Istanbul

September 30 - We ferried over to Turkey with Mike and Sandra Lefevre, and showed them through the ruins at Ephesus.  Then we drove to Izmir, hopped on a plane, and landed in Istanbul.  Denita and I stayed in the touristy part of the old city, and they stayed with Erica Chapman in a residential area about an hour north.

The next day they took the tram back, and together we visited the Hagia Sophia, the Cistern of Justinian, and the Blue Mosque. 

The following day, we walked through the Palace of Topkapi.  It is "beautiful for situation," occupying a low-lying hill right where the Golden Horn joins the Bosphorus.  Lovely views up and down the historic waterway, smack dab in the middle of Istanbul with its eight million people.  The palace complex is surrounded by an ancient wall, and consists of many elegant buildings and covered walkways interspersed in a beautifully landscaped setting.

On day three we met Erica Chapman, Miriam Beyer, Chanel, Mike and Sandra at Taksim Square, one of the main open plazas in Istanbul.  Erica then lead us down a street famous for its sights, smells, and hordes of people.

The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul

A wall mosaic showing the emperor giving a bag of money to the Virgin Mary for the construction of the Hagia Sophia.  The reward for his amazing generosity is found in Mathew 6:2.

We then headed to the Blue Mosque, where we were given the proper attire

One of the foot washing facilities at the mosque. They are segregated; one for the men and another for the women.

The interior of the mosque.  The dome is supported by 4 huge pillars.

Across the street from the Hagia Sophia was the cistern of Justinian.  This vast "water tank" had been hidden for 1,000 years.  It is enormous!  I counted 28 rows of pillars and 12 columns, all spaced at 20' intervals.  They say it holds 100,000 tons of water, enough to supply the old Byzantine city for years.

These stone pipes and connectors were used to flow water in and out of the cistern.  No, they are not concrete.  

October 2 - We visit the palace of Topkapi 

The entrance to Topkapi Palace

The view from the palace gate looking back out.

The crew in an interior courtyard

A typical scene

The Circumcision Room

The entrance to the harem

The king's chambers were right next to the harem. Probably just a coincidence...

We had lunch with Erica Chapman, Miriam Beyer from Germany, and Chanel from South Africa

Mike and Sandra arrive

September 22 - We picked up the Lefevre's at the Pythagorio airport. But just before they came out of the arrival gate, our two Samos friends burst through.  Unbeknownst to everyone, they had been on the same flight from Athens as Mike and Sandra!  So we introduced everyone all around, and took a few pictures.

At the airport

The harbor at Pythagorio

Relaxing on the rooftop

The hike to Micro Seitano Beach

The mountain village of Manolates

Kokkari, our favorite hangout

Guess who fiddled with the 10 second delay too long? 

Man, these legs don't move like they used to .......

The Archaological Museum at Samos

Mike, Sandra, and Goliath

This statue is the tallest Greek kouros in existence.  

It was found next to the Temple of Hera outside Pythagorio.

Ikaria, Part 2

The Theoktisti Monastery, high in the lush green mountains of Ikaria near the little village of Pigi, was the most unique one yet.  The chapel looks like something out of Harry Potter.  The literature claims it goes back to the 16th century and once held 100 monks.  It really is a beautiful spot, very quiet and peaceable.

The Chapel

A close-up of the chapel

The chapel contained the usual trappings of Orthodoxy

I'm guessing this was the original kitchen & possibly the mess hall as well

The lower level of the monastery complex

Radioactive Ikaria

September 15 - Today we got on the 5:00 ferry to Evdilos, Ikaria.  This island lies about 10 nautical miles west of Samos, further out into the Aegean.  It is incredibly green for a Greek island, and ridiculously steep.  My old boss would say it was steeper than a cow's face.  From the south side, one can see Mt. Kerkis on Samos, the Fournos Archipelago, and Patmos.  The locals claim the name comes from Icarus, the lad who strapped on the waxed wings, got too close to the sun and plunged to his death.  But that's hogwash.  We all know the name was derived from the ancient Phoenician word for fish.

Ikaria is best known for an unusual concentration of octogenarians and oldsters.  Most credit the longevity to a laid-back lifestyle combined with a Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil and red wine.  Personally, I think it's due to the hot springs on the southern side of the island which were so radioactive they had to shut the place down.  But who really knows .........

