Burgers and getting burnt

We had a free day yesterday so 30 of us headed over to Tel Aviv, about an hour away from Jerusalem and on the Coast. The place is pretty famous for its beaches. Also it's the site of ancient Joppa, where Peter received the revelation to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles. Three of us headed over to the old city, but since it was Sunday most of the churches and probably cool things to see were closed. However, there was an archeological excavation that had everything from super old bricks, to an Egyptian gateway, as well as stuff from other time periods. We headed back to the rest of the group to play in the water, build some sandcastles that were pretty cool, and chill on the beach. It was just about the right amount of time we spent on the beach. Afterward, we headed over to this place called Moses Burger, which had super good burgers but was kind of pricy. We then drove back to Jerusalem. Some people got completely fried and have spent all day sleeping and trying not to move. Luckily I laid on some SPF 70 a couple times and only a few random spots of my body were burned like my calf, scalp, and one part of my neck. We have midterms Thursday so I've spent like all day today with my head in books.

Bulentisms

Ok, these quotes are only funny if you imagine them with a turkish accent (imagine middle easternish), and if you know that our tour guilds name was Bulent Aslan (yes, Aslan means Lion in Turkish), and he uses "interesting" vocabulary quite a bit. Also he has a pony tail.

“Let’s make the touchdown!”(When crossing the strett)
-”Remember the alamo!” (When deciding where home base was.)
-”Let’s get permission from the shepherd and then we can pet the sheeps and lambs.” (Before troy, before petting sheeps)
-"Patience is the largest visdom.” “Don’t you mean ‘Patience is a virtue?’” “Visdom, virtue, they both start with ‘v’.” (At pergamumn, at the theatre)
-"Fill in the blanks.” (In crowds when he wanted us to scoot in)
-"Admire the old statue and the old lady”
- “I have stayed awake every night, all night, thinking about this question: my arms or my legs.” (On the buss driving to the airport)
-“There are some people on this bus who want to cut my legs!” (LAst couple days)
- “Are we on the way to the airport yet? No.” (Earlier in the day, the last day, when asked the answer to the question)
- “ We don’t want the fifth grader in his pink sweater to take the picture.”
- “We are about to do a very dangerous thing, cross the road.”
-”Make...
        ...prayers
        ...picnics
        …
-”O.K. Flolks lets kep on waLking”
-tea-ter=theatre
-buff-fet=buffet (All the time)
-”Tonight is another open buffet!”
-”Say hello to the pretty local lady.”
“And dat right der is the hospital where I was born. Tird floor. I do not remember it, but my mother does.” (First day driving on JFK avenue)
“Look at Fatih in his pink shirt, he is such a fag.” (Fatih is the tour guild for the other bus).
“Fatih is a fifth grader.”
“I use to beat up other kids when I was little.”
“You are from Fatih’s class. You have come over as a spy to cut off my ponytail and take it captive.” (TO Jennifer at Hagia SOfia)
Archeologs=Archeologists (Any time we were at an archeological site)
And for dessert, we will have craps...creps...crepes. (Announcing our dinner the last day)

“down in the valley is where they did their farming and cattleing”

“Over there is a poster of Aslan.  Now you know two famous Aslans.  That one was a politician, I am a tour guide.”

“bad boys bad boys what ya going do what you going do when they come for you”

“Stop asking me how long it will take to get there.  Do you see this traffic!!! (there was no traffic).
“Hey Jude.  Na na four more nas.” (Karaoke the last day.)

“And to the left you can see the spice man. hmmm. Spice Girls... Hot.” (In Bursa walking to hotel from Grand Mosque, Saint Sofia)

“This is going to be our alamo.” (All the time alamo= home base)

“See that sign of the Penguin? That is where they grow penguins.  We make them into Kebabs.” (In the buss the 2nd to last day)

“I would like to buy a hamburger.” (Last day, recording)

“Now we’re going to pass the mules.”
“Get out of here, go back with mules.”

“And on your left will be my dentist....Dentistanbul is what it’s called.... It’s like Dentist. And Istanbul.” (Driving to the airport the last day)
“You guys are just like my father... you want me to cut my hair.” (Waiting at Miletus)

watch it turns pink, now blue, nowwwwww green again! wow!
“look under that tree! That’s where the first Turk was born” (While someone was going bathroom on the right side of the bus)

“This is my brother” (Showing us a picture of a turkey bird)

“Aslan Pet Shop, that’s my uncle’s shop. He’s selling lions.” (Top of street at Bazzaar in Bursa)

“Make a small and sincere group!” (Everytime he wanted us to clump together)
“On the meantime. . . .”
“Testing. . . . testing. . . one two three. . . eins, zwei, drei, poli sci!!” (Testing the mike)
“Raise your hand if you can see my yellow jacket. . . . no one has their headsets on. . my jacket is not yellow.”
“This is where the bus will drop us off so you can get on your boat. . . called Titanic.”
“This is a torture!!”  (referring to the pretty girl rock song)
“You see how they are directing the cars to a certain place on the ferry, they have to make both sides equal or else we would become a submarine, and we do not want that.”
“I tried to warn him that a big wave was coming and he was younger than me and got away and I was the one that got wet!”

