Friday, December 05, 2008
Over tea the other day, our guide commented about how inefficient our remaining travel plans were. He got to talking with Jackson and Donna and they figured out a way to cover more ground in our remaining days. So we set-out at 6am this morning for 14 hours of driving and traveling. This adjustment allowed us to stop by all seven churches that are mentioned in the book of revelation, which is kind of interesting.
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This allowed us to start with the city of Philadelphia. The city has continued to prosper, meaning it has been built on top of most of the original buildings. However, the early Christian church is one of the only sites that was protected, so we stopped for a quick visit.
From there, we traveled on to Sardis. This city has undergone a massive excavation and restoration, due to a lifelong quest of one Harvard professor. The resulted in the discovery of a very large Jewish synagogue, including the “micvah” used to cleans oneself before worship, a number of elaborate mosaic floors, and a magnificent Roman gymnasium, where Roman citizens – with many hours of leisure due to the large slave populations – came to maintain their physical fitness. Like other Roman cities, the gymnasium is adjacent to a large collection of Roman baths. Sardis is an extremely large city – I’d guess it covers three square miles.
Another part of Sardis contains the world renowned “Temple of Artimus.” The columns are massive – as big as any Redwood tree, taking five people to reach around them. Tons of photographic opportunities here, but none do a good job of conveying the shear scale.
From there, we passed through another of the seven cities, Thyatira. This city has continued to grow as well, leaving nothing but the ancient church grounds. We stopped only briefly.
We used the rest of the sunlight today to explore ancient Pergamum, another of the seven cities in Revelation. This is a large city built on the top of a mountain, and spilling down into the valley below where the modern day city still prospers. We started at the top the check-out the temple to Athena, their theater, and the Alter of Zeus. There’s isn’t much left of the alter – when Germany conducted the excavation earlier this century, they (to hear our guide tell the story) got permission from the Sultan to take “some bits of marble” back with them to Berlin. The very large temple is now on display in a museum there. Since we were doing well on time, our guide suggested that we take the rare opportunity to hike down to the valley, through the rest of the city ruins. That was an incredible hike, and revealed just how much potential for excavation there is in this country.
After Pergamum, we drove through Smyrna, another of the seven, without stopping since nothing remains from the early period. After another hour on the road, we pulled into a large resort overlooking the Mediterranean. Tomorrow, we awake at six a.m. to get an early start on our last full day in Turkey.
Published by Jace Mouse
on Friday, December 05, 2008 at 11:15 PM.
View Larger Map
This allowed us to start with the city of Philadelphia. The city has continued to prosper, meaning it has been built on top of most of the original buildings. However, the early Christian church is one of the only sites that was protected, so we stopped for a quick visit.
From there, we traveled on to Sardis. This city has undergone a massive excavation and restoration, due to a lifelong quest of one Harvard professor. The resulted in the discovery of a very large Jewish synagogue, including the “micvah” used to cleans oneself before worship, a number of elaborate mosaic floors, and a magnificent Roman gymnasium, where Roman citizens – with many hours of leisure due to the large slave populations – came to maintain their physical fitness. Like other Roman cities, the gymnasium is adjacent to a large collection of Roman baths. Sardis is an extremely large city – I’d guess it covers three square miles.
Another part of Sardis contains the world renowned “Temple of Artimus.” The columns are massive – as big as any Redwood tree, taking five people to reach around them. Tons of photographic opportunities here, but none do a good job of conveying the shear scale.
From there, we passed through another of the seven cities, Thyatira. This city has continued to grow as well, leaving nothing but the ancient church grounds. We stopped only briefly.
We used the rest of the sunlight today to explore ancient Pergamum, another of the seven cities in Revelation. This is a large city built on the top of a mountain, and spilling down into the valley below where the modern day city still prospers. We started at the top the check-out the temple to Athena, their theater, and the Alter of Zeus. There’s isn’t much left of the alter – when Germany conducted the excavation earlier this century, they (to hear our guide tell the story) got permission from the Sultan to take “some bits of marble” back with them to Berlin. The very large temple is now on display in a museum there. Since we were doing well on time, our guide suggested that we take the rare opportunity to hike down to the valley, through the rest of the city ruins. That was an incredible hike, and revealed just how much potential for excavation there is in this country.
After Pergamum, we drove through Smyrna, another of the seven, without stopping since nothing remains from the early period. After another hour on the road, we pulled into a large resort overlooking the Mediterranean. Tomorrow, we awake at six a.m. to get an early start on our last full day in Turkey.
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