Speaking of thermal springs, Denita and I bused it over to the town of Therma.  There is a natural cave there with five or six thermal vents.  We swam to the back and snuggled up to the pleasantly warm - in one case scalding - water.  Ah, the joys of retirement.  We read that the water was slightly radioactive, with 90 percent of the stuff being absorbed through the lungs.   I can't say I noticed any ill effects, but I did wonder about the fish with three eyes ........

We then moseyed next door to the spa.  It consisted of a cave, with several jacuzzis in the front, and a tiny corner at the back that had been walled off.  We entered the sauna portion and sat down on a short wooden bench.  The heat was stifling.  We later found out the water dripping off the low ceiling was 44 degrees Celsius.  After several hours I casually asked Denita had long we had been in there.  Two minutes.  I couldn't breath, but when I did, I noticed my breath was cooler than the air.  By sheer willpower, and because I did not want to look like a wimp, we lasted 15 minutes and 10 seconds.  The Finns and Swedes claim this stuff is good for you, but they also believe that Lutefisk is edible.  Smile.

From the interior of the cave viewing out.

Hey, how did those get in there?

The thermal cave

The town of Therma

The port town of Evdilos, on the north side of Ikaria

Southern Ionia: Priene, Melitus & Didymas

Doyle and I made a quick sashay into Turkey this week.  He wanted to see Ephesus, and I absolutely felt duty-bound to show him the most spectacular Greek ruins in the world!   Smile.  We then visited three other ancient cities in short order: Priene, Miletus (which I hope you recognize!), and Didymas.  They lie in a straight line near the coastline, just south of the Mycale (or Dilek) peninsula that juts out into the Aegean Sea and almost touches Samos. 

Two thousand years ago, Priene was a harbor city right on the Aegean Sea.  It was built on a flat shelf above the sea, just below a dramatic mountain. What was the ocean floor then is now the rich farmland of the Meander River Valley.  The first picture shows the temple against the mountain.  The second picture shows the cute little stone chairs in the amphitheater.  The third looks for all the world like Fred Flintstone's workshop.  I can imagine Barney Rubble working out there on those stone gears, which are actually the drums, or sections of worked stone, they stacked on top of each other to make pillars.  The fourth picture looks back across the valley floor toward the site.  You can see where the temple stood, and the city walls, running diagonally down to the bottom, may be an indicator of where the ancient sea level stood.

Then it was on to Miletus.  It was a fifteen mile drive across flat farmland, but in ancient times Melitus was built on the south side of a deep inlet of the Aegean Sea.  Like Ephesus and Priene, it now lies about five miles from the present coastline.  Miletus, of course, was the scene of Paul's meeting with the Ephesian elders in Acts 20.  The best preserved structure in Miletus was the theater, but as we were wandering around it was impossible not to wonder where the meeting had been.  

It appears that, in the first century, the city lie on a couple of low lying hills next to the sea.  Archaologists say the city was situated on a peninsula, sticking out into the Aegean like a thumb, and it was thus surrounded by water on three sides.  It had four harbors, the largest of which lie directly west of the theater and directly to the north.  Paul would have ferried by this ampitheater as he made his way into the harbor after his stay at Samos.

The last stop was Didymas, near the modern Turkish coastal city of Didim.  Wow, were we in for a treat!  It contained the second largest temple in the ancient world, in a remarkable state of preservation.  It had 122 columns, just slightly fewer than the temple at Ephesus, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient World.  I couldn't resist stretching myself across the top of one "drum" lying on the ground, and it was 6' across.  We read that the oracle here was second in importance only to the famous oracle at Delphi.  This is where people came for answers in those days, putting their faith in the wisdom of men (women, actually).

The second picture shows a pillar of the temple after it had been toppled by an earthquake.  It turns out that Turkey and Greece have been prone to earthquakes for thousands of years.  They lie on the end of a major fault line that starts in the Great Rift Valley in Africa, extends up through the Red Sea and Israel, and runs across Turkey and the islands into mainland Greece.  Kind of like the San Andreas fault in California.  There are a bunch of verses in Psalms and other Old Testament books that refer to earthquakes, although sometimes we miss that fact when we read them.  Psalms 18:7  "Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken ......." (See also Psalms 60:2, 77:18, 97:4, 5, Job 9:6, 2 Samuel 22:8, etc)