Old stuff is great, but Bedouins are Better

The day after turkey was a recovery day and we mostly just sat around (I did my blog). But the next day was sweet. We had a field trip into the Negev Desert. This is a true desert that many people think about when they think of the Middle East. Camels and sand! First, we went to visit help center for Bedouin women. The Bedouin can’t travel around anymore and are very poor, and women are usually the poorest. At this center they teach women to take wool (they use sheep wool but traditionally they used goat or camel) and make it into yarn, dye it, and make them into useful and pretty items. The place is run by a woman and somehow the guy in charge of our center is involved there as well. After that we visited on of the “unrecognized” Bedouin villages in Southern Israel. These are unrecognized by the Israeli government as places where people can settle and so there are villages of several thousand people (Bedouins) who don’t have water or electricity. If they build anything substantial the Israeli government will tear them down. In order to build cities, the Israeli government wants to have certain specifications for the village and requirements I guess the people just won’t conform too. I don’t know any of the specifics more than that. One reason we visited this village was the school that LDS philanthropies is paying for there. We got to go in, and it was a very small classroom with some plastic chairs and tables where women who are wearing the full body covering are learning Hebrew to help them out. That was neat to see.

Also, we went and visited two archeological sites, Tel Sheva and Tel Arad. While the Beersheba of Abraham was in today’s modern Beersheba, this “tel sheva” was the tel Sheba of the Solomon and what-not’s day.

Anyway, about the archeological sites…

There was a lot of cool things at these sites. At Beersheba/ Tel Sheva there was ruins of a city from the time between King Solomon and the Divided Monarchy. There was a well that dates to the Iron Age. There is like a three-gated gate where if one falls they have to go through 2 more. Lots of houses, as well as a large underground water storage unit that we were able to go down in and walk around- very large! Also, there are the remains of a “broad room temple” there. Also there are remains of a large horned alter that have been found there. I’ll talk more about the alter and the temple found there in a minute.

In Tel Arad, there are two sites. One is lower down and is a Canaanite city that dates to 3 or 4 millennia (early bronze age) BCE. There are the remains of a palace, residential neighborhoods, a well, walls, and a temple complex. It’s a double temple complex, with one part to do washings of some type, as well as another room where there is a stone that stands up strait. A stone that stood up strait represented diety. Remember, this is a Canaanite city. The other part is further up on the hill that contains an Israelite fortress from the 9^th to 6^th century BCE. There is also a large Hellenistic tower in the middle of it, The Israelite fortress still had quite a bit of wall, as well as… another temple. This one is more interesting and led to the realization that Tel Sheva also had a temple. At Tel Arad there is a “broad room” Israelite temple. This means that the temple looked a lot like Solomon’s temple, with three rooms, an alter of un-hewn stone, a holy place and holy of holies. In these temples the Holy place is very long side to side, and the Holy of Holies juts out of the back of the building in a little box. Archeologists take these two sites as evidence that there was temples and temple worship outside of the regular temple in Jerusalem, and that there they worshipped Jehovah. Now, I believe in Deuteronomy it says that you’re not allowed to have a temple outside of the one at Jerusalem, but some think that part was added later, because there are several temples outside Jerusalem in use during the time of Solomon. However, it’s clear that by the end at least (they were destroyed or covered up during the time of King Hezekiah) they weren’t worshipping in a correct manner because the alter at Tel Sheva is made from Hewn stone (prohibited in bible) as well as in the temple at Tel Arad, there are two stones standing strait up in the Holy of Holies, meaning there was two deities being worshipped there. Make of it as you want. There are some interesting implications for LDS folks though. One is that Mormons have gotten crap for building lots of temples, the objection being that there was only one temple in ancient times. Tel Arad and Sheva tell us that temples were built in probably many places, and that restriction may have been added later. Also, in the Book of Mormon, when Lehi leaves Jerusalem, he builds an alter and offers sacrifice. This wouldn’t have been allowed, unless of course that prohibition against building additional alters didn’t come to later. (The books of Moses originate at about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 600 BCE.) Some interesting stuff!

The rest of this week has mostly been studying and going to class. (There is a lot of it!) On Friday a small group of us visited a Jewish Synagogue for Shabbat (the start of Sabbath). It was a reformed synagogue so probably the biggest difference to an outsider is the men and women aren’t separated, and things like they use cell phones on the Sabbath. They do a lot of singing, in fact the whole thing was singing! At one point you turn around and look at the doors to welcome in the Sabbath. Also, I want to add that at the end we sung “forever young” by John Denver in Hebrew. I guess it had some significance. There was some guys playing guitar and bongos that don’t usually come either our professor said. Our professor is an orthodox Jew (but will visit reformed with us) and so he walked home afterward with his children (driving is work as well.) 

Some Jokes…

I hear we’re going to have a race with the Bedouins. Yeah, we betta-win!

Did you like that joke? Wait I’ve got an even betta-one….

Horned alter replication at Tel Sheva (the real one is in a mesuem.)

Alter made out of un-hewn stones at Tel Arad. And an unfortunant sacrificial event...

In the Holy of Holies at Tel Arad. See the two stones to my left and right? They represent dieties.

How do Bedouins hide? Using Camel-flage! (Camouflage)

Lady making some weavings.

Day 7: The End!

