:00, breakfast at 6:30, and on the road at 7:30.

Prev: Day 8 Part 2 <=> Next: Day 9 Part 1
Dale's Pics for Day 8 - Bergama Asklepieion: here 

Approx Miles Traveled Day 8: Bus 220

Travels Day 8: Canakkale to Bergama (Pergamon) to Asklepieion to Izmir Kaya Prestige

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Day 8 Revisit Part 2 - Bergama (Pergamon)

Pergamon Theater - steepest in the
world - with city of Bergama
in background

Day Eight Revisit Part 2 - Sunday June 13th - Bergama (Pergamon)

After lunch and the Carpet Association, we loaded up in the bus and made our way to the Bergama Acropolis, site of the ancient Greek city of Pergamon. This site had a great altar, which is now in a museum in Berlin, Germany. Pergamon was also the site of the second best library in the ancient Greek civilization. When the Ptolemies stopped exporting papyrus, partly because of competitors and partly because of shortages, the Pergamenes invented a new substance to use in codices, called pergaminus or pergamena (parchment) after the city.

Prev: Day 8 Part 1 <=> Next: Day 8 Part 3
Dale's Pics for Day 8 - Pergamon: here 

Day 8 Revisit Part 1 - Bergama Carpet Association

Day Eight Revisit Part 1 - Sunday June 13th - Bergama Carpet Association

On the bus and leaving at 8:00. Today we drove for a couple of hours (getting some naps), had a rest break, and then had a worship service on the bus, with a short communion service. Pastor Wayne talked about King Solomon and how in 1 Kings 3:4-9 he humbled himself before The Lord, and then The Lord rewarded him in v.10-15. We must remember where Solomon started. We have three enemies, the flesh, Satan, and the world. We are not special (v. 3). But God (v. 4) has reached to us to build a bridge, a connection.

After the worship service, and still on the bus, Pastor Wayne taught about Pergamon, which is mentioned in Revelations. Rev 1:19 is thought by some scholars to be the key to Revelation.

• Ch 1 describes the resurrected Jesus
• Ch 2-3 describes things which are
• Ch 4+ describes things to come

The preterist View of 2-3 thinks these chapters are future. Pastor Wayne does not agree, thinks it is bad history. However, they do possibly reveal great aspects of creation. 

Rev 2:7 talks about the tree of life - He who overcomes is Jesus. In Revelation, mentions of Satan imply Emperor worship.

Pergamon is in verses 2:12-17. Cross-reference: Balaam is mentioned in 2 Peter 2:15-16 and Jude 11. Notes:

• Sword of the Spirit == Word of God
• White stone -- how they voted (with a white or a black stone). The white stone implies acquittal. In Revelation it means that people that have accepted Christ are acquitted by His act.

Extracting Silk Thread

Natural Dyes

We had lunch at a Carpet Association. This was a very interesting place, they showed how they made the native dyes from natural ingredients, and they also showed how they extracted the silk thread from silkworms, which were grown in the area. Some people bought some carpets.






Prev: Day 7 Part 3 <=> Next: Day 8 Part 2
Dale's Pics for Day 8 - Bergama Carpet Shop: here 

Day 7 Revisit Part 3 - Canakkale Area

Day Seven Revisit Part 3 - Saturday June 12 - Canakkale

After visiting Troy, we got back on the bus and headed for Hotel Akol in Canakkale. On the way, we took a short side trip to a mountain that overlooked the Dardanelles. On this mountain were several WW-1 vintage canon bunkers built into the hillside. These were used by the Turks during WW-1 to repel the British and French attempt to take control of the Dardanelles in the Battle of Gallipoli.

While we were at this military site, Pastor Wayne was 'ambushed' by a couple of the younger people with Silly String - although rumor has it that Susan was their weapons supplier.

After cleaning up the Silly String, we made it to Hotel Akol. Many of our party walked along the sea shore, admiring the 'Wooden Horse' that was used in the movie Troy (with Brad Pitt) that was donated to the city, and purchasing souvenirs such as wooden horses from the shops along the shore.

Prev: Day 7 Part 2 <=> Next: Day 8 Part 1
Dale's Pics for Day 7 - Canakkale: here
Approx Miles Traveled Day 7: Bus 286, Boat (Dardanelles Ferry) 3.7

Travels Day 7: Istanbul to Dardanelles and Ferry across

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Day 7 Dardanelles to Troy to Hotel Akol in Canakkale 

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Day 7 Revisit Part 2 - Troy

Day Seven Revisit Part 2 - Saturday June 12 - Troy

After lunch and the ferry across the Dardanelles, we traveled for another hour or so, stopping at the ancient city of Troy, legendary from the stories of Homer of the Illiad and the Oddessey - the idea of a 10 year battle between the Greeks and the Persians, over a woman named Helen, ending when the Greeks left a wooden horse and the Persians took it into their city. In the 1930's a German by the name of Schliemann was looking for Troy and found this Tel in the right place. He hired some Turkish workers and started excavating, and he found something. Schliemann was not the most careful archeologist, and what he discovered they later found to be the ruins of Troy II from 2500 BC. The city of Troy that Homer wrote about would have been Troy VI around 500 BC. In all, they have found nine distinct Troys, with some subdivisions within each one.



