Our day began with a short flight from Antalya to Istanbul, where we’re spending our last two days. Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey with 15 million people. It was the capital of both the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, a time span lasting about 1500 years. It is a city with a rich, deep history overlayed with modern bustle. Our first stop from the airport was the Hagia Sophia, a large church rebuilt by the emperor Justinian in the sixth century. 900 years later the Turks conquered the city and turned the church into a mosque. In 1934 it […]
Author Archive: Brian Johnson
Mediterranean Port
We were thankful to have little time on the bus after so many long drives. Our first stop was the ancient city of Perga. Perga was one of the cities the apostle Paul passed through on his first missionary tour. Although only briefly mentioned (Acts 13:13, 14:25), it is an impressive place to see. From the gates to the baths to the streets, it is a model Greco-Roman city. The rest of our day was spent around Antalya, where our hotel is located. Antalya is a large city on the Mediterranean. The harbor dates back to Roman times, which the […]
Long Journeys
It was our last long driving day. Given that we didn’t get to our hotel until 8:30, this will be briefer than usual. We started briefly at the museum at Konya, which has three inscriptions that helped identify Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. We drove to ancient Pisidian Antioch, which was a sizable Roman colony when the apostle Paul visited it in Acts 13. After seeing the site, we stopped at the local museum, which has a stone with an inscription on it that mentions a Sergius Paulus, perhaps a relative of the man Paul interacted with on Cyprus. The rest […]
Tell Trek
Turkey is a big country. When traveling around Israel, things are fairly close together. Today was another example of long drives between few sites, which included some locations from the apostle Paul’s first missionary tour (see Acts 14). We left Adana, heading back through the Cilician gates, then hooking a left to the west to reach ancient Derbe. Excavation began at Derbe just last year. From our drive, it seems it was a remote town. To get there, we drove through a small village of a few hundred people. We got out to take a few pictures of the thatched […]
Roamin’ Road
We headed west to our major site of the day: Tarsus, the hometown of the apostle Paul. Paul describe his hometown as “no ordinary city” (Acts 21:39). It was a prominent city in the Roman Empire during the first century, with one of the main universities of the empire located there. Our first stop was north of town on an old Roman road that likely connected Tarsus with the Cilician gates, the pass through the Taurus Mountains. Paul likely walked that road or an older version of it. Heading into town, we saw some ruins. One was a well claiming […]
Hunting for Hoyuks
Our first stop of the day was near the Syrian border at the Iron Age site of Tell Ta’yinat (A tell is an ancient mound of city upon ruined city; “hoyuk” in Turkish). It was a little tricky finding it, but the collective GPS and Google Maps users on the bus were able to pinpoint its location and find the two-track road leading to it. While it may simply look like a lonely tell, it’s importance lies in a temple of a similar time period and style to the one King Solomon built. Although only the base is visible (covered […]
Tiles, Tunnels, and Turbines
Antioch was founded by Seleucus, one of Alexander the Great’s generals, naming it after his father Antiochus. It was a prominent city in the region. By Roman times, it was the third largest city in the empire (after Rome and Alexandria). However, Antioch is best known today for being the first place where believers were called Christians (Acts 11:26). We began our day (Sunday) by gathering in a side room of the hotel for some time of worship. We walked from our hotel a little ways down the street to the Hatay Archaeological Museum. They’re best known for their collection […]
Full of Hot Air
We woke up before 5:00 am for something special: a balloon ride over Cappadocia. We had tried the morning before, but the wind was too strong. I’ve never ridden in a hot air balloon, making this an extra unique experience. Any sleepiness from the early start was quickly quenched as we lifted off and drifted over the landscape we had explored the day before. How incredible! We drifted for an hour, covering about six miles over the alien landscape. We stopped back at our hotel for breakfast and checking out before beginning our long journey south. Much of the area […]
Cappadocia
Cappadocia is a volcanic region. Volcanic eruptions from long ago covered the landscape with layers of ash (solidified into a material called tuff) and hardened lava. This eroded away over time, leaving interesting formations behind. A long time ago people came to live in the region, carving into the softer tuff layer. Most of the artificial caves were created in the last 1000ish years with people living in them, even today. We stopped at several places in the region this morning for a few encounters, including the Gorem Open-Air Museum where there are ancient homes and churches and the Fairy […]
Our Caravan Heads South
While Ankara is a large, modern city, its history goes back thousands of years. The ancient name of the city was Ancyra. We began our day visiting a stretch of ancient Roman road, covered by glass. A short stroll away was a temple to Augustus. The Romans extended a a temple to the regional goddess Cybele to also worship the emperor. A short drive away, we visited the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations. Unfortunately, most of it is being remodeled (due to be opened next week – arg!), so there wasn’t as much to see. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the sculptures, coins, […]