The last day was great! However, it did start out a little bumpy when the hotel water went off of 6:10 in the morning, right when everyone was showing. It came back on like 15 minutes later, but was a huge inconvenience. I’m glad to be able to drink the water here in the Jerusalem center, because there you could only shower with it, not drink it. Anyway, we walked from our hotel up to the Grand Mosque in Bursa. (Bursa was the capital of turkey a long time ago as well.) Our tour guild talked a little about Islam there as well. All of the ladies in our group had to put on head scarf the headdress to cover your hair, to go in.

In Turkey visitors are allowed inside the mosques there. If fact in most places in the world they are. But here in Jerusalem they’re not. Several years ago, not too long ago, Yassar Arafat and others who were funding the mosques here in Jerusalem decided they were going to punish the world by not allowing anyone inside their mosques unless they could prove they were Muslim. The whole thing is very counterproductive. Example: the tour guild in Turkey could say Islam was a religion of equality and peace where they love everyone and I could believe him since we were sitting in his mosque and treated kindly as a guest. But in Jerusalem it’s harder to warm up to Islam when you can’t enter their mosques, learn about their religion, and see one of their beautiful places of worship. I’ll just have to wait until another time before I can go into the Dome of the Rock or other mosques here. Oh cool fact: on ancient temple mount they had tunnels and stuff to access the temple mount easier, and they’ve turned those into a mosque, so it’s an underground mosque on the temple mount, although we can’t currently go there.

ANYWAY, after that we were going to try and have an early lunch and get to Istanbul early to do more things but there was a scheduling conflict with the restaurant. I think our change of plans was heaven sent (our tour guild agreed) though, because we got to visit Iznik instead, the ancient city of Nicaea where the Nicene Creed was signed! There is an ancient church there that commemorated the signing of the document from the 6^th century. The church used to be just ruins until just a few years ago they put a tile roof on it so it was more attractive to visitors. The real place it was debated and signed is probably underwater know. It was pretty sweet to learn about the Nicene Creed at the place it was signed. I’d been hearing about that creed ever since I was a teenager.

So here is the deal about the Nicene Creed. Constantine, upon becoming emperor, saw that divisions in Christianity could wreck havoc on his kingdom, so he called the council to settle some things. At this time the churches in local areas were run by bishops, and often times each bishop would have a different opinion on things. At that time there was a group started by a guy named Arius that basically claimed that Christ wasn’t divine, that he was lesser like some kind of angel. The rest of the Bishops at the time could be divided into 2 categories: a Trinitarian group that believed God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost were three manifestations of the same being, and another group that believed in a triad of Gods, that God the Father, Christ, and the Holy Ghost were three separate personages. (A lot like Mormons.) Well, these two groups got together and found some common ground in believing that Christ was divine, and wrote a creed that would exclude the Arians. As our teacher pointed out, this document would preserve a belief in the divinity of Christ for many centuries, something that may not have survived without Constantine’s reforms. We can look at the glass as half full.  It was later on when an emperor would decide it was a crime to believe in a three-part Godhead, and only Trinitarians remained.

Except from the Creed:

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty

Maker of all that is seen and unseen

And one Lord, Jesus Chirst,

The Son of God, begotten from the father,

Begotten not made, one with the Father, (excluding the Arian doctrine that he was made, not begotten)

Through whom all things came into being

Who because of us men and because of our salvation came down and became incarnate.

And the power of the Holy spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary…

Then we drove and ate lunch super fast, got on a ferry, and went to see the “Hagia Sofia” church. This church was build in 360 and is huge! Later, it was converted into a mosque. Because of this, much of the original artwork was preserved under the paint they painted over it. It was the largest church of its time, and I believe the 4^th largest church still! It was really neat, if for no other reason it was super old but still standing. You can fit the statue of liberty inside the main dome! There were some really old frescos that were neat to check out.

We also had some time to check out a marketplace, and had our farewell dinner- lots of seafood, since we were only a hundred meters from the sea. We then drove to the airport. We gave our tour guild some sheets of paper where we had written nice things about him. He seemed kind of embarrassed. We really liked our tour guild and the last few days he said some pretty hilarious things I think I’ll include. At one point some girls asked him “Would you rather cut off your arms and your legs?” while playing the “would you rather” game. Obviously he’d never played the game and started accusing students of wanting to “cut his legs” with a slight Turkish accent. It was funny. One time he showed us a picture of a turkey on an I-phone and said “this is my brother.” It was pretty funny. I’ll include some more.

Anyway, we got on the plane after undergoing some questioning at security, and our plane left at 11:40. We sat with some people from Israel and a tour guild who asked us a lot of questions. He asked my friend Justin “So tell me a little about your church.” Well, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints signed a non-proselyting agreement in order to build the Jerusalem center so we’re not allowed to answer those questions! Justin explained it to him but the guy thought it was pretty weird, even though he was Israeli. He kept pressuring Justin to say something, finally Justin changed the subject and asked him “So where do you live?” and the guy answered as a joke “the government won’t let me tell you,” but after that the conversation went well.

We got back to the center at about 3 in the morning (it was the only flight that could fit us all!)