We got another couple of group pictures at the Odeon at Troy.


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Dale's Pics for Day 7 - Troy: here

FootSteps of Paul (FSoP) group at Troy

Day 7 Revisit Part 1 - Dardanelles Ferry

Day Seven Revisit Part 1 - Saturday June 12 - Dardanelles Ferry


Today was travel for the first part, then seeing the city of Troy. We got on the bus in Istanbul and traveled for a couple of hours to a rest stop, then back on the bus and another couple of hours till lunch. Lunch was right before we took a ferry across the Dardenelles.

Day 7 teaching from Pastor Wayne was on the bus before Troy, giving us some history background on the people in this area that we are traveling through, covering the period from 2000 BC (time of Abraham) to 1500 BC (time of Moses). The Old Babylonian empire was in decline. The Egytian empire was going strong. These times are called "Heroic" times because there is little hard evidence, but a lot of legends, which are generally based on some truth.

During this time, the Hittite people arose in present-day Turkey, and for a while they controlled the area at Jerusalem. We don't know a lot about them because of lack of records. There was also the Minoan culture on Crete, which apparently had a very strong navy because they did not build walls around their city. We don't know a whole lot about them because they wrote in a language we call Linear Script B, and we have not found a 'Rosetta stone' to allow us to translate it. This time was also a rise of a people groups called Phoenician, which were active in the seas. The Phoenicians gave us the Western alphabet.

In the time around 1500 BC, several of these people groups were on the move. Not sure what the exact reason was, but there was some climate change in what is modern-day Russia, which forced some nomads further south. Some of these were Sea Peoples - Achians, Titker, Philistines who settled in Gaza.They began to attack and raid. We know a little bit about them because they attacked Egypt under Ramses and he repelled them and put together a historical record of his victory.

Also at this time was the Hapiru - the Hebrews. We know this from the Bible. Wayne suspects that Phutmos the 3rd ~1400 BC was probably the pharaoh that God hit with the plagues. We know there was a power vacuum shortly after this time, which was one of the reasons that the Hebrews were able to establish themselves in the Holy Land.

An interesting note: old legends and books almost never make up geography. Sometimes reading fiction reveals the background in tremendous detail - acceptable practices, cultural mores, geography, etc. The story revolves around these items, but if they were too far afield the stories would not catch on and be repeated. This is actually how Troy was discovered, the German Schliemann studied the story of the Illiad closely and mapped out where it would be, then discovered a tel in the right area, and started digging.

Prev: Day 6 Part 5 <=> Next: Day 7 Part 2
Dale'sPics for Day 7 - Dardanelles Ferry: here

Day 6 Revisit Part 5 - Bosphorus Cruise

Day Six Revisit Part 5 - Friday June 11 - Bosphorus Cruise

Next we got back on the bus and headed to the waterfront where some of us took an hour-long Bosphorus Cruise from the Golden Horn north along the European side of Istanbul into the narrows of the Bosphorus Straits, and back south along the Asian side of Istanbul. A nice relaxing time.

The Bosphorus is a strait that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. It connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara - which is connected by the Dardanelles to the Aegean Sea, and thereby to the Mediterranean Sea. The shores of the Bosphorus strait are heavily populated as the city of Istanbul, with a metropolitan area in excess of 11 million) straddles it.

After the cruise, we went back to the Feronya Hotel for dinner and packing.

Prev: Day 6 Part 4 <=> Next: Day 7 Part 1
Dale's Pics for Day 6 - Bosphorus Cruise: here 

Approx Miles Traveled Day 6: Bus 8.5, Boat (Bosphorus Cruise) 19.3

Travels Day 6 Istanbul Tour

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Day 6 Bosphorus Cruise

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Day 6 Revisit Part 4 - Topkapi Palace

Day Six Revisit Part 4 - Friday June 11 - Topkapi Palace

Topkapi Palace

After lunch, we walked about 5 minutes to the Topkapi Palace. This is the palace of the Ottoman Sultans, and was very opulent. It was transformed into a museum in 1924. We went through two archways, then a security checkpoint, and got into some massive garden grounds. On the grounds, we sat under some shade while Pastor Wayne taught about Logos - the Word. Scriptural references: Prov 30:5, 2 Cor 4:1-2. Wayne made the point that Constantine had 50 copies of the Bible made in 357 AD and this was the equivalent in today's dollars of the budget for establishing a local library such as Frisco Public Library. The next emperor after Constantine then established an edict that other items besides the Bible would be copied and stored, becoming a scriptorium of all knowledge. This was when books started becoming reference items instead of just reading items, and some brilliant guy had the idea to cut them into pages and bind them into books. (Pastor Wayne's best book in 2009: The Archimedes Codex.)

