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.