Iznik, Niceae

Hagia Sofia

More Hagia Sofia

Day 6: Hot Springs, Earthquakes, a Church at a Bar

Today was a neat day. We went to the ancient city of Hierapolis. There are huge white pools caused by calcium deposits in the hot springs. So you have this huge hill covered in something that looks like white cotton candy. There was aslo this super-hot pools that had a resort-thing build around it. The city itself has hardly been excavated. There are several acres of rocks sticking out of the ground. It’s wet there, and it reminded me a little of Scotland or some wet country. A theatre was excavated that we also sat in and read from Revelations. IN revelations 3 John writes to the saints of Laodicea, which is within sight of where we were sitting in the theatre. Also, the city of Colossae was in the distance. The Lord tells the saints of Laodicea “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (NIV) This comparison makes sense when you find out that Hierapolis is famous for its hot springs, Colossae for its cold water, and Laodicea for neither. The saints were probably not living the gospel like they could have, so they were good for nothing, neither hot nor cold, and they needed to “be earnest and repent.” The area was also famous for healing due to the waters there. We drove a lot, and our teacher pointed out 2 or 3 cities also of the 7 churches found in revelation. We even stopped very briefly at one.
The church policy for the middle east (except for Israel) is to have sacrament meeting on Friday. So, Friday night we asked for a free room in the hotel. The room where we had it had a bar and I sat at it. Two firsts: church on Friday and at a bar. I was glad to see the two elders from our group who brought their white shirts and blessed and passes the sacrament, and it was a sorely needed respite from all the rushing of the trip. It was crazy to think we were nearly the only members of the church in that city- and probably made the better part of members in the country at the time. It was a reminder that there are countries out there where the church hasn’t gone yet.
Oh, also, the night before this we experienced an earth quake! I thought there was someone under my bed shaking it so I was freeked out but then I saw the table moving and realized in was just an earthquake. It was very mild, but a reminder of the natural disasters which sometime strike this land. At the theatre at Hierapolis we sang “how firm a foundation” which went along with the earthquake as well as the teachings in Revelations!

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,

Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!

What more can He say than to you He hath said

Who unto the Savior for refuge have fled?

In every condition, -- in sickness, in health,

In poverty's vale, or abounding in wealth,

At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea, --

The Lord, the Almighty, they strength e'er shall be.

Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismayed,

For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;

I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,

Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand!

Unexcavated field at Hierapolis. There are acres of this!

Cotton Candy Castle (that's really what this place is called). Look carefully at the white pools in the forground: they're cool!

Someone's in hot water!

In the distance to the left,colossae and to the right, Laodicea, and below, brother Judd's head in Hierapolis. 

Springs arn't the only thing that's hot in Hieropolis! (Couldn't help it).

Thyateira, another church in Revelations.

Day 5: Let the scriptures come alive.

   Ok maybe I'm getting to creative with the title of these blogs. But bear with me. Ephesus is the best restored Roman city in Turkey, and maybe in the world. And we got to visit it! As I mentioned in my last blog, I was a little tired of ruins by the time we got there, but there was still lots of stuff to see and it was fun. There was a bathhouse, an ancient bathroom where they had a pool full of frogs originally so politicians and businessmen could make deals while sitting on the pot. There were statues of men, a giant ancient library, fountains, sarcophaguses, graveyards, markets, and more. There was a huge temple to Artemis there is Paul’s day, as well as a giant theatre where Paul’s companions were drug into it and were saved by the town clerk in Acts 19. Paul spent about three years in Ephesus, and was probably where John lived after his exile (according to tradition he brought Mary there after his exile to Patmos). There is evidence that the early Christian church divided up responsibility among its leaders. Peter went to Rome and presided there, John presided over Asia, (meaning Asia minor- the area of Turkey) and James in Jerusalem. Also, we sang some hymns sitting down in the theater, as well as on the theatre stage. There was an Asian group and I think German who clapped for us. Also there was a camel there but we couldn’t take pictures without paying for it.

   Before we sang, there was a lady from Highland, Utah there who saw our BYU shirts and talked to us. She said we stuck out because we were all smiling. The same thing was said by a merchant in the old city, and I think it’s neat that we stick out all the way here.

   We also visited Miletus, which I really enjoyed. It’s actually pretty much just a large theatre that’s there now, and an old temple out back. But, there are some neat teachings that are associated with the place. In Acts 20, Paul has the elders from Ephesus come down to Miletus for a priesthood meeting. There he recounts his service to them, predicts future persecution, and warns them of apostasy among the church leaders. "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” Basically leaders in the church would lead the people astray in Ephesus. In 1 John 1:9 we can see an accurate fulfillment of this prophecy when a church leader wouldn’t even let members of his congregation talk to the apostles. Another teaching from Miletus is a saying of Jesus “it is better to give than to receive,” which is not found in the Gospels, only in Acts.

   At one place in the theatre there is an inscription that says “These seats are reserved for the Jew and the God-fearers” It could also be translated at “who are the God fearers.” If the first is correct it’s probably referring to Christians in the 2^nd century. It’s kind of a mystery because they are pretty good seats in the theatre, so it’s kind of weird to find seats for Jews/Christians in the theatre. Maybe they had really good relations there.

   At night we went to a pretty sweet hotel that was near ancient Hierapolis. In this little town there are several hot springs that bubble out this brown, hot water. Our hotel had its own hot springs, inside and out. It was pretty fun to get in the muddy hot springs, then in the pool, then go inside to the pool there, then to the hot spring inside the pool. They also had a Turkish bath and like a massage parlor but we weren’t allowed in there! It was fun and I got some good sleep.

Nike, the Goddess of Victory.