Grafted Fig Tree

One of the very interesting items that we saw was a Sycamore(?) tree that had a Fig Tree growing out of it, about 6 feet above ground! The story is that a bird dropped a fig into a crevice in the tree, and it grafted itself in and started growing. Pastor Wayne related how this mirrors us: as gentiles we have been grafted in to the promises of the Jews through the saving grace of Jesus Christ. (Rom 11:17-24)

After that, we had some free time to wander the Topkapi Palace. Rooms with Sultans's robes, crown jewels (including an 86 carat clear diamond), rooms with the Sultan's couches, etc.

Grand Bazaar Entrance

From there, we got on the bus and drove to the Grand Bazaar. This is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world. 1200 individual shops. Over a quarter of a million (> 250,000) visitors daily. A veritable madhouse of humanity. We had about 30 minutes, and a few people bought some souvenirs.

Prev: Day 6 Part 3 <=> Next: Day 6 Part 5
Dale's Pics for Day 6 - Topkapi Palace: here 

Day 6 Revisit Part 3 - Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sopia

Day Six Revisit Part 3 - Friday June 11 - Hagia Sopia

Next stop, the Hagia Sophia. This is directly across from the Blue Mosque. This was originally a Christian (Orthodox) church, built in 537. It is know for its massive dome which is said to have "changed the history of architecture." In 1453 Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and the building was converted to a mosque. In 1935 it was converted into a museum by the Republic of Turkey.

At Entrance of Hagia Sopia

Pastor Wayne did some teaching on the grounds of the Hagia Sophia. In  approximately 500 AD Emperor Justinian the Great made three important edicts/decisions:

1. He codified the various laws into a law code, which is still the basis for many laws today (The Code of Justinian, or Corpus Juris Civilis.)
2. He struggled with the "nature of humans" - what is humanity? This formed the basis for the duality of humans: born with a sin nature but able to accept Christ and have the Holy Spirit indwell us.
3. What is the nature of Jesus? This formed the basis of the duality of Jesus: fully God and fully human.

Angel at Corner of Dome

We toured Hagia Sophia. An interesting item is that some of the Christian artifacts had been plastered over when it was turned into a mosque, such as the angels at the corners of the main dome. This is because the Muslims think of these as icons and that is forbidden in their religion. This had the interesting effect of preserving many of these items. Since being converted to a museum, some of them have been uncovered.


We had some free time to wander on our own, and then met up to walk to lunch. Lunch was at a cafe (the Can Restaurant) a few blocks from Hagia Sophia.

Prev: Day 6 Part 2 <=> Next: Day 6 Part 4
Dale's Pics for Day 6 - Hagia Sopia: here 

Day 6 Revisit Part 2 - Blue Mosque

Blue Mosque w/ 6 Minarets

Day Six Revisit Part 2 - Friday June 11 - Blue Mosque

Next stop, the Blue Mosque. This is only a short distance from the Hippodrome. The formal name is Sultan Ahmed Mosque, but it is popularly known as the Blue Mosque because of the Blue Tiles adorning the walls of its interior. This is one of the most impressive monuments in the world. We learned some of the history and the the various functions of different parts of the mosque.

Prev: Day 6 Part 1 <=> Next: Day 6 Part 3

Dome in Blue Mosque

Dale's Pics for Day 6 - Blue Mosque: here 

Day 6 Revisit Part 1 - Hippodrome

Day Six Revisit Part 1 - Friday June 11 - Istanbul

Today we spent hitting the major sites in Istanbul. The majority are within walking distance of each other.

German Fountain

First stop, the Hippodrome - Sultanahmet Meydanı. This is a location outside of the Blue Mosque where the ancient hippodrome (horse square) was located, built in approximately 330 AD. This is now a park area. There are several interesting monuments here, including the German Fountain, the Obelisk of Theodosius, the Serpent Column, and the Walled Obelisk.

Prev: Day 5 <=> Next: Day 6 Part 2
Dale's Pics for Day 6 - Hippodrome: here 

Obelisk of Theodosius

Serpent Column

Walled Obelisk