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.