A Roman Forum and our guild talking in Ephesus.

Hey! (Roman Bathroom- no joke!)

Spudying in the Ephesus library.

Here reads "This space is reserved for the Jews and the God-fearers." Look at the writing on the steps!

Grievous wolves entering in amoung you and taking grievous pictures.

So, in Turkey they give stray animals shots, tag them, and let them loose. I guess the prophet Muhammed cut his cloak off so not to wake some kittens who were sleeping on it. We found this little of puppies in Miletus amounst the ruins. Lets hope they don't grow up into grievous wolves!

Theatre at Miletus.

Day 4: Satan's Seat and Synagogue

In the morning we stood by the ocean and read Acts 16:6-10 about the vision Paul had of a man in Macedonia inviting him to come over. We then drove south, the route Paul also traveled in Acts 20:13. The countryside was neat and reminded me of what I would have thought of as “Greek looking.” It was Greek practically since the Isle of Lesvos in Greece was within veiw. We arrived in Assos and walked around the ruins of a great ancient ruins of the temple of Athena built in the 6^th century BC. Not much left except for a few pillars, but it was neat to climb up the hill. There was also the remains of a Byzantium or Ottoman fortress as well. There were some local village women there and I bought some hand-made things from them.
We then drove to Pergamum, one of the Seven Churches of Revelation. We visited the Acropolis which was up on the hill (we had to take a tram) that included the steepest Roman theatre in the world, a marketplace, and temples to Tragion (an Emperor) and Athena. There used to be a temple to Zeus there as well but the German archeologists plundered it and took it all away to Germany many years ago. It is here in Revelation 2:13 where John tells us is Satan’s throne. He was probably referring to the Temple of Zeus which would have sat up on the hill or maybe to emperor worship which was just starting here. If it was the temple to Zeus Satan’s throne is now in Germany. J It was neat sitting in the theatre: at one music someone down in the valley started playing music and we could hear it well due to the aucustics of the valley.

We also stopped by Ascelpion, which is known as the world’s first health center, a sanctuary for the God of Medicine Asclepius. We walked through a tunnel where priests would take people and whisper in their ears. Our tour guild reminded us that through psychological thinking can you can cure yourself, explaining the healing of the place. It seemed something important to him to point out. There was an old Roman Road, as well as lots of old pillars that were fun to look at and explore. There was a theatre there as well where they could have done plays, gladiator fights or reinactments of naval battles (by filling up the pit with water.) 

Either before or after that we went to a Turkish Rug making center. We saw how silk was made (boiling cocoons then stringing them out into string) and they did a little presentation to us about the carpets. We were in a big room seated around the outside and they started rolling out the carpets while we drank cherry juice. We were sitting on padded seats and there were rugs on the walls. They were doing tricks to roll out the carpets in a special way and I felt like a Sultan drinking my drink; I half expected music to start playing and belly dancers to come out. Turkish carpets are made by hand and make months to make. The smallest carpet (the size of a doormat) was about 300 dollars. So needless to say I didn’t buy any Turkish carpets while there.  

On our way to Ephesus to our hotel that night we passed through Izmir, the modern city of ancient Smyrna, another one of the 7 churches of Revelation. Apparently although a wealthy city the saints living there were poor.  John said in Revelation 2 “I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” So I also drove through Satan’s Synagogue that day. That night we stayed in a super nice hotel. Ephesus today is such a huge tourist spot some people fly there just for the nice hotels and beaches and never see the ancient city there. That night we went down to the beach (which was part of the hotel) and had a little dance party. Lots of fun and food!

Assos and the ruins of the Temple of Athena Build 6th century BC.



Pergamum and the remains of a temple to the Roman Emperor Traigon. While this temple was not standning in Johns day, and the temple to Zeus had been hauled away to Germany, this is very near the spot where "Satan's Seat" was.




Steepest theatre in the world.




Hail to the king baby.





Turkish Rug exhibition. Where are the belly dancers?

Here they are!

My roommate in Ascelpion. The snakes on the pilar are a symbol of ressurection; A snake can miraculously shed its skin if it's injured.

Ancient Symra

Speak of the Devil!

Although the next day we would see Ephesus, which is the biggest and best preserved Roman city, I think I enjoyed the ruins we saw this day the most. Pergamum was up on a hill and had lots of unique ruins including lots of remains of a huge temple, a statue of an emperor, and a great view, and Asclepion also had lots of ruins. By Ephesus, the next day, I think I was all ruined out. Ruined for the ruins, so to speak.

Day 3- Troy and Me

Got up at 6:00 AM, as we would do every morning. Istanbul is located between two continents- Europe and Asia so for breakfast I told everyone that there was new meaning to the phrase “continental breakfast.” Thought you’d enjoy that one, Mom.  We drove and then crossed from Europe to Asia by ferry. Some Gypsy on the ferry convinced me to buy 10 dollar cologne. Our tour guild apparently doesn’t like Gypsies, he says all they do is sell knock-off brands (dishonest he says) and pick-pocket people. He told me the cologne could give me cancer. And he never failed to mention if someone was a gypsy.

Anyway, on the way to our next site we stopped on the side of the road where there were goats on our right and sheep on our left. Maybe we should have been coming from the other way. J Our guild asked a Shepard if we would see and pet his sheep. He said yes but the sheep ran away from us and the beastly sheep dogs they have here were barking at us. Anyway, he walked over and grabbed a sheep and brought it over to us. We got to pet it and take pictures. Probably the most memorable thing about the whole experience was how incredibly proud the shepard was to show off his sheep to this group of random American tourists. Pure pride.

