The Palace of the King

Topkapi Palace in Istanbul was the palace of the Ottoman sultans for 400 years. Sure, the complex wasn’t static during those centuries, as each sultan added his own touch. Exploring what happened in that palace, I realized it wasn’t so different from the Biblical world. A palace is filled with luxury. The royal family is waited on hand and foot. The sultan always had a harem. Beautiful, virgin women were taken away at his command to live in the harem for his pleasure. Imagine Esther being pulled into that life. She likely had no choice in the matter, but how […]

Turkey 2014 Summary

Monday was a very long day of traveling home. Getting up at 2:15 am and getting to bed about 7:00 pm (with a 7 hour time zone adjustment) resulted in about a 24 hour day. Now I’m back in the swing of things with a quick summary of the trip. In total we drove almost 1800 miles. Below is how it all stack on top of each other. For the interactive original, go here. Also, the original kmz files of all driving, the balloon ride, and the boat ride can be downloaded here. Bless God for the chance to see […]

From Sultans to Cisterns

It was our last day of touring, covering more of the historic district of Istanbul. A short drive led us to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. It is most commonly known as the Blue Mosque because of the blue-colored tiles inside. It is still an active mosque today. We walked to Topkapi Palace, which was the main residence of the Ottoman sultans for about 400 years. It is now a museum, allowing us to explore. From the treasury to the harem to other buildings, it’s an interesting place to see. I was looking forward to revisiting our next stop: the Istanbul […]

Continental Divide

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 […]

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 […]