ISTANBUL

We left Cappadocia (they pronounce it Cappadokia) early on Wed. morning and flew to Istanbul. We spent Wed. touring the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sofia Museum (which was originally an Orthodox church that was turned into a Mosque before it became a museum) and then a huge underground cistern system where they would store water so if any of the enemies tried to poison their water. They had a large amount stored until they could finish any war they might be engaged in. Then we just went and waked around the main area of Istanbul Wed. evening to see a lot of the sights after dark.

One interesting side note - we were talking with our tour guide in Cappadocia about how friendly we have noticed the Turkish people are. He said that in Istanbul they are not always as friendly and they fight more. Well, while we walking around last night we saw a fist fight so I guess he was right. We also saw a van run into a motorcycle and the poor guy on the motorcycle was sure shook up but he was ok.

1. Exterior of Blue Mosque
2-7. Inside the Blue Mosque
8-9. Blue Mosque
10. Outside the Magia Sofia
11-20. Inside of the Hagia Sofia
21. Column at an angle on the Hagia Sofia that is this way from earthquake
22. From the underground cistern
23. people on the street. It was this every street you went on and every direction. There are over 15 million people in Istanbul
24-25. Exterior of Hagia Sofia

TURKISH CULTURE

We ended Tuesday by going to a Turkish cultural show for dinner. It was very interesting to see Turkish traditions come to life. You can also see they joined in on the festivities.

UNDERGROUND CITY IN TURKEY

We started out this morning touring what is called the Red Valley where many Christians lived in the cave dwellings. There were also many pigeon houses which were very important as they harvested the dung to fertilize the fields for the crops. Back then you were also considered wealthy if you had pigeons.

Then this afternoon we went and toured an underground city. There were several hundred people living in this cave city and there are several cave cities in this region where Christians had to hide out during war times. This was so amazing to understand how they had to survive. Of course back then with no electricity it was pitch black without a candle lit. But when they lit hundreds of candles and started the fires for cooking it would deplete the oxygen not to mention the smoke in the caves. So they drilled several air chambers to get fresh air into the caves but had to be careful as they could not be noticed outside.

The Roman soldiers used the first floor to live in so they could protect the Christians below them and go out and fight the enemies trying to kill the Christians. So the Christians all lived on the bottom 4 floors for protection by the Roman Soldiers. Keep in mind they only built these underground cities during the war times and then they would move back out to their normal cave houses.

Another great day to see the history of Christians in Turkey but to also understand the culture much better.

1-6 Drawings in churches from the 7th century
7 -8 Area where we went to see more houses where Christians lived, cave dwellings, churches and pigeon houses
9-11 More drawings in churches from the 7th Century
12-17 Old cave city including a mosque and one pic of the inside
18 Cool mosque in front of a cave city on a big rock(you can't see it all in this pic)
19 A huge cave city
20 Entry to 5 story underground city where Christians had to hide to not be killed. They had to stay underground for as long as 5 months at a time on many occasions
21 One of the churches in the underground city
22 Stone that would roll in front of an entrance to keep the enemy out. They had one at each outside entrance of course but also strategically placed throughout caves so if the enemy penetrated an area they could keep them from getting to everyone and also trap them and kill them. Notice the hole in the stone this was so they could poke a spear to kill the enemy if they did try to move the stone.
23 This was to hold drinks when they all were eating meals in the cave
24 A sign that shows many of the areas to visit in the Cappadocia region - Cappadocia not just a city but an entire region
25 Jim and I are going to start a High Street East

MORE FROM TURKEY

We left the region of Smyrna this morning early and flew to Cappadocia which is in the middle of Turkey. We spend most of the day looking at all the cave dwellings. It is amazing as there are literally thousands of them all over the place. We went into several cave churches as well. We are also staying in a cave hotel ourselves which is pretty cool. Tomorrow (Tue)we are going to go and tour the underground cities.

1 Our cave hotel we are staying at
3,4,5,&6 Abandoned caves that we went inside and then afterwards found out the are abandon due to an earthquake and now they are unsafe
7 Our cook where we grabbed a snack this morning

8 The police station in a rock formation
9 Jim making pottery at a pottery factory we stopped to take a look at

10 Cave restaurant we ate lunch at today
11,12&13 Some of the cave churches we went inside of
14 Our guide today. Lift him up as we had a lot of discussions today
15&16 More of our Cave Hotel

SOME HISTORICAL SITES OF TURKEY

1. Gate to the city of Hierapolis.
2. Columns at Hierapolis.
3. This is where the thermal waters of Hierapolis (also known as "The Travertines of Pamukkale" in this area) come out of the ground and form this crystal formation all the way down the mountain side.
4. Columns along a road in Laodicea

5. Area of Ephesus

6. Ornate carving in Ephesus

7. More ornate carvings on this archway in Ephesus

8. Front of the Library in Ephesus

9. Amphitheater in Ephesus that held 24,000

We started the day at Hierapolis and saw the ruins there. There are many graves all with ornate above ground tombs. We also saw the sight where Phillip was murdered and buried. It is amazing to see how much work went into building all the structures. The aqueduct systems that got water to so many areas of the city and these systems were so ahead of their time. They continue to do excavation work here as they keep finding more areas of the city that are buried under the ground.

Next we went to Laodicea. I was a little surprised to find it is in the very early stages of being uncovered by archeologists. So there is not much there to see at this time but has so much written about it in the Bible.

Last we went to Ephesus and it was amazing. How big of an area it covered and how much of it is still to be uncovered that is still under ground. Everything was so ornate and the huge library and the incredible amphitheatre, as well as the senate chambers that was a covered amphitheatre type that held a couple of thousand as well. We set at the top of the amphitheatre and thought what it must have been like with 24,000 people there chanting and stomping their feet against Paul (Acts 19:26) and wanting to kill him. It was amazing even after all of these years how you could stand down on the floor and talk to someone at the very top like they were standing right next to you.

I have to say that as great as it was to see these three sights that we read about in the Bible it was also very sad to see all the people that mostly were there to see the ruins and the architecture and had no real idea the biblical history and importance that took place in each of these cities.

WE MADE IT TO TURKEY

We have had a great time since we arrived in Turkey on Friday evening. Our guest hosts have been wonderful and their kids are so much fun to be around. We have enjoyed the last two nights getting to go eat dinner with them and getting to get to know the kids better. They also have a guest from the states staying with them that is a dear friend of ours so it was good to see her as well. In this picture we are standing at Hierapolis Graves.

TURKEY TRIP VIDEO

TURKEY TRIP 08