Anyway, we visited Troia, which is ancient Troy! Actually, It wasn’t as exciting as you might think, it was kind of butchered by an early archeologist who only wanted treasure, and there really wasn’t anything super special other than some walls and 7 levels of troy from different periods. It's the site of the Trojan War as found in the Iliad by Homer. (The war probably didn't happen like it does in the epic.) But the modern town was fun.  The town bought the huge horse from Hollywood when they made that movie troy with Brad Pit, and it sits in the town next to a basketball court and square. Some BYU students played with the kids there. We took some pictures by the sea and walked around and night and bought some souvenirs. A good dinner too!

A view from Troy. Also this must have been the view of Paul when he had his vision in Acts 16: 9!

Some ruins of Troy.

A sqaure in modern day Troy.

A Shepard and his Sheep

Day 2- Mosques, Palaces, Bazaars and Baklava

It was an amazing day. We went to the Blue Mosque, or Sultan Ahmed mosque. The moment I saw it I was reminded of some buildings from the star wars movies. Turns out it was actually used in the Second star wars: Attack of the Clones. We got to sit down in it and our tour guild talked a little bit about Islam and Mosques. After that we went to Topkapi Palace, Built by Sultan Mehmet II after his conquest of Istanbul in the 15^th century. They’ve turned it into a museum, and they have tons very expensive artifacts and Jewelry. So expensive, says our tour guild, that there is no group in the world who is willing to insure the artifacts. There are items there that the Imams and Jewish Rabbis will tell you are. Included are: David’s Sword, Muhammad’s beard and teeth, the swords of several Caliphates, the arm and skull of John the beloved (in Golden cases that look like an arm or skull) Moses’s staff, drainage pipes from the Kabba, TONS of treasures with Gold, Diamonds,  and Jewels, and a huge 60 or 80 carat something diamond. Well, even though I may not have believed any of the religious artifacts were real, they were still cool.

We also visited the largest Bazaar in the world, over 2,500 shops according to our tour guild (although Wikipedia says 4,000) and 58 covered streets. Everything there was a rip-off there though, so we kept on visiting things. One of the coolest things we got to see was an Egyptian Obelisk, which was 3,200 years old and still looks good as new. In fact, I thought it was fake at first, it looked so modern with it’s very sharp designs and corners. Very beautiful. One of only 5 outside Egypt.  WE also visited a giant underwater cistern that had been used in ancient times and still stood. Apparently when Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire under Constantine (Istanbul was called Constantinople under Constantine the Great, and was made his capital) the pagan temples were torn down and their blocks used to make structures like this. In the very back was2 large blocks carved with the face of Medusa.

At night we went out to a world famous Baklava store. Baklava is a rich, sweet pastry made of many layers filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey (I stole that sentence from Wikipedia). It was amazing! They had tons of different flavors and I tried them till I was sick.

Blue Mosque

Sultan's Palace/ Museum

Obilisk

Baklava

Underground cistern

Turkey- it's not just for Thanksgiving. (Day 1)

How do you eat an elephant? -One bite at a time. In order to record my voyages over the last week, I'm just going to take each day at a time.
First off, Istanbul is beautiful! The mosques here are done in a different style, with huge domes and minarets. Turkey is a very modern country, and  aside from a risk of getting sick from the water, I felt pretty much like I was in... well I was going to say Europe but I've never been there (except while in Turkey)... but it felt just very modern. I really felt like a tourist while there so I'm glad now to be back in Israel and feeling more like a student. However, while there it was great. Istanbul is huge with tons to do! Sometimes I felt like we were rushing all the time. We are the first group in many years to come to Turkey, the second group ever, and so we had some scheduling acrobatics to do, but in the end it was fun. We all arrived in Turkey after about a 2 hour flight after passing through Israeli security. Security in Israel is known to be the best in the world. They profile you, ask you difficult questions, but at least you don't have to take off your shoes! We got to Turkey and went to the Cartoon Hotel in Istanbul. Basically they've taken tons of Disney characters and made statues and pictures of them and put them up everywhere. Some of the rooms were funny because they took regular paintings and stuck some cut-outs of Donald Duck and other random characters in them. Our showers were really weird in that they had nice glass doors- that only covered half the tub! In several other hotels they also had curtains that only covered half. I never found out why that was. We had the best dinner ever on the roof of the hotel! There was several courses, and excellent food. This was probably the best food we had the whole trip, and we had lots of fun talking and eating together.

One last note...

Just wanted to let everyone know that here at the Jerusalem center we're doing fine and if anyone was worried don't! Plus we're leaving to Turkey tomorrow!

Camera pics and conflicts.

There has been some unrest here the last couple days; nothing that the security is not used to, but we’ve had to stay inside yesterday and today. With Israeli Independence Day on Monday, many Palestinians have taken yesterday and today to protest the Israeli State and everything that’s going on here. Some dumpsters have been lit on fire, some Molotov cocktails have been thrown, some loud bands, and police blocking off parts of the city to stem any unrest. We were actually warned about it before it happened and told to stay inside; I suppose the security people at the Jerusalem center get tips and have a good idea when something is going to be an “incident” in the city.

There is a sharp divide between the Israelis and Palestinians. This divide was illustrated to me Monday night. Before we left, I went outside and listened to what I thought was the call to prayer. However, it had a much different rhythm and was recited in an extremely mournful voice. Turns out it was to remember catastrophe of the Arab nations being defeated by Israeli. The Palestinians blared it from their loudspeakers. However, while this same tone was coming through several loudspeakers around the center, in the distance, in west Jerusalem, the Israeli part, was the sound of trumpeting ram horns, blown in celebration of Israeli Independence Day that night. They actually sounded quite beautiful together, but also very thought provoking.

At the festival for Israeli Independence on Monday night, there were lots of people, several concerts at several different places in the city, and lots of little booths; kind of like a big outdoor fair. Lots of the teenagers had this silly-string like stuff that they called “snow.” Basically they sprayed on you and you were covered in white foam. Some of the girls in our group got attacked by one or two such ruffians. I got a shwarma, basically like a wrap with lamb, and we got some ice cream. At the end we all met up and watched fireworks go off. They were like 40 minutes late shooting them off. Our Hebrew teacher, who is Jewish, says Jews have their own time zone; a.k.a. they start everything late. Sounds like another religion I know of…. (Mormon Standard Time.) Overall it was a fun night!

The next day we had lots of free time as well so several of us decided to visit some “required” places we need to visit for a class. One of them was Zedekiah’s Cave, a huge cave beneath Jerusalem covered up in the time of the Ottomans, and rediscovered in the 19^th century. Not much is known about it, though rumors of it being a secret meeting place for Masons, as well as being a cave that King Zedekiah escaped through to Jericho in his flight from the Babylonians. It’s a sizeable cave/ tunnel (not to be confused with Hezekiah’s tunnel) that goes right underneath the old city.

Another thing we did is we walked on the old ramparts of the city (built by King Suleiman the Magnificent, Ottoman) and took lots of pictures. It took longer than you might think, stopping for photos and all that. There was an Australian couple taking pictures with a little bunny rabbit for their grandchildren (kind of like a Where’s Waldo kind of thing with pictures.) Also, there were several sports courts built up against the wall. At one point some Palestinian youth threw us a basketball and we all tried to make it from the old wall really high up. Most of us missed. However, there were also some courts for soccer built at the level of the wall on top of other buildings so we watched through the fence at some of them for awhile. We eventually tired or it, and went home for dinner!

We had Elder Piper of the Quorum of the Seventy come talk eat with us. He was here in the Holy Land reorganizing the branch in Tiberius, I believe. He talked a little about his family. He lived around the world as an adult and his children speak tons of languages. One is even involved in translating the Book of Mormon into some language I’ve never heard of.  He also gave us some counsel which I’ve recorded elsewhere.

Wednesday we went down to grab some American dollars for our trip to Turkey from Aladdins, and we stopped by the Garden Tomb. From the small Evangelical garden and complex they have around it you can also see what may have been Golgotha. (see picture) This spot could have been Golgotha because 1) the place looks like a skull 2) it’s outside the walls of the city (unlike the Church of the Holy Sepulture) 3) and it’s by a main road (where they would have crucified someone). Anyway, there was a big line to get into the tomb, so we actually didn’t go in, we had to get back for a class, but it was memorable.

The last couple days here have mostly been spent inside. Thursday and Friday we had 5 and 6 hours of class (one day would have been 7 hours of class but two hours cancelled, thank goodness). I spend a whole lot of time reading and doing homework between that, which means I often have to go study rather than “hang out”. However, doing all my homework is one of my goals while here, so I’m not frustrated. Several of our classes have focused or talked about Turkey or the Ottoman empire the last several days since we’ll be leaving for a week to Turkey. I can’t wait to tell you call about it. We’ll be the first group in like 20 years to go to Turkey rather than Egypt, which is a good thing since there have been riots in Egypt this week.  We’ll get back in a week so hope I’ll have lots to tell.

I also want to say that we had a real treat Wednesday night when a member of the Palestinian Parliament came and spoke to us. He was Christian, which is rare for a Palestinian (most are Muslim.) He was an incredibly amazing individual. My impression of him was that he was humble, very Christian, and a very wise man.  We got to learn about the conflict from the Palestinian point of view. 

On the walls of the Old City.

Twilight: Jerusalem.
 (In Zedekiah's Tunnel).

Ridding Jerusalem of some Infidels.

A view from the wall.

With some friends (mount of Olives in Background)

A likely site for Golgotha (See the skull?)

A very brief history of the Palestinian conflict: In WWI, the Ottoman Empire collapsed and Britain occupied the area now known as Israel and Palestine. Britain eventually decided to create a national homeland for the Jews. (One reason was to have a friendly country near the Suez Canal in Egypt). To do this they kicked out a ton of Palestinians from the area now known as Israel, and encouraged immigration. In 1948, as soon as Britain left Israel, the neighboring Arab countries invaded. Israel repelled them. Also, later, in 1967 (the six day war) the Arab countries around Israel invaded again. Outnumbered 3 to 1, Israel survived and took over parts of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. This area is now known as the West Bank, and mostly Palestinian Muslims live there, although there are some Israeli settlements. Israel doesn’t want to give all of it up for defense purposes, (the original Israel was 20 miles wide at one point- easily cut in half by invading forces.) The West Bank is under Israeli military control, but Israel allows a local government, the PLO  or Palestinian authority, to regulate most workings of the West Bank. Israel has now built a wall between the West Bank and Israel to quell violence but it’s also divided the country even more. Israel is mostly Jewish, with the exception of Jerusalem, which contains Palestinians in East Jerusalem and Jews in West. 

Those walls came a tumbling down....

I decided I'd post some pics from the last couple days. Yesterday we had a free day and we walked all around Jerusalem for 8 or 9 hours. First off we went to the Dome of the Rock! I'd been really excited for it. Unfortunantly, the experience was marred by a vendor and a soldier who were up on the temple mount. They basically told the girls in our small group that they were immodest and had to buy a shawl. The thing was, our girls were dressed a lot more modestly than most of the tourists who were on the temple mount. Also, they did it to several other groups of BYU-J students, all who were dressed modestly but they came up with stupid reasons why they had to buy a shawl. The merchant indicated they would have to leave if they didn't buy a shawl and there was a soldier there as well who backed up the merchant. Anyway, it was a bad way to start off our visit to the third most holy site of Islam. I felt like they were targeting women because they don't have respect for them. But the dome of the rock was pretty, and the rest of the day was good. We headed out into West Jerusalem then, and would end up nearly walking across the whole city. We stopped by the Great Synagogue, Hekhal Shlomo, I believe, a more modern synagogue built in commemoration of the Holocaust, among other things. The then walked all the way to the parliament, the Knesset, unfortunantly, because Independence day was the next day, it ended up being closed. We didn't know because it's supposed to be open on Sunday. Oh well. A lot of walking... We walked through the artists quarter before going back to the old city, and we also went to an Armenian church, as well as the Church of the Holy Sepulchral. Also did a small amount of shopping. I was so tired I couldn't stand up by the end of the day.
Today was a sweet day, however. We went to an overlook above the St. George monastery. This is built in the canyon where the road to Jericho used to be; the one the Lord referred to in the parable of the good Samaritan. There is a Roman aqueduct there that is still standing (well, parts of it.) There was a little flock of goats there that eat the old dried grass. We could also see the traditional site of the mount of temptation from there, as well as the Dead Sea and Jericho. Jericho is the the lowest (850 feet below sea level) and perhaps oldest city on earth!. We then went into Jericho, which is in the West Bank. (They keep telling we're not going into the West Bank, and then taking us there anyway!) The flags all changed to Palestinian. We saw the "traditional" site of the zacchaeus tree (look up the story in the bible) but of course that wasn't the real tree. Then we went to the site of ancient Jericho! Ancient Jericho is built above a spring that Elisha healed in 2 Kings 2:21, and which both ancient and modern Jerusalem gets it's water. We got to go into the building that houses it. Ancient Jericho is found in a tell, or a mound where an ancient building was. In the tell there is a tower at is over 10,000 years old; the oldest building yet found! Later on, there was "glacis" (pronounced "glossy") which is a stone foundation for a wall, basically, and a middle bronze age wall that had fallen down beside it. (Joshua was from the late bronze age, but it's probably the wall stood for several hundred years, as Jerusalem's current walls have.) ANYWAY, basically it's probable that this was the wall that fell down in Joshua's time when he took Jericho.
Jericho is also the site of a city in Christ's time. We visited the ruins of Herod's summer palace. Before Herod had it it was Cleopatra's of Egypt as well. Basically it was huge and extremely ornate.  We learned about all the horrible things Herod did. Basically, he was like the most wicked man ever to live. Caesar said it was safer to be Herod's pig than his son (he killed his own son, wives, brother in law, and lots of other people, including the children in Bethlehem. ) This was also the site where Herod died, from several venereal and  other strange diseases. As recorded in the New Testament:
"But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, arise and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life." (Matt 2:19-20)
One last thought. Saturday, at church, we had a fast and testimony meeting. There was a Portuguese man in a tour group who came up to bear his testimony. He said he thought by coming to Jerusalem he would have lots of spiritual experiences. He thought he would be able to feel the spirit more. But he didn't. He thought maybe there was something wrong, until he came to the Jerusalem center. Then he said he felt the spirit. I can really agree with his statements. There is really nothing spiritual about Jerusalem, as far as my personal spirituality is concerned. It is really neat to visit all these sites and I'm certainly increasing my knowledge about the Holy Land. However, personal spirituality is still based on prayer, scripture reading, going to church, and keeping the commandments- same as anywhere else. It doesn't matter if you're in Utah, Washington, or Israel, it's the same. Shalom!

You can see the ancient Roman aqueduct below me. This valley was the road to Jericho!

Yeah, just chilin' in the West Bank.

Jericho is also known as "little Egypt" due to it's heat and palm trees.

No I don't want to buy anything, but I think you're donkey is cool.

I am standing in Herod's pleasure palace- the baths are right behind me.

That triangular mound to the right of me are the remains of bricks from the middle bronze age wall- the walls of Jericho! Um, don't know what I'm doing with my hand...

Dome of the Rock!

Some guy.

Knesset

This tower (in the hole) has been dated to 8,000 BCE. Oldest structure yet found on earth. Also included in the picture is what scientists think is the hottest man on earth... ladies agree.